Way back in 1997 I raised a clutch of intergrade Mep/Mee babies, of which I kept four. (See this thread https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/an-amateurs-account-of-breeding-asian-tortoises.179110/ ) All four of them eventually developed the overshot lower beak we've been reading about here on the Forum lately. This was in the era prior to digital cameras (at least in MY posession), so I don't have pictures. I DO have some pictures of the intergrades, but not specifically of their beaks. They're 16 years old in these pictures:
I contacted a couple of the people who bought an intergrade from me and they say that none of their tortoises had this beak problem. I now, in hindsight, attribute it to lack of extra calcium on their food.
The reason I started this thread was in the hopes any of you might have any suggestions for fixing this problem, as I am now in posession of several South African leopard tortoises with overshot under beak. The first two pictures are tortoise #1 and the second two pictures are tortoise #2. Please excuse the dirty shells. It's been raining.There are two pictures of each of the two tortoises, so pictures one and two are the same tortoise:
These tortoises were bought sight unseen and were about 3 or 4 years old when purchased. Pyramiding had already started. I didn't notice the beaks right away.
The following pictures are of Lil Kim, a male babcock that came to me as a rescue all the way from Southern California a couple years ago. He had been rescued from poor care by one of our members then sent to me, and his shell was in bad shape and the beak was overshot:
Lil Kim's beak used to be a lot worse, so maybe a good diet, with vitamin and mineral supplements is what it takes to reverse it. I don't know.
I will be using a Dremmel and filing these beaks a bit at a time, but if anyone knows what causes this I'm all ears.
I contacted a couple of the people who bought an intergrade from me and they say that none of their tortoises had this beak problem. I now, in hindsight, attribute it to lack of extra calcium on their food.
The reason I started this thread was in the hopes any of you might have any suggestions for fixing this problem, as I am now in posession of several South African leopard tortoises with overshot under beak. The first two pictures are tortoise #1 and the second two pictures are tortoise #2. Please excuse the dirty shells. It's been raining.There are two pictures of each of the two tortoises, so pictures one and two are the same tortoise:
These tortoises were bought sight unseen and were about 3 or 4 years old when purchased. Pyramiding had already started. I didn't notice the beaks right away.
The following pictures are of Lil Kim, a male babcock that came to me as a rescue all the way from Southern California a couple years ago. He had been rescued from poor care by one of our members then sent to me, and his shell was in bad shape and the beak was overshot:
Lil Kim's beak used to be a lot worse, so maybe a good diet, with vitamin and mineral supplements is what it takes to reverse it. I don't know.
I will be using a Dremmel and filing these beaks a bit at a time, but if anyone knows what causes this I'm all ears.
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