Slug gnawing own tail...

[pinkunicorn]

So I got some tips on this already in my picture thread but it seems to be a continuing problem despite me handfeeding Odie different fish food. He's such a gentle personality and a bit shy and seeing him do this just makes him more adorable little thing... but it can't be healthy. I think the reason for his gnawed skin is because he does it in his sleep. He basically puts a thumb in his mouth and gnaws on that.



This is how he sleeps most of the time. I can't really keep waking him up if I see his mouth move once in a while because he needs his rest. He wasn't interested in a dead slug as food either. Garfield is doing great so I assume the tank is ok. I've been rinsing him now daily to keep dirt out of the skinless bits but unsure if this is good/necessary.

So yeah, more tips would be welcome. Or should I wait more for the food to work? Does the skin actually grow back or is Odie scarred for life?

Odie probably would have gotten killed had I not adopted him, given the friend whom I got him from is a gardener, so I don't really want to return him where he came from. Rather make everything best for him in captivity. They will get a bigger tank soon, though I doubt space is the problem. It's not a very active species.

[shaydeesnail]

I really have not got much advice on this, as I only recently acquired one slug and I don't really know a lot about them...
A thought did just cross my mind though, don't some animals gnaw at themselves when they are stressed? Could this be the problem? I wouldn't think that slugs would be too prone to stress but maybe... an anxious slug?
There's probably another reason that actually has some science behind it, but I thought I'd throw in my 2cents
Good luck with Odie!

[pinkunicorn]

I've thought about stress yeah. I'm trying to work out the tank so there is things for the slugs to explore and that they need to climb to get food etc. I've not seen any major increases in the nibbled area in the past few days, but too early to say if the extra leaves and foodcaches are having any effect. Odie seems so much more shy than Garfield so it's not at all impossible he's stressed! But how to unwind a stressed slug....

[mechangel]

What about trying to introduce a bit of tasty food as a distraction when he starts to put his face on his tail? Does he try to eat your finger? My aspersa snails rasp on my skin sometimes, I'm not sure why, it tickles something fierce.

[morningcoffee]

Try feeding some actual raw meat rather than just fish flakes - bacon or mince would be fine.

[pinkunicorn]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been feeding him by hand nowevery night except yesterday... and apparently he did somemore damage last night. It's looking pretty bad now. I've given him some beef, tried both raw and cooked... but he's yet to try it. He needs a very calm situation to eat, no shaking the box. And he needs to get to the food on his own incentive though it works if I place the food in front of him when he's resting.

Tomorrow I get the big aquarium where I will put plants, bark and some rocks. I hope the new environment will get him a bit more entertained. And if he's not getting better soon I guess there's nothing else to do than to release him. It breaks my heart that my little Odie will likely find his end as a pest in somebody's garden, when that's the fate I tried to save him from.

Here's the damage this morning. It's not looking good at all. I wonder if I could put some medical tape around it or something.

[pinkunicorn]

Oh my poor little Odie. He's not touched any of the meat variants I've offered and I think he has not eaten a lot at all in the past days. I got the nice new tank set up and he was crawling about a bit. Now he's just sitting there on bark with food basically in his mouth but not eating. Not moving away either though. I'm really afraid he's gotten very ill now, I've seen this behaviour in slugs so many times before. It's how they die. It could be he's just tired but... oh I feel so awful. I've done everything I can, but he's just not eating. I wonder, since he had protein food from day one... maybe he was ill to begin with?

He moved a little just now, he is checking the foods out.... please eat, little one.

[pinkunicorn]

He also seems to be losing his grip after crawling for a while. I don't think he's gonna make it in the wild if I take him out.

Oh my poor Odie, if I just knew what happened to you. He camein on 24th June, that's just 20 days. It was maybe 10 days ago when this started. He's had access to lots of fish food all the time, and it's a time a slug might go without carcass to eat in nature, so it seems odd it would be caused solely by that. Did I not wash my hands properly at some point perhaps? I always try to but maybe I forgot and he contacted something. Or maybe he's just a weak baby. I know some of my slugs suddenly get ill and die at young age and others live to a ripe old age.

Sorry, I'm just incredibly sad... I'm pretty sure now he's dying, his behaviour is so familiar now.

[racingsnail]

I'm sorry.

[pinkunicorn]

I've had the same problem with two more slugs but I think I've found a way to help the slugs.

I isolate the slug in a small container and feed them high protein food, by hand if I need to. The second patient had just some skin missing and it grew back completely. The current patient managed to chew a chunk off, and I didn't notice it as she didn't gnaw the skin visibly. One day I just noticed she's a stubby slug, although the tail is correct shape. Just the keel part missing. I never saw her chew herself though, but she managed to do good damage. Now she's getting fed fish food in isolation as long as it takes for her tail to grow. If it doesn't she'll be the little slug stub forever! Gladly she is eating pretty well now. Just fed her 6 fish pellets by hand.

[vallery]

How is Odie

[pinkunicorn]

Odie didn't make it, sadly. I think he was actually ill unlike the two others, because he just stopped eating. The one thing I didn't do with him was isolate him, as it was just two slugs in the tank then, Odie and big Garfield. I now wonder if it would have made a difference, though I'm unsure as the two really liked each other. With the 6 leopards I have now (Arlene just died unexpectedly and Neptune had a really bad case of gut extrusion, poor baby) there's the occasional biting, which I think is fighting behaviour as it happens when I remove their resting barks for cleaning (I think it's stress behaviour), but most of the time the slugs sleep side to side without problems. They do chase each other away sometimes which I think could cause stress and maybe self-eating, and that's why isolation could help. Their social dynamics are just fascinating and I don't really understand it. I just try to keep an eye on anyone not getting along with the others and separating if needed.

[vallery]

Hi pinkunicorn,

I am so sorry about Odie. Wish I could have helped in some way.

vallery x