If you’re used to raising tortoises you can likely point out, from the animal’s appearance, whether the animal is healthy or not, and you may have concerns if your tortoise’s mouth is green.
This article is a look into why your tortoise’s mouth is green
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Why is my tortoise’s mouth green?
Green in the mouth of humans can mean that one has eaten one too many greens, or, it may be a sign that a fungal overgrowth of oral thrush has set in, so, what does this mean for turtles?
Here is why your tortoise mouth may be green:
Food stain:
The mouth of a healthy and normal tortoise is clear and pink, but the mouths of tortoises can stain very easily after eating.
If your pet’s mouth is green, then this may simply mean that the reptile just finished eating a meal packed with dark greens.
The green is likely just chlorophyll, from the greens, staining the tortoise’s mouth. This is similar to how humans get a milk beard after drinking milk, your pet likely just has a green food beard.
What to do:
This is perfectly normal and isn’t something to worry about, the stain on your pet’s mouth should fade away soon enough and the animal’s mouth should go back to being normal soon enough.
If you want to test this theory out don’t give your pet any leafy greens for a little while and keep an eye out to see if the animal’s mouth goes back to normal.
You don’t have to clean your pet’s mouth, this staining isn’t harmful to your turtle, but, if you really need to clean the green off then you can soak a cotton bud in some warm water and gently wipe your pet’s face.
Don’t try to scrub the coloring off, the scrubbing can be stressful to the tortoise and some tortoises won’t accept being cleaned
The coloring will likely come off as the tortoise soaks.
If the stain doesn’t come off in the soak, or from the cotton bud, then don’t worry about it. You should only start to worry if the area starts to look infected.
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’s Mouth Black?, Why Is My Tortoise Frothing At The Mouth?, Why Is My Turtle’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?