Nutritional food...

[Amy]

Ive read alot of things on what food to give your snails and i no that mine love cucumber but read that it has little nurtiional value,and was wondering if there is anything snails can eat that has a higher nutritionvalue, also changing to the topic of calcium i have cuttlefish in the tank, there is one snail that is absoloutly addicted to the stuff, one or two that will keep on it and one that will get bored agfter an hor and wander of, but theres one that has got its shell in a terrible state through rasping and dosnt go on the cuttlefish, what alternative sources of calicum are there? o.o

[pickalilly]

Calcium - Oyster shells, egg shells and limestone. Cuttlefish is the best though - he should eat it if he needs it but then again, you could mix it up with some other food.

Good food is sweet potato, carrot, courgette, lettuce and anything green you can try.

[coyote]

There is also liquid calcium, for marine aquariums. It can be sprayed in the tank and on the food.

[crossless]

I think nutritional food is everything that isn't mostly water like melon, cucumber, tomato, salad etc.

Snail is healthy if you try to vary differents foods much as you can. I try give on every meal something new every or every other day.. So there not be many days n row with same food.

Green leaves don't contain as much nutriment that vegetables, but it's better than salad. Flower buds have more nutriment than leaves, because plants use so much enerzy to make flowers.

[ness]

I agree with Crossless, though I would add tomato to the diet on occasions as there are nutrients in them even though they have a high water content. They are quite acidic though so I think tomatos should be added in moderation.

I give my snails cucumbers but they don't make up the bulk of their diet - they eat, get full, but as Crossless says it's mainly water so it doesn't do them much good really, but they enjoy it and have it in moderation. I often 'bulk' up cucumber with gold-fish flakes sprinkled on top of them - it soaks up a little of the water and adds plenty of nutrition.

Again there is nutrition in melon, but as with cucumber they can fill themselves up due to the water content without actually being full of useful food. Mine do have melon but only when I do, and that's once a month or two.

Sweet potato is a bulky power-packed food item for snails and snails generally love it. Sweet corn is also good, though it's classed as a cereal.

Curly Kale is packed full of goodness and calcium, it's one of nature's superfoods (to quote a phrase). Snails can be a bit fussy with it at times though.

[crossless]

I think it would be good idea to add little some high water content food in diet for snails at summer. My tiger snail don't have drinking routine. So I'm little worried does he get dehydrated while I'm outside of home spending time and terrarium would not have any water source or would he use it. Sometimes water fades so fast from dish in hot weather.

My fulicas use to love rose hip baby puree it has loads of calsium in it.

[red608]

What I always do when I give my snails cucumbers is sprinkle wet fish flakes on them, that way they are getting more nutrients from the fish flakes but can still enjoy the cucumber! Occasionally I'll soak the cucumber or spray it with some diluted liquid calcium, or I'll grind cuttle bone up and sprinkle that on there but I've shied away from doing this with the adults and just stuck to the fish flakes as of late.