Picky Snails (formerly Nothing But Cucumber...)

[MLO]

Hello. I'm keeping a snail I rescued from the sidewalk. I've been trying different foods...plum, peach, strawberries, a tiny bit of lamb/rice dog food, kale...but the only thing the snail will eat is cucumber. Is this okay or should I keep trying.

On a related note, in an effort to get the snail to eat different foods, I recently put some basil and parsley seeds into the substrate (there's already a single grass plant in there). They are growing nicely so far but that makes me wonder: when I clean the enclosure, do I have to remove all the substrate or can I just remove the stuff that is dirty?

Thanks in advance...

*Renamed & Moved to right section - CroSSLeSS*

[coyote]

Snails love cucumber more than anything else. The only way I can get mine to eat other foods is to withhold cucumber for a few days to force them to try other things. It will not hurt your snail not to eat for a day or two, so don't be in a rush to offer cucumber again. Give it a chance to eat the other foods. It's best if your snail can eat as wide a variety of foods as possible, so keep trying.

I would imagine that removing most of the substrate would be okay, leaving alone the parts that are planted. The best thing to do is to have any live vegetation planted in pots which can be swapped out easily for tank cleaning. Perhaps you can transplant your seedlings into small pots?

[crossless]

Don't give to snails pasta, rice or noodles they can be fatal to snails.

[MLO]

Jul 17, 2010 19:37:36 GMT crossless said:

Don't give to snails pasta, rice or noodles they can be fatal to snails.

not to worry, I did hear about this warning.

I know there is a list of snail friendly foods...is there a list of snail favorite foods?

Also there are two baby snails in the same enclosure as the adult snail...is it still safe to remove the cucumber until the other foods are tried? Just FYI, the baby snails were born in captivity.

[lee2211]

Don't let him have cucumber for a week, and put in different foods, the same foods for a few days running, to make sure he recognises the smell and should eat it.

You don't need to fully clean out your tank, just take off the top layer of soil, wipe down the sides and the lid, and put some fresh soil in. That way you don't mess up your plants.

[crossless]

My snails enjoy sweet fruits, basil, rucola, sweet potato, courgette, fish food flakes, potato, carrot, peas & beans and loads of other stuff that I cant remember hard vegetables have to be sliced with peeler knife so easier to eat.

[101100101111]

My snail's favourites are homegrown lettuce (not iceberg though, this doesn't provide any nutrients to speak of), basil leaves, pumpkin seeds, courgette, cucumber, cabbage, sometimes tomato, kiwi or pepper, as well as one of their new favourites; cherries.

[raven]

my snails wioll only eat iceburg lettuce, cucumber and occasionally tomato lol. Mine all seem healthy and active so maybe offer these things? I think they find the lettuce easiest to eat because of it being leafy and quite thin. They enjoy climbing on the huge leaves and then munching there way down lol.

[lee2211]

Yes, but the thing is Cucumber and Iceberg Lettuce hold effectively no nutrional value, try them with things like Romaine Lettuce, Sweet potato, courgette, marrow, mango and things like that.
Hold off the cucmber for about a week, and keep putting in the same foods over and over again untill they eat it, then change and give something else different. Then go back to cucumber one day, and do the ones you tried first again, he will eat it then, because he recognises the familiar smell.

[raven]

oh i didnt know about the nutritional value of lettuce. I will try diff foods

Hope your snail starts eating diff foods. I think they get into a routine and refuse everything else.

[MLO]

So far I've tried a bit of boiled egg...white and yolk...bananas, apple and a bit of softened dog food kibble. There's a grass plant already growing in the enclosure, plus a few seedlings of basil and parsley.

I don't think they've eaten any of it yet...I've had to change the bananas and dog food already...they got moldy pretty fast.

Do you guys put the snails directly on the food?

[pleurdonteisabella]

They will make there own way to the food. Mine love sweet potato and passion fruit.

They also like bonio dog biscuits

[crossless]

Snails use their sense of smell o find food. Dry food need to be soaked before giving. Basil is great hit but I don't have enough money to buy it so everyone would have full belly with it.

