Are wild snails safe?

[Moozillion]

Are there any health hazards to my mud turtle if I drop snails I find in my garden into his tank for him to eat?

 

[hingeback]

My home's hingeback eats baby snails she finds in her enclosure, at least before I tried hand feeding her... Pretty bad experience for her when it climbed to her nose. She snuck into her shell a few times before I could get the snail.

 

[Moozillion]

Thanks.

 

[Tom]

You have to worry about neighbors that put down snail bait. Parasites are a possible issue too. Snails are part of the life cycle of some parasites.

I have fed wild snails to my animals before, but I keep them in a container and feed them leafy greens for a week first. This clears out their intestinal tract, and if they are still alive after a week, it is unlikely they are carrying poison bait. This is certainly not a 100% guarantee, but it has worked for me so far.

 

[Moozillion]

You have to worry about neighbors that put down snail bait. Parasites are a possible issue too. Snails are part of the life cycle of some parasites.

I have fed wild snails to my animals before, but I keep them in a container and feed them leafy greens for a week first. This clears out their intestinal tract, and if they are still alive after a week, it is unlikely they are carrying poison bait. This is certainly not a 100% guarantee, but it has worked for me so far.

Thanks, Tom- great idea!!!

 

[hingeback]

I didn't know about parasites on snails

 

[Rue]

Google "parasites in garden snails"...a host of links pop up...from garden blogs to research papers. Look through some of that material to give you a general idea of the type of parasites snails host, and which can be passed on or carry other issues.

 

[Yvonne G]

There was some talk a couple years ago on a Yahoogroup I used to belong to about flukes infecting your turtle if he eats snails. I didn't pay attention to it because I'm not a water turtle person.

 

[tglazie]

What about aquatic snails? I mean, those things breed like gangbusters, and they're small enough for most turtles to swallow. Do these pose a parasite risk? I don't keep aquatics anymore, and I always avoided live food given the parasite risk, but I always wondered about these. Also, would freezing kill the parasites? Would it make the snail gross and inedible? Just curious what folks think.

T.G.

 

[Randi]

I believe any snail (or slug, worm, etc) could be a potential carrier for an illness or for parasites. Especially wild caught snails. I think it would be less likely in snails that were raised in an aquarium from the start. I used to work with exotic fish and reptiles and they would quarantine any shipped snails for at least a month.

I just buy a group of snails, let them lay the eggs and then I raise those babies. I have a large bucket that I keep them in - keeping the snails in a glass bottom tank (because my turtle eats gravel) has proved difficult because my Reeve's finds every snail before they have a chance to reproduce. Bucket works best for me given my situation. An aquarium would be ideal. I avoid feeding snails, slugs, worms, etc unless I've raised them or know where they have been/been raised. When feeding snails to my Reeve's, I feed in a separate container as it's very messy.

As for freezing, I'm sure this would kill most parasites but I don't know what the snail would be like as it thaws out. Probably like mush? I'm sure it would still be delicious and safe to a turtle after thawed though.

I found the fastest reproducer was the malaysian trumpet snail. They live in the gravel/substrate and actually clean it. They also do not lay eggs so they reproduce at a very fast rate. Perfect for my turtles' mouth. If there are larger turtles to be fed, apple snails work well too.

 

[tortadise]

For the most part I'd say yes. However some things to consider with invertebrates such as snails and worms. Is they are consumers of "trash" whether that trash may be soil, spoiled vegetables in a compost heap or whatever. They're digestive tract seem to clear and regenerate rather quickly. @Will covered this with some snails I believe to feed some forestenii. Touching back on the rapid digestion of these invertebrates is a simple safe practice of harvest them and be sure. Place them in a small tank with certain "clean or known clean" edibles for a week or so and then Feed them. You can never be too certain of anything. Unless your willing to obtain soil samples, pH analysis, toxic thresholds can bare and certainly scare most people if done even in a simple (clean or "organic") backyard. More than likely your safe indeed. But the in depth OCD scientist favorism on my blood always upholds a question of "what if" or "why"?

Just my thoughts on it.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Within the past year or two I looked for concerns regarding European Garden snails for people to eat and pets to eat. I found a veterinarian 'concern' based map, drawn from reports by veterinarians regarding pets who were believed to have contracted one parasite or another from European Garden snails. If I recall correctly the snails have been know to give dogs a nematode parasite, but only in the US northeast, with very specific areas, down to the county or watershed.

