Feeding and Nutrition :: Pictures of Cuttlebone Backing

Turtle diets and eating habits discussed here.

Post Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 12:23 am   

Thank you for that information Marisa. When I first got my turt I bought everything I could find and one thing was a turtle bone. I had no idea that there was a backing that could hurt her until I found this thread.
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Post Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 8:41 pm   

I just discovered that sand dollars are made of the same thing as cuttlebone, calcium carbonate. I'm not against cuttlebone, but I also don't want to spend a year and a day chipping off the stupid backing. That's just my personal taste. I found a site that sells these sand dollars for like, two bucks, and there's about ten per package. Rather useful for me.
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 2:44 pm   

Wow, this is awesome. I bought some cuttlebone today and my turtles loved it! Thanks for the tutorial!!
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 9:14 pm   

Now, I know most of the time when turtles bite their basking dock, it's because of a lack of calcium. My turtles have been biting the basking dock. I feed them cuttlebone once a week and put in 4 two cm. size pieces. Is that often enough? Are those pieces big enough? Here's a pic. of how much they've bitten off:

Image
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 10:32 pm   

You can try upping their cuttlebone intake. If that doesn't curb them eating the dock, you'll have to switch out the dock for something less edible.
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Post Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 11:14 am   

Yeah,I need to get the medium size dock reallly because when they're both on the dock right now, it's starts to sink a little bit. But I don't know if the medium size dock will fit in the tank. I only have a 10 gal. tank!
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Post Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 3:11 pm   

Maybe you can try building an above tank basking area from egg crate. It'll give them more swimming room, and it's a whole lot harder to take a bite out of!
­Ralpheal, "The 'L' is silent."
Frankie, "Young at heart."
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Post Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:04 pm   

That's true, but I really don't think my parents would go for it. Even if I used my own money. They're so stubborn!
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Post Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:46 am   

I was going to post a question about cuttlebone, but this answers everything!

Thanks BullDog.

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Post Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 4:27 am   

I see people saying that the backing is sharp and possibly dangerous but why would ZooMed sell the product with the backing on if it was? Or are there instructions in the box to remove the backing?
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Post Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 1:24 pm   

fanboy wrote:I see people saying that the backing is sharp and possibly dangerous but why would ZooMed sell the product with the backing on if it was? Or are there instructions in the box to remove the backing?


The backing is just a natural bit of the cuttlebone. My opinion why Zoo Med doesn't say anything on their packaging: They don't really know better. They just saw this great money making opportunity (selling regular cuttlebone at a higher price), slapped it in a box with a few pictures of turtles on it. Plus, they're not going to waste time trying to remove the backing because it can be a bit of a wasteful and time consuming process.
­Ralpheal, "The 'L' is silent."
Frankie, "Young at heart."
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Post Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 3:17 pm   

thnx alot! its really helpful i will b feeding my keechu (res) with cuttlebone tmr :D
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Post Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:13 am   Re: Pictures of Cuttlebone Backing

BullDog wrote:There are a lot of posts about cuttlebone and what the backing looks like. I thought I'd post some pictures of the backing and one way to get the backing off.

When looking at the cuttlebone from the side, you can see one side has a yellow/off-white layer. This is the backing.
Image

I use a pointy butter knife to chip the backing off. I usually start by wedging the point just under the backing.
Image

It is not necessary to use "Turtle Bone". Regular bird cuttlebone is just as good. Buy which ever you can get cheaper.


Omg..I didnt not know that you had to remove that backing! wow thanks guys.
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Post Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 3:28 pm   

Reading the above thread, I believe there are some misconceptions. The cuttlebone is the internal shell of a cuttlefish, a type of mollusk (it's not actually a fish). The backing of the cuttlebone is merely the dorsal shield, which is the top layer of the cuttlebone and contains proteins, sugars, fats, connective tissue, calcium, etc. Below the dorsal shield is composed of the spongy portion of the cuttlebone, which contains more sugars, proteins, calcium, connective tissue, etc. distributed in a less dense fashion. The two general components of the cuttlebone serve different functions for the cuttlefish. The cuttlebone is processed before it is sold, so it won't spoil.

This first url takes almost forever to complete the download, so be patient, like go out for a walk and come back :)... but it has a great cross-sectional drawing of the internal composition of cuttlebone:
http://www.pmbc.go.th/webpmbc/ResearchB ... %20new.pdf

This next url gives general information about cuttlefish that you might find interesting. :
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/camo/anat-nf.html

I hope this helps :)
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Post Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 12:04 pm   

My bird is not touching the cuttlebone....guess where I'm going to stick some of it??/
If it's wild then leave it alone unless it is sick or injured. If that doesn't work you can always call me.
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