gigas
Achatina achatina
Posts: 95 
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Post by gigas on Jul 30, 2015 23:30:53 GMT
 Got a bunch of these guys over the last few weeks. I plan to start a feeder snail business with a few thousand breeding adults hopefully soon (not quite there, yet..). There is no one breeding these in my state, so I figured what the heck. Would make a nice secondary income, right? I collect these off Sanibel, an island near me. However, like most places, I'm sure they have been exposed to different toxins and parasites and whatnot. I was wondering would all could I do to "detox" these guys? I definitely do not plan to feed these guys to anything, but I don't want them to pass things over to the baby snails, which I do plan to feed off. I know risk is probably minimum, but I want to be as safe as possible, especially since they will be food for someone's pet. Are there any type of over-the-counter medication I can give that will rid parasites? I have some anti-protozoal antibiotics, as well as Panacur, which are all dog/cat/reptile medications. Would it be safe to use this on the snails without damaging their gut fauna/flora? I seen a video on YouTube of a guy preparing his snails to eat, and did a QT where he fed them corn meal or something for a week. I think I may do this, then add them to a tub of snails to that need to be treated for parasites and such, then after a week of that, I will introduce them to the main breeding colony. I am going to do a multiple level tub system. Thanks, Dakota |
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Post by Liguus on Jul 31, 2015 0:37:43 GMT
I'm not sure what could be done to detox the snails, if anything. Most medicines will likely harm snails, even the ones made for reptiles. If they are carrying parasites as long as the life cycle is not completed the parasites should die after a while. (many of the parasites need to infect something like a rodent to reproduce). Zachrysia is mainly a vector for rat-lungworm.
There also has been some discussion of giving snails wormwood as a detoxifying agent, but I believe the dosage should be very minimal. I actually grow a number of A. absinthium (absinthe wormwood) around my house so I may try to experiment with offering it to some snails and seeing what it does. I think I'll test it out on the triodopsis snails which are food for my rosywolfs.
Cornmeal mainly purges their gut, so that there is no poo left in the snail before someone eats it. I don't think it will have any effect on parasites in snails.
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gigas
Achatina achatina
Posts: 95
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Post by gigas on Jul 31, 2015 5:52:33 GMT
The purge is to make sure they didn't eat any poisons, such as rat poison. My dad works for pest management on Sanibel, so I'm well aware of the rodent troubles they are having over there, as well as the poisons they use. However, I do not collect them from known sites that is baited. But better safe, than sorry.
Do you know how long this life cycle lasts before dying off? I wonder if fecals can be done?
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Post by Liguus on Jul 31, 2015 13:31:33 GMT
That makes sense. I didn't consider that they would eat rat poison, but they probably could, and likely ate rat feces if they were near rats anyways.
I'm not certain about their lifespan, but I think it's about 5 years in the wild, and a few years longer in captivity.
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