A calcium source?

[saki114]

I have noticed for a while that my snails' shells have began to grow thin and rough. I have NO way to get cuttlefish bone, natural chalk, Reptile Calcium Powders, Powdered oyster shells, and Limestone. This morning I read an article about using eggshells as a calcium source and it said to remoe the inside skin and to put it in the oven @ 250 degrees F or 121 degrees C for 10 minutes. I peeled the inside skin off, but I couldn't use my oven at the moment (some technical difficulty) so I put the eggshell in my toaster oven for about 2-4 minutes ( I don't know what temperature it was, but it was pretty hot). After I let it cool down, I put it in with the snails. I didn't really see them eating it (I heard they could absorb the nutrients through their skin), so is this okay?

[doris2010]

I have heard that egg shells are good for them but I dont know if it is true or not. Why do you not have any way to get cuttlefish etc?

[axoloa]

egg shells most certainly are a good scource of calcium (its what their made of). never heard of cooking them first. Usualy drying them out for a day in a warm room does the trick just perfectly. Snails can absorb the calcium, but theirs no guarentee that they will. The best thing to do is to use a pestle and mortar to make the egg shells into a powder. If you dont have a pestle and mortar, a rolling pin. If you dont have a rolling pin a pair of rocks.. if you dont have rocks..... find some lol. Once you have it powderd, you can then sprinckle a light layer over your snails food. you can also try grateing sweet potato and cucumber and mixing the powder in with it. Theirs also the option of feeding them with higher calcium vegies such as turnip greens, kale, dandilion leaves (if you have acess to them at this time of year)..

[coyote]

Snails seem to prefer other types of calcium sources to egg shells, but giving them powdered egg shells is way better than no calcium at all. Find an ingenious way to grind the shells into a powder and give them that until you can get them some cuttle or limestone (the types they seem to prefer the most).

[barnaclesnail]

Egg shells are a form of calcium carbonate, which is really the same type of calcium used in those reptile powders. I give my snails Rep-Cal now, but years ago, when I used to home cook for my dogs, I'd make the powdered eggshells as a phosphorous free calcium supplement and would bake the eggshells for 7-8 min (which will naturally remove the film inside) and grind them into a fine powder in the blender. The only problem with that is you'll need to add a source of Vitamin D or make sure you're feeding greens high in Vit D, because calcium carbonate is really poorly digested.

[saki114]

Dec 22, 2011 19:03:46 GMT doris2010 said:

I have heard that egg shells are good for them but I dont know if it is true or not. Why do you not have any way to get cuttlefish etc?

The stores that are near me do not sell cuttlefish bone, and if they have the other stuff, it is too expensive. I also just had a BUNCH of helix aspersa hatchlings and they are not really eating the eggshell(even though they are two days old, and I know that baby snails need a lot of calcium), so what can I do?

[doris2010]

Whereabouts are you? Cant you order cuttlefish off ebay? The hatchlings will eat their own shells for calcium to start with but they will need a source of calcium.

www.thatpetplace.com they sell calcium supplements starting from $2.99.

[axoloa]

just powder the egg shells as a temporary solution for both the adults and the babies. like coyote said, snails much preffer cuttle bone or powdered lime stone (something you can get from DIY and building stores, sometimes labled as 'lime'), so the egg shells would be best as only a temporary solution, although powderd your snails wouldent even notice that they were consuming it. I never realised that they were difficult to digest properly, but going of what barnaclesnail said about needing vitamin D to help digest it, Mushrooms are the ideal scource of Vitamin D for slugs and snails. Mushrooms contain around 4% vitamin D, but when exposed to the sun for several hours, this can increas to around 10-13%. Mushrooms are infact the only vegetables that contain vitamin D (they absorb it in the same way human skin does). You can also give your snails vitamin D just by putting their enclosures in a more sunny spot but this dosent work as well because generaly snails hide from direct sunlight and their skin dosent take in much vitamin D from the sun. <ushrooms are greatly loved by slugs and snails though (babies to because their so soft and easy to consume). Mushrooms and powderd egg shell is definitly a good way to force calcium down them untill you can buy an alternate calcium scource from somewhere like Ebay or an online pet store like Doris2010 has said

[coyote]

Dec 23, 2011 21:04:34 GMT @axoloa said:

powdered lime stone (something you can get from DIY and building stores, sometimes labled as 'lime')

If you go to building store and get "lime," be very very very very sure it is actually limestone and not plain lime. Plain lime will kill your snails. It is also called quicklime (calcium oxide, CaO). So you have to ask someone who works at the place you are buying it to verify beyond all doubt that it is limestone and not quicklime before you bring it home.

[axoloa]

Ouch, now theirs a mistake no one wants to make. I feel very bad about myself now for my lack of knowledge about calcium oxide. I just had a look on the internet and surly enough both me and coyote were right.. Both powderd lime stone and calcium oxide are both often sold under the lable 'lime'. that strikes me as a danger not just to snails but to people to, since calcium oxide is a danger to human skin to when not washed of thouroughly. Im very sorry for the danger caused by my lack of knowledge on the other type of 'lime' on the building/DIY markets.. I think il refrain from advising 'lime' from now on.

