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Hello I am back again . I have another question. How long are turtles nails supposed to be and can they get too long? My turtles Crabby and Mudkip have extremely long nails (to me anyhow) and I was wondering if I should trim them and even if I can or should? Oh and they loved their cuttlebone. They gobbled it like mad. Remember I mentioned trying out greens on them? well they are not fancy on that but I will keep trying. They are great eh? Gotta love em.

Nope. No way. Never trim their nails. It'll do more harm than good! It may cause pain and infection. If they're really long (like Edward Scissorhands long) you've probably got boys

Thanks for that. they look really really long. I thought I had females. How do you tell? also how do you measure how big a turtle is? Front to back or side to side? Man it gets so confusing. Glad I found this site. its amazing.

front to back of shell.

Minus the curve of the shell

cute SKF my goats need blocks and rocks to kinda keep ther hoofs filed so my guess is if a turtle needed anything nature provides the file? never even crossed my mind they might need it cats dogs birds etc. do so very good question, and, answer.

Thanks, I like to draw, makes me feel like a kid again.

haha good one skf

The long nails on males are secondary sex characteristics (and very attractive to females) and they shouldn't be cut. They flutter them against the females' cheeks in what is the beginning of the "mating dance." But males will flutter those long nails at each other, and if they're not sexually mature, it's more a display of dominance than mating.

BTW, also look at your turtles' tails--the males will have thick, sturdy-looking tails with the cloaca (anal vent) closer to the tip of the tail than the shell.