Snail food

[guypettigrew]

Hi all

Those of you who know about snails are probably fed up with answering this sort of query, but I couldn't find anything elswhere on this forum.

My A. fulica only eat lettuce and cucumber, plus loads of cuttlefish!

So far they have ignored broccoli, cabbage, sprouts, carrot and tomato.

Will they get all they need from the lettuce, cucumber and cuttlefish? If they will, no problem. If not, what should I do, please?

Thanks.

Guy

[teresa]

try sweet potatoe, marrow, apple, dandilion leaves, squash , they love all these there are quite a few other things they like to eat to they do need a bit more than just cucumber and lettuce its best experimenting to see what yours like best but i havent known one not to eat sweet potatoe mine also love swede

[guypettigrew]

Thanks Teresa

I grow swede, so will dig one up and try it now!

Sweet potato and the rest will have to wait 'til I go to the supermarket.

Guy

[kotilo]

Hi,
My snails don't like carrot, cabbage or broccoli either, or apple. They happily eat cucumber, courgette, lettuce, cottage cheese, normal cheese, (some) tomato, pepper, cooked meat, mango...

They seem to like soft foods more. Raw carrot, cabbage & broccoli is quite hard so maybe that's why they don't like it. Mine tried broccoli once and since then they haven't eaten it!

Look at the list on the actual site (http://www.petsnails.co.uk/care/feeding.html#f_food) and try all of them - I am sure you will soon find many more favourite foods for your snails.

[whodoesntlovesnails]

i have found out that my snails adore deli turkey.

[Rachel]

my snails have a thing for garden grown strawberries, the picky little slimies won't touch shop bought for some reason, lol. They also really like califlower leaf, i've seen them stay on it for a whole day to make sure they get their fair share.

[donut]

i have a Q i have re-homed 2 of my baby snails to another newbie & SHE has been told from a petshop place that A) she doesnt need a heat mat for them as they dont like it too warm !!! & ALSO she needs to buy the babies special baby food (of him of course) coz they wont thrive on JUST fruit & Veg surely that is wrong !! they have been fine for the last almost 5 weeks with what i gave them & i assume TSS yours is ok still - how can pet shops get away with such silly info (i told her find another shop) - gonna try mine on strawberry tonight they have had a boring life never had them LOL - the adults either

[vikingsnail]

Well, I guess not all snails need a heat mat - it just depends on how warm your home is really... but during the winter, they probably could do with one.
As for different food for babies, I don't think they really do need anything other than what you'd give to adult snails... I think

My iredalei will eat pretty much anything I give her - where as my fulica is a little more picky. But if you've tried your snails with something and they didn't eat it, don't be put off giving it to them again - mine will turn their noses up at alot of stuff the first time I give it to them, but if I give them it again they usually eat it

[Rachel]

my little ones fine, and they get away with it because people don't know any better. one petshop told my nextdoor neighbor you need to treat baby snails substrate with this weird mixture of chemicals or they will die, she was not sure and asked me, and when i looked it up i found it was poisonous! if they had been in contact with it for several days they would of been killed, needless to say we were not impressed, and they wanted £15! people like that annoy me a LOT. BTW Rosalind loves strawberry, she had some last night,

[ness]

Wow! your local pet shop keepers need a care sheet or two I think! Obviously either clueless or just eager to get you to buy useless stuff. Either way it's very poor.

[Rachel]

or because they evil snail hating scum who must pay, i'll help with that if need be,

[donut]

Rosalinds brothers & sisters love Strawberry too mom & dad turned there nose up yesterday BUT today have munched it