If you’re always watching and admiring your tortoise then you’ll quickly notice any changes that appear on your pet, one change that you may notice on your pet is the tortoise’s mouth turning black.
This article looks into why your tortoise’s mouth may be black
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Why is my tortoise’s mouth black?
A change in how your tortoise mouth looks will be very concerning, these animals usually have clear pink mout so a change to black will be quite the shock
Here is why your tortoise’s mouth may be turning black:
Poop eating:
It may sound disguising, and it is to humans, but the reason why your tortoise may have a black mouth may be because the animal is eating its own poop.
While it may be gross to us it’s actually helpful to tortoises, and they do this all the time. The animals do this to absorb the nutrients that they didn’t absorb the first time around.
All types of tortoises do this, it is more common for tortoises in captivity to do this, but all types of tortoises do this.
These animals are drawn to poop because of its strong smell. They have evolved to be attracted to strong-smelling things because this is how they found food while foraging in the wild. They will try to eat almost any strong-smelling thing they can find as they think that it is food
What to do:
You don’t have to do anything if you think that this is what’s helping with your tortoise it’s normal and natural.
If you don’t want the animal to do this then you can scoop the poop out of the tank everytime the animal poops, but you don’t have to
Old green stain:
Your pet’s mouth can turn black because it is eating its own poop or, the animal may have an old green food stain that is now turning black.
The mouths of tortoises can easily be stained by green foods like romaine lettuce or kale, if the stain does not come off with a soak then it can turn black before it fades away.
This may be happening with your tortoise
What to do:
Food stains on tortoises are usually removed using cotton balls soaked in warm water, if this doesn’t help then you can allow the stain to come off on its own.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other turtle/tortoise related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Why Is My Tortoise Frothing At The Mouth?, Why Is My Turtle’s Mouth Green?, Why Is My Tortoise’s Mouth Green?, Why Do Tortoises Like Corners?, Why Do Tortoises Like Shoes?, Why Do Tortoises Like Feet?, Why Are My Turtle’s Feet White?, Why Is My Turtle’s Mouth Foaming?, Why Are My Turtle’s Eyes Red?