brixton tiger died suddenly today

[clairekentuk]

All my tigers were fine this morning, when i sprayed and fed them, but one of my most active tigers, sparky has died suddenly just 2 weeks after being rescued. I have cleaned their home out and will continue to keep his friend in quarantine as well as the other 4 - housed in seperate accomodation apart.
It incidently was not one of the 2 with damage to their heads.

I know these things are more likely to happen with wild caught snails and have tried not to get too attached, but I was beginning to think they were all going to make it after such a remarkable improvement.

I fed them sunflower seed from the pet shop intended for birds for the first time yesterday along with a small amount of chick mash. Could the introduction of these things into their diet have caused this?

Claire

[anjieburdett]

Oh Claire!! I'm soo sorry. I was going to warn you about the way they can die for no apparent reason but like you said they seemed to be getting on ok. I have lost 5 out of the 20 odd i bought this time and am expecting another one not to make it. I have tried to harden up to this but its bloody hard!! Its soo disappointing - but you DID GOOD CLAIRE! Not your fault...who knows why these things happen, they've been treated soo badly and we don't know whats going on inside them.

Keep your chin up.

Anjie,x.

[clairekentuk]

Did you get yours after me? I got them 2 weeks ago today, and they were very very dehydrated then. I didnt expect them all to make it which is one of the reasons I got 6. But I expected those that wouldnt make it to pass on in the days when they were limp and lifeless, not now they are rippling water and sliming again.
Im not going to dwell too much on it, it just took me by surprise. I do have another which is withdrawn in its shell a lot which im having doubts about. What shocked me is that it was the most active and has been from the start.
Im glad I tried anyway and at least it died in a humane way and not after being unwell....or worse what those customers do. But ill try not to think about that or ill be on a train!
Could it have been the lack of permanent heating? I saw the ones I bought were in the airport boxes so perhaps the climate change is hard for them.

Claire

[anjieburdett]

The ones you bought were in airport boxes??? Did we get them from different stalls?? I didn't see any airport boxes! I think we may well have gone on the same day..omg thats weird, can you imagine if we had been buying tigers at the same time lol.

Did you get the speech about ''do you eat them, you should they are delicious??'' I always get it, one bloke offered to 'cut' Christabels Margies for her (the look on her face was priceless as she gripped tightly to her carrier bag lol ) I know exactly what you mean about jumping on the train!! The margies are supposed to be there now and the PULL OF THE SNAILS is unbearable!! Might see if Emma wants to go tomorrow rofl.

Good luck with the rest.

Anjie,x.

[clairekentuk guest]

Yeah i got that speach too. There were 3 barrels of tigers where i went priced at £2, £2.50 and £3.

I went at around 11.30 on the Wednesday.

It was in market row and under the front box (the £2 box)there was a box crammed packed with more snails with airport stickers on it. They were so crammed they wouldnt have a hope of moving.
Never seen margiies so im not sure if there were any. I think mine are tigers as they have stripes and a pink lip. There were a couple of all brown snails in there that looked like fulicias. It was a grocery stall with mainly fruit and veg and stuff. and a till inside on the right with 2-3 women in there and 1 bloke who laughed his head off when my daughter told him they were our new pets!

Olivia cried when she saw one of the snails has died and she then said " We have space to rescue some more now, i want to go to that smelly place!"

God bless the people that live there!

Claire

[Deleted]

yeh that place sure it scary. i went once and got a tiger, but it was dead. those africans were so rude. my dad said its for a pet and they started laughing about it in their language but they didnt even have a word for 'pet' i dont wanna go there again

[anjieburdett]

Nope, you went to a different stall, differetn part of the market! Mine were in an arcade called BRIXTON VILLAGE, outside a shop/stall thingy that sold mainly tinned food and stuff, next to a meat stall.

OMG theres more!!

Anjie,x.

[Deleted]

the ones i saw were in a basket with loads of ice :\

[anjieburdett]

WHAT!! You're joking ... right???

[Deleted]

no they had loads of ice in with them. they said they were alive but they cudnt be pets because 'the foot could not crawl around properly'

[anjieburdett]

WHAT!!!

[Deleted]

well they obviously don't understand the concept of treating animals humanely, but i suppose nor do we with battery chickens etc...

[Leah]

'the foot could not crawl around properly'

euh?!

[Deleted]

yeh i didnt understand what she was on about. i think what she meant was the snails were only just alive and they cud not recover being dumped on a ship for a few weeks and then put in a basket full of ice .

[Leah]

Well thats a little obvious! I guess shes not the brightest of people.

[Deleted]

if they were bright they wudnt have to make money selling snails for food...

[Leah]

indeed. And they would know there were more humane ways of doing it if they really needed to.

[alexc1981]

Keeping them in ice may not be that bad. Don't some people refridgerate their snails prior to freezing them as a humane method of euthanasia? If the cold makes them hibernate, they may not be suffering as much as they could be.

[claire kent uk]

Just to update you, 3 out of 6 have now suddenly died. I think it must be something in the air though I dont use air freshners or chemicals etc anywhere near. They are showing no ill signs. Im confused as to why they did so well for 2 weeks and now 3 have died in 5 days

[natrat84]

Awww thats a real shame They have just been through so much and you don't know whats going on inside

[anjieburdett]

I lost another one yesterday too, Nats right, these snails could be infested with parasites inside for all we know - i consider it worth it...for the ones that survive and go on to live a happy life. We do all we can, thats all we can do. But i am really sorry to hear your news Claire

Anjie,x.

[claire kent uk]

Yeah im happy in a way even for the ones that have died that they didnt die of dehydration or starvation or boiling. Ive still got 3, of which 2 are doing well and one is withdrawn. But it was the ones who were doing well also that died.
You make them sound so tasty when you talk about parasite infestation, you dont sell them so well as the people on the market!
Is there any known treatment for parasites? Like a food or something.

Claire

[natrat84]

Pumkin seeds 'seem' to help Claire. Thought you knew that already or I would have mentioned it. Sorry.

You can get them in small packets for about 50p in Holland and Barrett, just chop or grind them up and add to something you know they will eat, or feed on its own.

See this thread here, what Beth wrote

petsnails.proboards3.com/index.cgi?board=pests&action=display&n=1&thread=4357

Nat

[anjieburdett]

I make a paste of hemp and pumpkin seeds by whizzing them both up in my hand blender thingy and mixing it to a paste with a little water - my biggies LOVE it.

Anjie,x.

[sezzy5889]

My snails absolubtly love ground hemp, all of them my babies and my biggies especially my tigers and margies they clean a saucer of it in a night :-)