[saki114]

My snails are still not eating it. I think they don't know it is calcium, but I wonder what is wrong.

[coyote]

Not eating what? Eggshell? Have you ground it down to a powder? Many people have said that their snails just won't touch eggshell, no matter how finely it's ground up.

Can you go to a store that sells pet supplies (sometimes larger grocery stores or supermakets have a pet aisle) and find a plain cuttlebone in the bird section?

[saki114]

I put in about 8 total egg worth of crushed eggshell in the soil. Is that enough for my eight snails or should I put more/less?

[gunshotglitter]

Today I crushed 4 eggshells as fine as I could and mixed it with a few drops of bottled water so it looked like some kind of paste..I put it in a little plate inside the tank and placed my baby Helix aspersa on it. It emmidiately started eating it and it was fun watching it because his body is still transparent and I could see the food passing..
He really ate a lot of it, now I'm scared if it's even possible that he ate too much?

[mechangel]

you can get 5 lbs of cuttlebone on Amazon.com for $30. That's a LOT of cuttle.

[vallery]

Hi saki ,

I had a really bad problem with my c hortensis. I use powdered brown eggs shells I don't bake them I just let them dry and powder them in a mortar and pestle. I sprinkle it on their food so the eat the egg shells fist I also sprinkle a bit in areas they favor in their snailariums. As well I began using spring water as tsrebel had suggested. He also said if there are any young ones they tend to eat the calcium of the adults shells. So I removed the young ones and made a baby tank for them. I also made a powdered egg shell and water solution to spray them with and they are are all doing far better since.
Vallery x

[crossless]

I think egg shell is bit too hard for snails.. But fulicas didn't eat any food because their belly was full of egg shell which didn't digestion¨at all.

[feelahthetigress]

Well, I have one more alternative idea for you. I've been feeding my snails calcium pills (the kind that are normally for humans). You could get a bottle of these from a pharmacy/drugstore/walmart. They are very soft and my snails seem to like them (they bore holes in them). Just look for plain calcium pills with no other added vitamins (other than maybe Vitamin D). The only bad thing about them is that they tend to melt/dissolve in moist environments, which means that soon your calcium pill will turn into a pile of goo in the tank and you'll have to throw it out after awhile if the snails don't eat it quickly enough. Of course, instead of throwing in a whole pill, you can powderize it in a mortar and pestle and sprinkle it over food. That tends to help it get eaten more quickly.

[actos]

That's a great idea, feelahthetigress! I'll look for some calcium tablets in the supermarket today. Much easier to find, for me, than limestone or chalk...

[shaydeesnail]

If they melt too much from the humidity you could always put them on a plate of some description and melt them down into a paste on purpose, some snails might prefer this, mine do but I suppose it's down to each individual snail!

[feelahthetigress]

Oh, and I forgot to mention, if you find that your snails won't eat the pills you might have to train them a bit first. I think other people have mentioned this, but sometimes you have to train a snail to realize that something is calcium and good. It involves powderizing the calcium source and sprinkling it over their normal food for a few days/weeks (however long it takes) and then they'll know what it smells like and that it's good calcium and they should know to eat whole pills after that. If they don't ever learn, you could always just continue to sprinkle it on their food in powder form. My snails originally wouldn't eat the pills until I tried the "training method".

[nico]

the baby snail I found in the parsley the other day is still alive. not knowing - I put egg shell pieces in the glass, just as is....taking the layer of skin off of most of it. the baby snail has been sitting on the eggshell for about 24 hours now. I don't have a terrarium yet. Just the glass, still with damp paper towel, sweet potato, and today put a small piece of banana in. But, it's still sitting on the egg shell. (I did put a little rock in too).

[nico]

can I put some human calcium supplement in for the baby snail? it is called Cal Apatite 1000 by Metagenics. It's pretty high grade stuff. I'll try to mash up the eggshells before I leave for Thanksgiving Dinner....

[pinkunicorn]

You can, with a few considerations to keep in mind. If it has vitamin D added, then it should not be used continuously for very long times in one go, to avoid the possibility to overdosing vitamin D. It's impossible to know what the snaily requirements are, but they're likely to be lower than for humans. This may be advantageous for snails with shell damage, though.

If it's just pure calcium (plus lactose, corn starch etc fillers that don't matter) without artificial sweeteners, then it should be OK to use even for longer periods. Flavoured chewing tablets may be unappetising to snails.

I checked this product and it seems like a fine long-term source of calcium for snails, especially if you crush it into powder and remove the skin bits. It's just pure calcium, phosphate and a calcium-variant hydroxyapatite and some cellulose as a filler agent. It's usually best to put the powdered calciums on top of moist food like cucumber or fruit, or wet lettuce.

[nico]

thanks for the reply Pink