A reptile friend gave me his ornate box turtle to take care of. The turtle, who I call "Bentley," has had poor health for years and recently had his beak split by an inexperienced vet who was trying to trim it. I took Bentley to see my awesome vet today and got good and bad news.
The good news is that Bentley is healthy, active, has an amazing appetite, and is pretty fiesty.
The bad news is that his bottom beak is split into the growth plate and won't ever heal. His top beak has sorta grown out in a weird way and won't ever close properly over his broken bottom. He eats just fine regardless (thankfully).
Bentley was NOT happy to have his beak shaved down or to have his nails trimmed or to be poked and prodded. He spent the rest of the afternoon trying to snap at my fingers. I let him walk around the puppy pen while Daisy free-roamed this afternoon. He enjoyed snapping at the grass. When I brought all my tortoises in, Hermy put herself right to bed in her corner in the laundry room. Daisy wandered over to the area under my desk where she slept last week. Bentley followed Daisy around and tried to nip her toes.
While we were eating dinner, I was chatting with my family and all of the sudden, Bentley found one of my toes. OY VAI! It didn't hurt, but it sure did surprise me. He finally got his chomp in. Once the weather is plenty warm, I'll put him in my fenced in garden area and let him dig and chomp to his little heart's content.