Wild Snails

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Tortoise

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Hello

We have a dug out on our property and there are many aquatic snails in there. Is it safe to feed them to my tortoises. I know the Red Foots and Hinge Backs would probably eat them but wonder about possibility of diseases in the snails. There currently are no reports of liver fluke in this area.
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Jacqui

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No food source, no matter if it is wild or captive/domestically raise is always going to be "safe". To me it's a judgement call each of us has to make. You can look at the facts, such as you did with saying flukes don't seem to be a major issue in your area. What is the environment like where these snails came from? Really yucky slimy smelly dirty or not?

I was amazed at one area of my yard I have been working on for the last two years to take back from the wild and remodel those old enclosures for current usage at the vast number of wild land snails back there. They are not normally found in the rest of my yard. I have hingebacks out in those areas. Are they eating snails? Who really knows, but the fact remains they may be. Any tortoise you put outside may eat anything that happens into it's enclosure.

While yes, on their own my hingebacks may not get as large a number of snails as you may be giving yours, but it's also not like it will be a constant and high percentage food source for them. We also know, in the wild it is a part of their diets (less for the Bells then the Homes or Erosa).

If they were my tortoises, yes I would be feeding them, if I thought they were a "safe" food source and figure they may be eaten by your tortoises any ways when they are outside.

On snails a side comment, I have tried the canned tortoise ones and my hinges so far have turned up their noses at them. I want to get some aquatic ones to try, but every time somebody on Freecycle has some to give away, I have no way to get to them. I also, when in CA, search without luck for some snails to bring home. :( I do know many other hingeback keepers have had good luck with their hinges taking the snails.
 

dmmj

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WOW I am on freecycle and I have never seen snails on there, interesting. I would of course be worried about parasites.
 

Jacqui

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dmmj said:
WOW I am on freecycle and I have never seen snails on there, interesting. I would of course be worried about parasites.

:D Yeah our Freecycle never has tortoises, but we do get snails.:cool: If I were to get some snails, I would of course be keeping them for a bit and actually feeding the young. (Keeping them to try to clean out their systems and have them in sanitary conditions for a bit, along with trying to get my own group of snails going)

I know Kristina feeds her hingebacks her snails.
 

dmmj

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well I actually got a RES once off of freecycle but I will keep my eyes out for snails, I fed all of my snails to mine and so there are no more now.
 

Angi

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What is a clean snail enviroment. Would my garden be? My compost pile? What aboul slugs. I am so confused about the safe snail thing. I am in a dry areawith a sprinkler system and lots of hose watering.
 

Tortoise

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Thanks
I may try them then
They don't find snails in the garden here as generally speaking we don't have wet enough conditions, you rarely see a slug.

The dug out is relatively clean as many frogs, aquatic creatures choose to live their in large numbers. We threw a few snails in the fish tank and they seem to multiply in there and clean up the tank beautifully!
 

GeoTerraTestudo

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I think snails are a great turtle food, and wild or free-ranging turtles devour them whenever they come across them. Snails are a good source of protein, and their shells are a great source of calcium carbonate. Slugs, of course, contain less calcium (they still have a small, internal, vestigial shell), but turtles still love them, too. Obviously, omnivorous box turtles and pond turtles can handle much more meat than herbivorous tortoises, but it's not like either group is going to be eating 50 snails everyday or something anyway.

My boxies used to eat lots of slugs that they would find on their own. I also used to give my redfoot several snails at a time every few months (whenever I found them), and she loved them. She used to just gobble them up. She even liked to eat empty snail shells all by themselves. Sometimes she would crush them in her beak, other times she would just swallow them whole if they were small enough and hard enough. But I don't remember seeing any snail shell fragments in her droppings, which suggests to me that they had been completely digested.

Again, snails should not be a staple of any turtle's diet, but I think they are nutritious for them on an occasional basis.
 

Jacqui

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Angi said:
What is a clean snail enviroment. Would my garden be? My compost pile? What aboul slugs. I am so confused about the safe snail thing. I am in a dry areawith a sprinkler system and lots of hose watering.

This is just in my mind, so form your own opinions on the matter. For me, I would not want to take snails from an outside pond where there would be during a heavy rain, run off from livestock manure or even a large canine population. Among other things, I would worry about Ivermectin type products. I would not worms from where human waste is either, including a dump. I would be kinda thinking, "would I eat something that came from this source?" as my perimeter.

Feeding worms or whatever from your own compost should be fine... depending on what you put into it. Like the above mentioned Ivermectin manure would be a concern to me.

I think your garden should be fine. One thing to also think about is what are these bugs and stuff eating. For instance I would not feed a tomato worm if it is living off of tomato leaves. What goes into these critters is going to be in their systems and it's like your feeding your tortoises whatever that critter just ate.

Another thing to worry about like in CA is the fact many people put out snail bait to kill snails and you want to be sure your snails have not had the chance to ingest any poison.

One more thing is the size of your tortoise. The more mass and better health your animal is in, the less chance of any bad reaction from eating these critter. Which means more concerns if your thinking of feeding this to a hatchling rather then a teenage tortoise or adult.
 

Len B

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Raising slugs, snails, worms, mealworms, and crickets, is really simple.slugs and snails can be tricked to collect between 2 nursery pots by taking the first pot and putting some mulch (i use home made) in it to about 2 inches deep and then sitting the second pot into the first pot and putting some mulch in that pot and a little in the space between the two pots, not filling either the pot or the space between completely up and keep them moist in a cool shady area. If you have slugs and or snails they will come.I use 6 inch pots.For the worms what I do is take used copy paper in stacks about 1 1/4 in stacks and set them on the ground next to each other with a small space between each stack.Keep the area wet and when you need some worms look under the paper and pick the worms from the surface. right now I have about a 20 sq ft area that is just about lived it's life and I am going to take up the old paper and replace with new used paper.In the winter the paper acts as insulation and the ground wont freeze and if kept moist worms are available year round. Last year I moved snow to get worms. For mealworms, quaker oats or layena work as as base to raise them with potatoes cut in half with the cut side down, and wait for the beetles to do their thing.Crickets are a lot easier than most people think all I do is get about a dozen crickets put some plastic dixie cups with moist sand in them for the females to deposit the eggs in, use lettuce as a substitute for water and crumble up dry cat or dog, food and some times I feed them pieces of mazuri. This is done in one of those critter carriers.I just had some crickets hatch out last night from adults that I bought the first Wed of this month so my grand daughter could see the process,she has also seen baby mice being born and raised by a first time mother and if every goes right she will see bettas mate. So far so good he didn't kill her and he is adding to the bubble nest And as for the aquatic snails I got some from a fish hatchery that sells fish to stock ponds for fishing. They are japanese black snails I am trying to find the best way for me to keep and raise them.They have live young not eggs so they don't reproduce as quick as the egg layers. Len
 

Angi

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@ Jacqui~ I don't give anything from my compost pile to my torts , but Istarted it so my boxie would have Red Wigglers. It also collects snails, slugs and Rolly Pollys. I do use aged manure in it. Is that bad?
 
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