I feed out lots of snails directly from by backyard now. When I was in an apartment I would collect snails from shopping centers near where I lived and put them on mulberry for a week or so. Now that it's my backyard, I don't screen them with a week, I just go out in the morning with a flashlight and rescue my vegetable garden from the snails. The fosrten's don't get them much anymore, but the hingebacks go crazy for them.

As for the 'what if' and 'why'. Pesticides on the order of a few parts per billion as residue is enough to stop reproduction in parthenogenic lizards, so I have little OCD on these matters.

 

[Pearly]

My garden is infested with small white "trumpet shelled" snails this year, and I haven't treated it with anything because my babies go crazy for those snails. There are tons of empty shells and they seem to know which ones those are and leave them alone. The day I lost Tucker in this garden was when Shellie stuffed the whole snail in her mouth and looked like she was gonna choke. I had never seen them manage such big chunk of shelled food all at once. Honestly I didn't think about neighbors treating their yard for snails... I've been letting my babies hunt them, been fun to watch how clever they are. As for parasites I guess I've been taking chances with that too but then how would I prevent any of that happening when the babies live in the tortoise garden? There will be no way to keep all that stuff away from them. How do you guys address that? This is good topic. Thank you

 

[Fredkas]

My garden is infested with small white "trumpet shelled" snails this year, and I haven't treated it with anything because my babies go crazy for those snails. There are tons of empty shells and they seem to know which ones those are and leave them alone. The day I lost Tucker in this garden was when Shellie stuffed the whole snail in her mouth and looked like she was gonna choke. I had never seen them manage such big chunk of shelled food all at once. Honestly I didn't think about neighbors treating their yard for snails... I've been letting my babies hunt them, been fun to watch how clever they are. As for parasites I guess I've been taking chances with that too but then how would I prevent any of that happening when the babies live in the tortoise garden? There will be no way to keep all that stuff away from them. How do you guys address that? This is good topic. Thank you

Yes!! This..
It looks like everyone has little concern about parasites. Me though afraid of the parasites? Is it less critical? At least share your experience whether snail make your tort sick

 

[sibi]

Yes!! This..
It looks like everyone has little concern about parasites. Me though afraid of the parasites? Is it less critical? At least share your experience whether snail make your tort sick

I already told you that one of my torts ate a lot of snails and got tape worms. Based on their love for snails, and no way of preventing them from finding and eating them, I guess what you can do is to collect as many snails you can find in the garden where Toro lives, put them in a bucket where you can feed them good food, and after a week or so, their digestive tract would be cleared of most dangerous parasites. Like Will and others here have done, you can then feed them your clean snails. At least it's a somewhat controlled environment over the bad snails

 

[Yvonne G]

Interesting reading:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=17+1797&aid=942

 

[sibi]

Interesting reading:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=17+1797&aid=942

Interesting indeed. The tort I'm caring for while his parents are in Japan contacted tapeworms shortly after I got him. He would eat snails in the backyard where I believe he got the parasite. His housing, food, and environment is very good, yet he got this anyway. All my other torts are fine. So, he either got it before I took him in, or got it in a short period of time with me. Very interesting indeed. Thanks for the article Yvonne

 

[Fredkas]

I already told you that one of my torts ate a lot of snails and got tape worms. Based on their love for snails, and no way of preventing them from finding and eating them, I guess what you can do is to collect as many snails you can find in the garden where Toro lives, put them in a bucket where you can feed them good food, and after a week or so, their digestive tract would be cleared of most dangerous parasites. Like Will and others here have done, you can then feed them your clean snails. At least it's a somewhat controlled environment over the bad snails

Lol i know. I am sorry. I just want to gather information as many as i can. Hope it's not insulting you. Hah.. I just don't want toro eat snail if it is possible. One of the reason i like sulcata because they are vegetarian. Looks like i am going to throw away the snails rather than feed them. I do like to hear people sharing their experience.

 

[Fredkas]

Interesting reading:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=17+1797&aid=942

Very good reading. Sad at the last paragraph stated that the reading not cover all of it. But it sure give me a lot of hint. May be someday i can be herp vet in my little small town and benefit all the tort keeper here

 

[sibi]

Very good reading. Sad at the last paragraph stated that the reading not cover all of it. But it sure give me a lot of hint. May be someday i can be herp vet in my little small town and benefit all the tort keeper here

Yes, read and learn all you can on proper care for torts. Then, you can offer advise and become a local Veterinary assistant where there isn't a veterinarian close by. This is certainly the place to learn