What to feed/not to feed your snails

[ness]

Please bare with me on this, I will be collating information on this section into this post, to include.....
* many of the foods that owners have found that their snails will eat (to give people fresh feeding ideas)
* Food to avoid
* Links to snail mix recipes and to sellers (these are not endorsed by PetSnails and we cannot vouch for their quality).

[ness]

Please note this is work in progress and will be added to as i go through the threads in the section.
Food to feed your snails
As collated from around the section, here is a list of common food to feed your snails.

Algae Flakes (well soaked untill thoroughly mushy - this can take hours - or at least it does with mine!)
Apple
Artichoke
Banana
Basil
Beans
Blueberries (cut in half so snails can get to the juicy insides)
Butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata)
Cabbage
Carrot (peelings are good, sometimes preferred)
Cauliflower
Celeriac (root celery)
Cherry
Clover
Courgette
Cress
Cucumber (a snaily favourite but has little nutritional value)
Dandelion Leaves
Dog Biscuits (some use Boneo brand - soak thoroughly and mash)
Fish Food Flakes (e.g. Goldfish Flakes - misted with water and served on top of their other food is good)
Leafy vegetables/salad in general - darker greens generally equates to better nutrition.
Lettuce (though people have found that snails are not keen on Iceburg Lettuce. Romaine is good to try)
Kale (Curly Kale has a high caclium content)
Kiwi
Mango
Marrow
Mushrooms
Nettle
Passion Fruit
Peach
Peas
Pears (ripe)
Pepper
Plantains (Musa paradisiaca - banana-like fruit) (when very ripe - totally black and mushy)
Plum
Potato (peelings are good to use)
Pumpkin seeds
Raisins
Spirulina
Strawberries
Sweetcorn
Sweet Potato
Tangerine
Tomato
Turnip
Watermelon

The following are wild plants and/or plants often grown in gardens. If you cannot positively identify it then it's best to leave it alone. Also, for nature conservation, you need to be certain that it is ok to pick certain plants. Most snail keepers will NOT have tried these plants with their snails, therefore PetSnails cannot recommend them.................
yarrow, henbane, thornapple, alyssum, aster, carnation, mums, hollyhock, larkspur, lily, nasturtium, pansy, petunia, phlox, sweet-pea, zinnia, rose, chive, leek, elder, camomile, bindweed, sorrel, radish, mulberry, mountain ash, magnolia, California boxwood, hibiscus, rape, nightshade berries, thistle, Plantains (ribwort and broadleaf plantains: Plantago lanceolata ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantago_lanceolata )and Plantago major ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantago_major )


All foods have their merits and a varied diet is best, but it's worth noting that Algae flakes, fish food and sweet potato are especially high in nutrients.

Calcium.
This is essential to add to your snail's diet, for proper bodily function, shell growth and for the proper development of eggs and embryos.
Please see the following thread for suggested sources of calcium.
petsnails.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=feeding&action=display&thread=8421

Food safety for your snails: Some folk choose to give their snails mainly home-grown or organicially produced vegetables to avoid pesticides, and some folk simply buy standard produce and wash it well. These are points that you may wish to consider when choosing food for your snails.
Suggested ideas for providing fresh produce is to buy living plants and place them in the tank, or to plant seeds in there.
Fussy eaters - a useful thread for tips on getting fussy/picky snails to try new food petsnails.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=feeding&action=display&thread=9161&page=1
Snails fed on a wide variety as hatchlings are not likely to be so fussy later.

Food to avoid - may be deadly
Onion and members of the Onion family
Salty food
Processed starch such as pasta, bread etc (the reason is that these foods may expand within the gut, causing a blockage, water retention, bloating and often death).

Caution required
Celery, Leek unsure - caution advised petsnails.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=feeding&action=display&thread=2885
Parsley, Spinach and Rhubarb(they're high in oxalates and can interfere with the intake of calcium, however it shouldn't harm to give it on odd occasions)
Grapefruit, Pomelo, Lime & Lemon - caution required due to the high citrus acid content
Avocado - unsure about his. People have given this to their snails without any noticeable problems, however it is poisonous to many animals ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado#Toxicity_to_animals )

Oxilate content - www.lowoxalate.info/recipes.html Scroll down to Food Lists to see PDF files to download - link provided by Coyote.

