Woodchips - BEWARE
Posted: 28 Apr 2018, 19:45
Just passing on information from the vet about wood-chips for tortoises
Torkoal (my horsefield tortoise) has had issues with his front feet
Normally a horsefield tortoises foot (in the wild) plunges nail first into the sand, however wood-chips cannot replicate this due to their size, instead creating a hard mat-like surface to walk on. They end up walking on their nail-tips, which over time bends the foot back.
On the diagram, this leads to the nails/claw to bend back in the direction of Arrow A.
The vet says this is a common thing in smaller tortoises and is caused by them walking on hard surfaces (she was a reptile specialist)
This causes disfigurement of the foot, which would cause pain during it being bent back by the weight of the tortoise on their nail-tips.
The area marked B on the diagram is now an area of bare skin without scales, as the area got stretched due to the foot being bent back (also led to some scales on the opposite side being compressed off
I hope this makes sense, I couldnt word it very well, but I imagine it would be like walking on your tip toes all day every day, eventually you would get some kind of problems due to all your weight on such a small surface area.
I told my mum off (his previous owner) for using wood-chips, now he has playsand/topsoil 50/50 mix
Torkoal (my horsefield tortoise) has had issues with his front feet
Normally a horsefield tortoises foot (in the wild) plunges nail first into the sand, however wood-chips cannot replicate this due to their size, instead creating a hard mat-like surface to walk on. They end up walking on their nail-tips, which over time bends the foot back.
On the diagram, this leads to the nails/claw to bend back in the direction of Arrow A.
The vet says this is a common thing in smaller tortoises and is caused by them walking on hard surfaces (she was a reptile specialist)
This causes disfigurement of the foot, which would cause pain during it being bent back by the weight of the tortoise on their nail-tips.
The area marked B on the diagram is now an area of bare skin without scales, as the area got stretched due to the foot being bent back (also led to some scales on the opposite side being compressed off
I hope this makes sense, I couldnt word it very well, but I imagine it would be like walking on your tip toes all day every day, eventually you would get some kind of problems due to all your weight on such a small surface area.
I told my mum off (his previous owner) for using wood-chips, now he has playsand/topsoil 50/50 mix
, but well done you for for taking over and hilighting his needs.