Do you feed your snails meat?

[crucify]

I was wondering, how many people here feed their snails meat? I got hold of a roast cow knuckle today to see what they're willing to chew on and they seemed very interested in it. I've hurt my back/neck so I can't check on them right now though, but I saw some chewing. Can't say it looks very tasty, good thing their eyesight is too bad to see what they're eating.

Update: Took a look at them when they all woke up, they seem to be enjoying it. Not touching their dog biscuits at all, going straight for the knuckle and eating that instead.

[Cashell]

I've never fed my snails meat before.

[malacophile]

I feed mine meat regularly. I think it's important for them- they'd get it in nature, after all. I cook it first unless it's pre-cooked just to eliminate the (albeit minimal) risk of parasites or bacterial illness.

[crucify]

Checked mine again this morning and they're still chewing away. I've never fed mine actual meat products before, I think I'm going to have to keep buying roasted bones for them now. I'd rather not put in a plain slab of meat because of all the potential mold.

[wreckoning]

Well there was the time, about a month ago, I had some new captives in a cardboard box waiting for transport to the terrarium. I was cutting some holes in the box when I sliced off the side of my own finger. It needed stitches. The nurse asked where the other piece of my finger went, since it could possibly have been sewn back on. I explained that I had looked, but could not locate it. When I got home, I looked again and still nowhere to be seen. So I assume it fell into the slug box and they ate it.

Does that count?

[tsrebel]

When I had A. immaculata var. panthera, I gave them cat food (contains mostly dried meat). But I've never given them any raw or boiled meat.

[Cashell]

Oct 15, 2013 3:23:54 GMT malacophile said:

I feed mine meat regularly. I think it's important for them- they'd get it in nature, after all. I cook it first unless it's pre-cooked just to eliminate the (albeit minimal) risk of parasites or bacterial illness.

Aside from the occasional dead earthworm or snail I can't imagine them really eating much else. Maybe they might eat dead squirrels and raccoons, but I have yet to see this.

[shaydeesnail]

Yep that's right, snails and slugs tend to munch on carcasses that they find.
There are quite a few cats on my block, and whenever one is sick the slugs and snails all surround it and eat it up by the morning, I presume because of the protein in the bits of kibble they puke up?
I gave mine some fish but they weren't interested. I haven't tried them with meat yet though, I usually give them boiled eggs for protein

[malacophile]

And poop! They like that, too, and it sounds reasonably nutritious, if you're a gastropod. From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

feces are made up of 75 percent water and 25 percent solid matter. About 30 percent of the solid matter consists of dead bacteria; about 30 percent consists of indigestible food matter such as cellulose; 10 to 20 percent is cholesterol and other fats; 10 to 20 percent is inorganic substances such as calcium phosphate and iron phosphate; and 2 to 3 percent is protein. Cell debris shed from the mucous membrane of the intestinal tract also passes in the waste material, as do bile pigments (bilirubin) and dead leukocytes (white blood cells). The brown colour of feces is due to the action of bacteria on bilirubin, which is the end product of the breakdown of hemoglobin (red blood cells).

Oct 17, 2013 8:37:39 GMT shaydeesnail said:

I usually give them boiled eggs for protein

Mine only eat the yolk and ignore the white.

[afezy90]

No way,never.I have never done that I will never will.my snails love being vegetarians