Could you feed snails dairy as a source of calcium

[leila]

I was wondering if anybody knew for sure or had tried this, but can snails eat dairy products? I figured that cheeses high in calcium might be preferred over other sources. I think that this might be something that they would never find in the wild so this could harm the snails/slugs?

[coyote]

Dairy is not something I would give my snails. There is cuttle and limestone and oyster shell, plus lots of veggies that are high in calcium, not to mention liquid calcium products, so dairy is really not needed for snails.

[axoloa]

Hi leila. I would definitly have to agree with what coyote has said. Also something to consider, dairy products go mouldy and smelly quiet quickly when not kept chilled, and this could posibly harm your snails/slugs even if the food itself does not. Then theirs the fact that most cheese types are man made and have salt traces of different amounts and many other aditives. If you wanted to give your snail cheese, you would most certainly have to make sure it was completly natural cheese made from basicaly just leaving full cream milk to stand for a number of weeks. that stuff is realy smelly though and tastes very sickly. Id very much doubt it would call out to your snails appetite if im honest. non the less, if you do decide to try your snails on cheese, id be interested to know how it goes

[axoloa]

Dec 19, 2011 0:15:27 GMT coyote said:

Dairy is not something I would give my snails. There is cuttle and limestone and oyster shell, plus lots of veggies that are high in calcium, not to mention liquid calcium products, so dairy is really not needed for snails.

Hi coyote, im just interested to know what vegitables are higher in calcium. I have always just given my snails cuttle fish and didnt realise that certain vegetables contained calcium to ;D im very interested to know so I can try some out with my snails to ;D

[leila]

yea good points guys, ha i was just in the grocery store and the thought that they had salt crossed my mind... and then i was on a mission, i spent a good 10 minutes in the cheese section trying to see if there was any type of cheese that didnt have salt... i didnt find any but my mom started yelling at me and saying i looked like an idiot ;D

[axoloa]

Dec 19, 2011 5:11:55 GMT leila said:

yea good points guys, ha i was just in the grocery store and the thought that they had salt crossed my mind... and then i was on a mission, i spent a good 10 minutes in the cheese section trying to see if there was any type of cheese that didnt have salt... i didnt find any but my mom started yelling at me and saying i looked like an idiot ;D

You should have made her look like a muppet by yelling back that you have to check them thoroughly because the people your planning to give it to are "sodium intolerent" haha ;D

[coyote]

Basic food lists can be found here:
www.petsnails.co.uk/care/feeding.html#f_calcium

The calcium content of various foods can be found here:
www.petsnails.co.uk/documents/calcium-in-food.html

[axoloa]

694mg calcium just from turnip greens.. thats interesting :-? Im not great with measurements myself, but that definitly sounds worthwhile getting ahold of some. Think its time I take a trip down the local alotments and take a rumage through a few compost heaps to see what the vege growers have thrown out lately Turnips can stand a little frost, so I can easly expect to still find a few greens lieing around thankyou coyote, this was most helpful

[coyote]

My snails seem to love collards and kale.

[axoloa]

Dec 20, 2011 5:42:48 GMT coyote said:

My snails seem to love collards and kale.

ahh thats cool. well im not sure what collards are.. not heard of them before if im honest, so in all likely hood their probabaly not something common in an English supermarket as for kale, il most certainly buy a bag and see what my snails make of it

[coyote]

Collards, or collard greens, are related to broccoli and cabbage. They are very popular in the cuisine of the southern U.S. Mr Coyote and I like to have them in hoppin' john, which is rice and black-eyed peas. Here are some images of collards.

[coyote]

Here is a 0:40 video of my snail Berryessa eating kale in my hand (no audio).

[axoloa]

Dec 21, 2011 4:33:20 GMT coyote said:

Here is a 0:40 video of my snail Berryessa eating kale in my hand (no audio).

Your snail is totaly cool what species is she?

[coyote]

Berryessa was a Cantereus apertus, the only one I've ever seen. I found her crawling on a driveway one rainy day, and 10 minutes later a car pulled into the driveway and would have crushed her.

I love how the internal structures of her mouth are visible through her translucent skin in the video.

[axoloa]

oooh.. just checked that out on google images ;D their amazing They remind me of Golden apple snails ;D im glad you rescued her from being crushed. If you have only seen one in your life, then they must be rare in your area? I noticed you said 'was'... Do you no longer have her??

[coyote]

She passed away in June. I found her in her water dish one morning with her breathing hole submerged. She was fine the night before when I went to bed, and on the other side of the tank from the water dish. Somehow she crawled into the water dish overnight and rolled over onto the wrong side.

Cantareus apertus is also known as the green burrowing snail, and she spent most of her time under the substrate. I rarely saw her. According to Roth's Checklist of the Land Snails and Slugs of California, that species has been recorded in my county. There are probably a lot more C. apertus in my area than it seems, but they are all buried in the ground so I never have much of a chance to see them (unless it's cool and rainy and I'm in the right place at the right time).

[axoloa]

Ahh I see. So their not rare then, but rarely make appearances. Im very sorry to hear that she passed on. She sure was beautiful.