Snail mixes?

[pearthesnail]

I was just wondering what kind of food mixes do you feed your snails? I like to keep the diet of my snail varied and interesting so they get lots of nutrients. Ive fed them sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp and oats (crushed with water) and ive also fed them spirulina and peanut butter (These mixes arent fed daily) But what dry/wet food mixes and/or seeds/nuts do you use?

[inky]

Heh, mine pig out on cucumber. Sometimes I feed them carrot and potato, but if I can't get my hands on that, I feed them some of the herbs from the garden and even grass if it's in winter because it's very nice and green! I used sunflower seeds once but there was unfortunately still a little bit of coffee in the grinder (I was pretty naive at the time and didn't know about the whole coffee killing them deal) which almost killed my snails!
Agreed, it would be cool seeing what other people feed their snailies!

[greyphoenix]

I'm still rather new to keeping snails, but I usually offer a small mix of foods each night. So far, foods that have been included are: cucumber, carrots, lettuce, cauliflower, radish bits, sweet potato dog treat, and softened dog kibble. Their favorites so far are the carrots and cucumber, though they also expressed strong initial interest in the sweet potato treat (I think I'll soften it next time to see if they eat more of it that way). I *love* having pets that can eat such a wide variety of foods! It makes feeding them fun and easy.

[morningcoffee]

Nov 19, 2013 16:21:22 GMT pearthesnail said:

I was just wondering what kind of food mixes do you feed your snails? I like to keep the diet of my snail varied and interesting so they get lots of nutrients. Ive fed them sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp and oats (crushed with water) and ive also fed them spirulina and peanut butter (These mixes arent fed daily) But what dry/wet food mixes and/or seeds/nuts do you use?

For my African snails, particularly the margies, they really loved various kinds of nuts, particularly peanuts (groundnuts) and cashews. Obviously these should be plain nuts without any flavourings added If I was going away for a few days I'd often leave plenty of nuts, plus pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds in their food bowl, as they keep for longer than fresh veg/fruit.
As you've already found, soaked oats are very popular! You can also soak brown bread in hot water and feed it to them.

[Cashell]

I've tried pumpkin and sunflower seeds, but I haven't really tried any seed mixes yet. This thread might be giving me some ideas to try it for future experiments.

[muddydragon]

so for the non fruit and veg things my guys have had (and enjoyed):

Wilkos tropical fish flakes,
Spirulina powder,
Algal pellets (also spirulina but i find they take such a long time to soak so went for the powder as i'm lazy!)
Sunflour seeds,
P@H chicken layers pellets (has added calcium in),
Bosch dog food (3 varieties: Poultry & Spelt, Lamb & Rice and Fish & Potato)
Pumpkin seeds
Im also going to try them on P@H hamster nuggets i'll let you know how that goes
I tried an iguana pellet mix and they HATED it they refused to even try it.

That's all i can remember off the top of my head, i've got a huge box full of dried foods i feed them downstairs so there may be more that i'm forgetting - Seriously if there was some sort of food crisis they could keep going longer on the dried foods than i could on anything i have stocked for myself and considering i think i'm part hamster (i.e hoard food) that's saying something!


Edit: forgot to add that soaked oats go down a treat!

[pearthesnail]

Hey muddydragon how did you manage to get some layers pellets without having to buy a massive bag of them?

[muddydragon]

at Pets at home if you go around the chicken section (usually fairly well hidden) they have one of those open barrel things with loose chicken layers pellets in. Just pop some in a bag and there you go! it's cheap too (or maybe cheep... bad pun sorry...) the first time that's all i went in for i got a reasonable amount to try my snails on and i spent the massive amount of 5p, the guy on the till gave me a bit of an odd look!

[pearthesnail]

Lol thanks for the info! Ill get some soon then- how to you serve yours?

[muddydragon]

i feed them to my snails in a bowl. I pop the dry pellets in bowls (a bowl per tank) and soak them in water, it takes a few hours to soak, i just give the bowls a shake now and again it eventually becomes a sort of damp grey mush, like really thick porridge but more gritty looking then i pop the bowl in the tank and the snails hoover it up.

[muddydragon]

another food i give them that i forgot to add to my list is boiled egg. they love a bit of boiled egg!

[moon]

Are all these snail mixes aimed at GALS?

I only have helix aspersa/cepaeas & tried them with seeds, mashed up cooked veg, boiled egg, fish flakes etc & they don't want to know!

All they have ever been interested in is fresh, raw fruit & veg. It's a shame because I would have liked to give them a change & try something new.

[muddydragon]

Not just GALS, My Hadra webbi, Pleurodonte marginella and P. isabella also eat most of these. (maybe you have very picky snails )

[pearthesnail]

Ill try boiled egg! Doesnt it spoil quickly though?

[muddydragon]

it's never been around long enough for me to find out

[pearthesnail]

Haha thats great ill try that!

[vickyholt13]

One snail mix I feed is like the ones you have mentioned its sunflower seed, pumpkin seeds, oatmeal, hemp, and limestone flour. My secon mix which is gone as quick as I put it in is Boneo dog biscuits, fish flake and limestone flour they love it.
I'm goin to try egg and spirulina powder just need to get my hands on the powder :-)

[muddydragon]

do you use the plain boneos? i might steal some from my dog sometime

[vickyholt13]

Nov 29, 2013 15:28:51 GMT muddydragon said:

do you use the plain boneos? i might steal some from my dog sometime

Yep I do take some grinding/crushing but you could prob just soak it but I crush and make a big batch up with the limestone and fish flake :-)

[muddydragon]

fab thanks