# are slugs toxic, or poisonus, or whatever you call a living organisim?



## moswen (Nov 15, 2010)

in response to the "baby torts are way more carnivorous than we like to think" post, i decided to see what my babies do when confronted with a worm... only it's so cold here all the worms are way down under. 

SO: every night slugs crawl up our back porch and into our dog food bowl and eat the crumbs out of our dog bowls. i don't know how they don't freeze or dry up doing this, but they don't. these slugs are an average of 4 inches long and super fat. first time i saw them i thought "how can there be tula poop outside, she hasn't been outside all day?" they're really that big. 

so, are they safe?


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## dmmj (Nov 15, 2010)

the slugs I feed my red foot and boxies are no where near that at long.


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## Maggie Cummings (Nov 15, 2010)

That sounds like banana slugs, if so they are all right. I feed slugs to my box turtles and my RES. They get a gross froth around their mouths, but yeah slugs are alright...


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## moswen (Nov 15, 2010)

i thought bananna slugs were yellow?

dmmj, want some?


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## chairman (Nov 16, 2010)

My hingebacks love slugs. The varieties you usually find in your yard are non-toxic unless they've been crawling through something bad. I think that most poisonous slugs are sea slugs, and generally are brightly colored.


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## chadk (Nov 16, 2010)

My boxies and my blackthroat monitor love slugs. Nice slimey and squishy protein 
4 inches isn't that big for a slug. About average for around here.


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## Balboa (Nov 16, 2010)

I'd only worry about backyard slugs if chemicals are regularily used anywhere nearby, like a neighbor that uses herbicides and such monthly. Same risk with worms and everything else. Funny really, see so many sites saying NEVER to feed critters out of the yard, but think we're gonna screen our tort pens and get all the worms out of the soil so our torts can't eat them?


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## chadk (Nov 16, 2010)

"NEVER" is the safe answer to give if you don't have time to explain, or doubt they will grasp or care about, the reasons reasons why... Like feeding spinach, iceburg lettuce, etc...

I feed my monitor stuff I catch... fish, bugs, slugs, even a rat... But I'd probably tell someone not to do it


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## armandoarturo (Nov 16, 2010)

do desert tortoises like slugs?
I have seen them eating dead crickets......


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## Jacqui (Nov 16, 2010)

Do any of you raise/keep slugs? Curious, as it is another of those on my list to try my hingebacks on but which we don't have roaming our yard.


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## Balboa (Nov 16, 2010)

Sure I raise them,
that's the washington state bird isn't it? the slug? ... oh wait that's the goldfinch. Should've been the slug.

We had far less of them before we got dogs, the neighbors feed wild ducks. The downside is all the duck droppings all over my house. The plus was very few slugs, the ducks are good at gobbling them all up. Now that we have dogs chasing off the ducks I don't get the pluses anymore, just the negatives :-(


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## Kristina (Nov 16, 2010)

http://rickshawunschooling.blogspot.com/2007/10/wild-food-killing-our-own-meat.html


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## Jacqui (Nov 16, 2010)

Balboa said:


> Sure I raise them,
> that's the washington state bird isn't it? the slug? ... oh wait that's the goldfinch. Should've been the slug.
> 
> We had far less of them before we got dogs, the neighbors feed wild ducks. The downside is all the duck droppings all over my house. The plus was very few slugs, the ducks are good at gobbling them all up. Now that we have dogs chasing off the ducks I don't get the pluses anymore, just the negatives :-(



But do you raise them inside in captivity? If so, how has your luck been with them?





kyryah said:


> http://rickshawunschooling.blogspot.com/2007/10/wild-food-killing-our-own-meat.html



Boy those things are huge! I want to try snails, but not sure I am quite up to eating slugs....yet.


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## Balboa (Nov 16, 2010)

LOL I was trying to be funny, failed miserably I guess. Nobody here would ever try to raise them inside, just because you can't walk 10 feet outside without stepping on 1.


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## Kristina (Nov 16, 2010)

A little trick for "cleansing" slugs/snails before you feed them to your torts and turts...

