purchasing live snails at food market

[vallery]

In China town here they sell bins of snails for food, some are still alive,. Is it safe to purchase those live ones for pets?

[crucify]

I don't see why not. Lots of people rescue snails from food stores. I plan on buying as many as I carry when I go to London. They are intended as food so I doubt they're harboring ultra meningitis or something.

[Cashell]

I never even knew you could buy live land snails in the GTA!

[muddydragon]

snails sold for food are almost always wild caught (like a infamous brixton margies) hence they can easily harbour parasites (including ones which cause meningitis). this is why (when buying for food) they have to be thoroughly cooked, and why you occasionally hear of some idiot who hasn't cooked them properly and has ended up with meningitis.

the meningitis parasite needs an intermediate host to complete it's life cycle so presumably after a certain amount of time it dies within the snail, noone is sure how long this is however.

People have kept snails for markets in the past no problems but i would advise making sure you wash hands thoroughly after handling etc, generally be more cautious than you are with the captive bred ones.

Cashell: whats GTA?

[vallery]

Hi muddydragon ,
GTA stands for Greater Toronto Area. .

Thank you for your reply and advice I will be sure to be careful.

vallery

[Cashell]

Vallery beat me to it, but yeah that's exactly what it stands for. It's a vast area consisting of many regions and cities and is home to around six million (according to Statistics Canada) people.

[muddydragon]

ahhh thanks, i tried searching for it but only got grand theft auto and Greyhound trainers association and i figured it wasn't either of them

If you rescue some please show us some piccies