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I just received an order in the mail, included the Turtle Bone in the yellow box. Just wanted to let everyone know, it does have the backing on it. I thought I'd try it, no extra to ship with my other items. I was hoping to rid mysself of having to chip away at the backing from the other ones, but I guess it's back to the old bone-and-knife, LOL.

That's good to know, but sad to know...I was thinking of trying it myself. Guess I won't waste the effort.

That's a bummer---I had read that there was no backing. It seems that Zoo-Med has caught wind of the fact that there is money to be made from selling cuttlebone and decided to package and sell it for turts at a slightly higher price.

The cuttlebone I buy at our local mom and pop pet store doesn't have backing on it. It's not branded at all. It just comes in these clear plastic bags that aren't even sealed close. I wonder if they are removing the backing and packaging it themselves.

That's great if you can find it without the backing. There was only one other member who a while back said she bought it that way. Given the sometimes pain it is to remove, if they are removing it themselves, are they charging much more for pieces of it?

I never realized it normally comes with the hard backing until I read some of the threads here talking about it. I don't know if they are charging more for it or not as I have not bought it from anywhere else. The price varies from bag to bag depending on how much is in it. I don't recall the prices at the moment.

On the Turtle Bone package, do the mention removing the backing? If Zoo Med is just buying bird cuttlebone in bulk and repackaging it, then I would be pretty disappointed in them.

Be disappointed. Not only do they fail to mention removing the hard backing, they suggest letting the whole unbroken bone just float on the water. No hints about breaking it into pieces or anything.

I was in Petsmart today and saw it. I opened two packages to see what they were like, and that's exactly what it is. And the pieces weren't even that good---not that much edible cuttlebone (I always look for the ones that are really thick). One of the pics on the back of the package shows a turt crunching away on a whole piece of it.

I've seen the package say "Rough edible surface prevents overgrown mandibles (beaks)". I wonder if this is what they are referring to as the hard backing. I'll try to investigate...

As scripta_elegans stated, they don't specify anything about the backing on the package. The pieces in my box don't look that great. One is pretty small and the larger one has black lines throughout. I won't make that mistake again, ordering it online. I'll be sticking to the local store for cuttlebone, and removing the backing myself (blaah).

Not that it was right or a good idea, but before I found this site I was putting whole cuttlebones in Spot's tank, without removing the backing ahd he was eating them. When I'd take one out after a few days when it got slimy, it would be all nibbled around the edges.

With smaller pieces of bone with backing removed, I'm sure he can get more.