Take a margarine tub and punch a few holes in it in the lid or near the top. Put a layer of corn meal in the bottom of the tub. Take a slightly larger container, put about an inch or so of water in the bottom of it, and set the smaller container inside the bigger one. Put the slugs or snails in the small container, and put on both lids.

Leave them sit for at least 48 hours. The slugs/snails should be pooping out cornmeal when you remove them. That means they only have the cornmeal in their system, and everything else has been flushed out. You can take them and put them right in the freezer, and just thaw out a few at a time as needed. 

And as far as raising them in captivity - use an opaque storage tub with a humid substrate and leaf litter/something to hide under, and just throw in left over greens and peels and things, and occasional cornmeal (just sprinkle it around.) No meat. They will lay eggs and breed under the log or wood or whatever they have to hide under. Just keep them from drying out.


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## Balboa (Nov 16, 2010)

Hmmm,
I like that cleansing idea. I need to remember that one. Thanks Kristine!


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## Jacqui (Nov 16, 2010)

So if a person got a few banana slugs, how long would it take to have young big enough for feeding? Do they have lots of young? (I know, I could look it up on line, but hey call me lazy )


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## Kristina (Nov 16, 2010)

It depends on temperature, feeding, etc... They usually lay about 20 eggs, and if they are kept at about 80* and very humid, they will breed and lay more often. 

How fast they grow is pretty variable.


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## armandoarturo (Nov 16, 2010)

errr... I think I will just attach to the crickets


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## stells (Nov 17, 2010)

Slugs themselves aren't toxic... but a slug that has been baited with slug pellets are fatal if eaten by a tortoise...


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## Terry Allan Hall (Nov 20, 2010)

kyryah said:


> http://rickshawunschooling.blogspot.com/2007/10/wild-food-killing-our-own-meat.html



I've spent almost 15 years educating my New Jersey yankee/city gal wife about the delights of native food, but I *SERIOUSLY* doubt I'd ever get her to eat a slug, fried or not! 

Took her almost a year to try rattlesnake, iguana and snapping tutle, and about 5 to try armadillo or javelina...


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## Jerseynox (Nov 21, 2010)

my three toed luis loves slugs, i have noticed that slugs seem to give off a better/stronger scent than worms, crickets and other yard bugs or that he just prefers slugs over the others, because he will go right past other creepy crawlies right to the slugs then back to eat the other stuff. 

as far as toxic i remember reading somewhere about boxies being able to eat posionius/toxic mushrooms, and then it would kill or make sick those that would eat the turtles


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## Terry Allan Hall (Nov 21, 2010)

Jerseynox said:


> my three toed luis loves slugs, i have noticed that slugs seem to give off a better/stronger scent than worms, crickets and other yard bugs or that he just prefers slugs over the others, because he will go right past other creepy crawlies right to the slugs then back to eat the other stuff.
> 
> *as far as toxic i remember reading somewhere about boxies being able to eat posionius/toxic mushrooms, and then it would kill or make sick those that would eat the turtles *



Absolutely true. My NA ancestors would sometimes tell their more obnoxious White neighbors just how tasty box turtles could be...


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## jackrat (Nov 21, 2010)

My redfoots suck them down like boiled okra.Thay also love catalpa worms.


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## Yvonne G (Nov 21, 2010)

I think that water turtles can get flukes from eating snails, but more than likely, that's water snails and not land snails. Might be worth looking into.


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## moswen (Nov 22, 2010)

update: my little spiders were really really interested in getting at those snails after i "cleansed" them, dr. parnassus actually bit one of them twice, but it was like it was hard to eat or too big to get his tiny pug mouth around or something. and lemon got all alert with her little head out and she'd follow it every few steps she'd get right behind it and freeze and watch it crawl away, then it would get too far and she'd take a few more steps and freeze, then it got up under a pot and she decided to go back to diced apples instead. my little sullies didn't even care. i may have to go buy some small worms from the bait shop, are they fed with anything harmful?


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