[101100101111]

Crossless, i don't know if you can get these where you are but for basil we buy these 'living salad' pots from the supermarket, it means you can have fresh basil/lettuce etc. without having to grow them from seeds but they keep growing so you have a near constant supply, they are cheap as well so if you kill them then you can always just buy another!!

[MLO]

Still no eating of alternative foods .
I do wet the dog food before putting it in the enclosure, they're just not eating it.

Today I rubbed the slices of plum with cucumber before putting them back in the enclosure. I also put one small slice of cucumber back in, as they haven't eaten (from what I can tell) in five days or more.

Maybe their nutritional needs or eating habits are different because they're native to the area?

[101100101111]

you could try getting some other types of lettuce other than iceberg, as this is thin and as it is leaves it is easy for them to eat, mine really like it and will eat about 3 or 4 large leaves a night.

[lee2211]

Don't feed them cucumber, just stop feeding it all together. They can go ages with out eating, and if they get too hungry they'll eat what you're giving them.

Soak the dog biscuits for 10 minutes in boiling hot water, mash them up and mix with fish flakes.
Give them things like Romaine lettuce, marrow, peppers, anything. Just don't give them cucumber.

[crossless]

Hmmh.. You could try to feed them different types of leaves some herbs that don't have insecticides in them. Then mix favorite herbs in food mash etc.. Easiest is just let them starve a while. I know it sounds harsh, but it's best for them. They will eat when they are really hungry. I been there too, but you need to be just harsh and change food after they been eating them little at least. Now days my snails try everything. They were first really picky because poor diet in pet shop.

[lee2211]

Yes Crossless, it may sound harsh like you say.

But I'd rather they go hungry and they then have a good diet, become a healthy happy, well growing long lived snail, because it had a great diet, tried everything, than it becomes small, not growing, picky, unhealthy and has a extreme lack of nutrients to the point where it dies of malnutrition.

[MLO]

I'll take the cucumber out and try marrow and pepper. I haven't tried romaine, I'll try that and arugula...

I haven't tried iceberg lettuce...I've been using kale and spinach when I have it. I tried leaves early on and it was a no go...

[lee2211]

Don't feed to much spinach, it's high in oxalates and can stop the intake of calcium.
Iceberg isn't much better really, pretty low in nutrients, romaine is better, and my snails like it more.

Just put in two things at a time, keep putting those two things in untill they start to eat them, and once they start to eat them take them out and put two new things in. Keep doing this untill they start to eat more, and then keeping swapping back to the different things you tried.
Or make a menu, (I do that) so like Monday = Pepper+Romaine+Sweet potato, Tuesday = Marrow+Kale+Courgette and then once a week make a mix, it'll contain lots of vitamins and nutrients that'll give your little friend a boost

[crossless]

Rhubarb one food too that should not be given too much oxalates..

You could try to give them some vegetable/fruit bady foods too puree is really lovely for snails when they don't need to rasp much.

Or if you are in really bad trouble. Boiled vegetables are softer and smells stronger so it maybe would make them more interested on food. I think it's ok use boiled vegetables for while so you can get them at least eating something healthier. I think boiled food is sometimes great boost for tring snails to get bigger appetite. When you get them eat boiled vegetables you could start to repay boiled vegetables with raw ones.

[lee2211]

That's a good idea, 'cause they'll get used to the smell wont they and then when you put the raw stuff in the tank they'll smell it, eat it and realise it has lots of yummy nutrients

[MLO]

This morning I tried hand feeding the adult snail (one baby crawled away before I could re-capture him and the other was hiding). I moistened my hand, and spread a little egg yolk on it...then took turns putting tomato, then arugula in front of it.

He ignored everything, rasped my palm and pooped on it. All brown, so it's probably been eating the substrate. . Kinda funny he pooped in my hand though. Also, I think I could see its heart beating through its shell at a certain angle...but I'm not sure it was its heart.

At least it let me wipe a sticky clump of mud away from the base of its eye stalk without withdrawing.

I've got fresh tomato and arugula in there now with a little boiled egg yolk and peanut butter. I'll keep serving those until they're eating. Plus I'm going to pick up some fish flakes tomorrow to mix with softened dog food.

[lee2211]

Where did you find out they could eat eggs and peanut butter?