Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I would almost swear that Shell E thought she was hot stuff yesterday after she got her beak trimmed by the vet.
She marched around here like she was something special for about 2 hours when she got home.

She's got an odd shaped head IMO, it's larger & more boxy looking than the other ornates around here. Her beak looks different from the others too & it has always made noises when she eats no matter if it's overgrown or not. She's the only one that makes a lot of noise when she eats.
Yesterday she ate when she got home & because the beak had been trimmed it made different sounds. She was scarying herself as she ate. It was the funniest thing to see.
Chew a little, beak makes noise, she pulls her head in then looks around like what was that?
They can be so amusing!
-----
PHRatz

>> She's got an odd shaped head IMO, it's larger & more boxy looking than the other ornates around here. Her beak looks different from the others too & it has always made noises when she eats no matter if it's overgrown or not. She's the only one that makes a lot of noise when she eats.

Maybe she used to grind or clench her jaw too much when she was a youngster lol. Humans have that problem sometimes - causes the joints in the jaw to get messed up. I know my dentist always winches when she works on me and asks me to close my mouth.. jaw pops every time loudly.. sounds painful according to her, but to me I feel nothing but the bone hitting the socket funny... no pain. I have always had a tendency to clench my jaw when pissed off or concentrating too hard on something and don't realize I am doing it so it's hard to *not* do it.
-----
_____

PHWyvern

Wyvern you are too lucky! I have TMJ & when my jaw pops most of the time it does hurt, sometimes it goes numb. I wish it didn't!!
I guess that must be Shell E's problem, turtle beak TMJ lol.
-----
PHRatz

Thats funny that she was scaring herself as she ate. Mikey gets his beak trimming about once a year, and he always acts like hot stuff afterwards (well he already thinks hes hot stuff anyway, lol).

>>Thats funny that she was scaring herself as she ate. Mikey gets his beak trimming about once a year, and he always acts like hot stuff afterwards (well he already thinks hes hot stuff anyway, lol).

LOL that's Shell E too, she's very "alpha" for a female. She's always KNOWN she's in charge around here. So to see the bossy Miss Hot Stuff scaring herself was pretty funny.
-----
PHRatz

Yesterday I was scanning through the Mader book reading up on what it has to say about tube feeding when I found the chapter that discusses overgrown box turtle beaks.

It does mention that they can overgrow when the turtle has malocclusion. Shell E was making a lot of noise as she ate her vitamin/mineral covered roaches after her bath yesterday.
Really makes me wonder if malocclusion is her what she has, she's the only one who makes noise when she eats & the only one who's beak ever does overgrow.
Although none of the rest of them have been here for over 5 years like she has..but her beak was overgrown within a year after she got here, I had to have it trimmed then too. I've had it trimmed about once every year & a half to 2 years.
Apparently it doesn't cause her much of a problem, she's always been able to eat well around here but reading that got me to thinking about it. Oh well.. doesn't really matter I guess....
-----
PHRatz