Tortoise beak

[Adzyfinch1998]

Hi all, please can you take a look at my tortoises beak and advise if you know why it seems to have gone wonky? He’s 7 years old and I’ve had him for 5 years and his beak has always been normal and straight? This has only happened this year. Thank you so much in advance!

 

[Golden Greek Tortoise 567]

He has an undershot beak, his bottom part of his beak is overgrown. Provide a cuttlebone, and feed him on something hard and hopefully that will wear it down. If not, you can take a nail file and file it down or ask a vet to do it.

 

[Adzyfinch1998]

Thank you for the advice! Do you have any suggestions on hard food and also how much would a vet charge?

 

[Golden Greek Tortoise 567]

Thank you for the advice! Do you have any suggestions on hard food and also how much would a vet charge?

Not hard food but feed him on something like a tile, so that when he eats it will wear down his beak. I can’t help you out on the vet charge, I’ve only been to the vet once for my tortoises. They‘re usually pretty expensive but I’m not sure since it would just be a beak trim. Maybe some other members can give you an idea.

 

[RosemaryDW]

A beak trimming is a pretty simple job; I’d just call a vet and ask for an estimate, perhaps not much more than the office visit itself.

Hard foods would be a little bit of pumpkin or other hard squash with a rind; a quarter or half of a brussels sprout, don’t trim it; the very top of a carrot (just the top, not a bunch of carrot); broccoli stem if he will eat it; my Russian will eat the dry stem on a zucchini to get at a little bit of the softer squash itself, just cut the very top off of one. You can try a very firm yam, with skin.

None of these things is going to be a good or easy fix; you want to find a vet or search here on how to do it yourself with nail clippers (it’s harder on you than the tortoise!)

 

[zovick]

Hi all, please can you take a look at my tortoises beak and advise if you know why it seems to have gone wonky? He’s 7 years old and I’ve had him for 5 years and his beak has always been normal and straight? This has only happened this year. Thank you so much in advance!

Not trying to be argumentative, but that jaw condition is rather advanced and it didn't happen in just this calendar year (unless the tortoise has cancer of the lower jaw which is unlikely). You may have noticed it this year, but I would say it has been developing for some time. Just FYI, I am a dentist who deals with jaw relationships in humans all the time.

I would recommend taking the tortoise to a good exotics vet who can reshape both the upper and lower jaws to occlude (meet) properly. Note that this may require more than one visit since too much trimming done all at one time might result in injuring the underlying jawbones. It may also require sedating/anesthetizing the tortoise to get a decent result. Once this reshaping of the jaws into their proper occlusal forms is accomplished, the two jaws should then work as they normally would to wear each other down when the tortoise is eating and keep future overgrowth from occurring.