Baby snails and organic vegetable baby food ?

[vallery]

Does anyone know if it would be okay to feed baby snails organic vegetable baby food?

[axoloa]

Id check the ingredients if it contains even the tinnyest bit of salt then I would say no. Other than that i dont see why not although i would probabaly mix some powderd cuttle fish into it first so its not to wet. when i had only just started with the hobby I had 2 baby Ireds drown while eating tomato :/ quickly learn from mistakes liked that.

[vallery]

Thank You axoloa. I have had success mashing up cucumber for the babies and was wondering if a little dab of organic vegetable baby food would do the trick. I thought it might be easier for the babies to eat and digest. What does salt do to harm them? absorb moisture?

[foghog]

salt is a dessicant, so ya in essence it is a trait of osmosis. I'd say make your own baby food first, it isn't like it is hard, and believe it or not, it is what everyone did forever ago and children grew up nice and healthy..... it is as simple as peeling some carrots boiling them in as little water as possible, and mashing em with a fork even. if you do that, ie make real baby food, then you can feed it to your snails all day long and they will love you for it. I have found one thing interesting though and of note....Many types of my snails actually do not eat the skin of the carrot, or often the core. they scrap it out in between both all day long. same with sweet potato...although baby zucchini they eat the skin first....weird eh? but seriously, what is good about making the mixtures/etc yourself is you can add in fish flake, or other things like corn flour/oyster shell or calcium which allows you to make a balanced mush for them, or 'A' baby too. and a bag of carrots/etc is pretty cheap really.

[ness]

baby food can be a nice treat for snails, even better when served on a bed of sliced sweet potato of on a lettuce leaf as a plate!
There's generally no salt in baby food but it is best to check. it shouldn't replace regular raw veg though.

Fish flakes (damp) make an excellent food suppliment for snails.

[axoloa]

Dec 8, 2011 10:20:12 GMT vallery said:

Thank You axoloa. I have had success mashing up cucumber for the babies and was wondering if a little dab of organic vegetable baby food would do the trick. I thought it might be easier for the babies to eat and digest. What does salt do to harm them? absorb moisture?

Im not entirely sure of the exact effect it has. All I know is that depending on the amount it can do as little as leave a small scar on the skin (wherever the salt came into contact) to as much as dessolving the entire snail leaving nothing more than the shell and a pile of green slimey bubbles :/ of course consumption will damage them from the inside so its effects will be faster and more harmfull and higher chances of fatality to the snail. foghog seems to have left a better reply on this than mine, but i decided to leave one anyway because I dont fully understand what foghogs reply means exactly. Im sure it makes sense to other people, but unfortunatly im dyslexic :/

[serenesarong]

I don't give my babies anything different to what I give my adults... when they first hatched I gave them grated carrot and sweet potato, but this seemed to go off a lot faster compared to the sliced stuff I was giving the adults which just kind of dried out a bit... The babies are doing fine on what they get... have had maybe two or three losses since hatching (I had 119 babies at last count!), every time I clean them out I sift the substrate and put all the babies in a shallow plant tray in the clean tank, and up to now they've pretty much all climbed out into the tank after a light spray with water.

I figure that snails in the wild don't get special mushed up food or baby food and there's no shortage of survivors there so giving them the same as the adults should be ok...

[coyote]

In general, packaged human food can't necessarily be assumed to be snail-safe, including baby food. What's good for human babies might not be the right thing for snails. Although, baby food would be very convenient for feeding snails. I might consider a brand of organic baby food with no additives in it at all, and I would scrutinize the ingredient list on the label very carefully before deciding to buy it.

But, in general I agree with what serenesarong said about snails in the wild: they do fine without pureed food.

[vallery]

I mash the english cucumber and mix in powdered brown egg shells so that it will stick to the top of the tank where some of the babies tend to stay. A well I did give a slice of cucmber in the bottom of the tank and 5 babies had crawled on top ate down and drowned. Anyway the reason I mash and make a mix is so I can stick it to areas certain babies decide to go or huddle. As well one small hosta in the baby tank as well.

[foghog]

thats a interesting technique vallery. maybe making feeding platforms is a good idea actually. I sort of like it really. it promotes rewarding curiosity and movement which a normal snail would encounter in real life.

[vallery]

You actually helped me out with this issue foghog when my first batch of baby snails continued to go to the top of the baby tank and stayed there were there was no food or calcium. I thanked you in my Introduction for helping. I appreciated your help.

[foghog]

its all good vallery, I remember. :-)
I obviously don't have all the answers, but will always try to help you or anyone else if I can. Glad I could help.

[vallery]

Thank You foghog. I am very new at this and could use the help of experienced people. I appreciate your post. Sincerely.

[foghog]

heh. I know you said that already. :-)