Snail Mixes
Here is Paul's recipe and guide: www.petsnails.co.uk/documents/snail_mix.html
Basically you can vary the ingredients.
Commonly used ingredients include Pumpkin seeds, Sunflower seeds, Hemp seeds Algae flakes, Fish food flakes
Info thread - petsnails.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=feeding&action=display&thread=3011

[muddydragon]

i think it would be wise to add that fishflakes and algalflakes should be soaked first.
also for foods they will eat mine wil eat
ribwort plantian (this can cause some confusion i'll clarify when i have more time)
'normal' potato and carrot peelings - for some reason being peeling makes them more tempting, also useful as you can give dinner preparation left overs (after washing)
also i've noticed the more foods they are introduced to as babies seems to make them more willing to eat more varied foods as adults (without having to remove other 'favourites'
they are also more willing to try other foods as babies.

[cherryblossom]

very informative thread for those of us who are just learning about snail care. Thank you.

[ness]

Thank you Muddy and Cherry, I've updated as suggested, but it's not complete as I've not been through all of the threads, and no doubt I'll think of things myself too.

[aerliss]

Great work ness! Is this stickied? I think it needs stickying.

Can I throw a few in?
Curly Kale is absolutely gobbled up by my younger snails and it is reasonably high in calcium (as well as a lot of other nutrients).

[ness]

Thanks Aerliss, I'll modify it to include your kale

[katatsumuri]

I have been feeding this food to my snails sense I found them. It is highly nutritional, and my snails just love it. It is the only food they come running for. It is a dry food, I just add a little water to it as I feed it to them. And the best part is it is only about $3 for 13oz.

[Bumblebee]

Nice list, but id just like to add that ive seen that parsley is very high in oxalates, in fact, its alot higher than the spinach;

www.guinealynx.info/diet_oxalic.html

[muddydragon]

furthur elaboration on the 'plantain'
the leaves of ribwort and broadleaf plantains (espcially broad-leaf, ribwort not so much) are a good free food source (shouldn't be exclusive food though) they're a weed and grow all over the place, often in wet areas.
they are easy to identify and i'm sure you'll all recognise them already if not by name: Plantago lanceolata ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantago_lanceolata )and Plantago major ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantago_major )

the reason i want to specify is there is a bannana type thing called a plantain, i don't mean that, however i have heard snails happily eat these fruits.

keep up the good work, it will be brilliant to have a really good food list!

[morningcoffee]

I also recommend:

Blueberries (cut in half so snails can get to the juicy insides)
Butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata)
Mango
Plantains (Musa paradisiaca) (when very ripe - totally black and mushy)
Watermelon


My snails are also very fond of a small amount of raw bacon now and then. It usually gets eaten very quickly.

Also, I've recently been using a spirulina and limestone flour mix powder that Dusk sells on eBay and her website. My young and baby margies absolutely LOVE this and will completely devour it when they're given a bowl of it.

[lee2211]

Aug 17, 2010 16:02:54 GMT morningcoffee said:

I also recommend:

Blueberries (cut in half so snails can get to the juicy insides)
Butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata)
Mango
Plantains (Musa paradisiaca) (when very ripe - totally black and mushy)
Watermelon


My snails are also very fond of a small amount of raw bacon now and then. It usually gets eaten very quickly.

Also, I've recently been using a spirulina and limestone flour mix powder that Dusk sells on eBay and her website. My young and baby margies absolutely LOVE this and will completely devour it when they're given a bowl of it.

I second this! My snails love spirulina and I give it to my ill ones sometimes and they adore it and it certainly perks them up!

When wet it does go a curiously green colour though...

[monkeyboy]

Well my snails love
Iceburg lettuce
cucumber
pear
apple
bannana
courgette
cherry
tomatoes
tangerines
raisons
wet dog biscuits

[lee2211]

Aug 19, 2010 15:35:17 GMT monkeyboy said:

Well my snails love
Iceburg lettuce
cucumber
pear
apple
bannana
courgette
cherry
tomatoes
tangerines
raisons
wet dog biscuits

Just remember that Iceburg lettuce doesn't have much nutrition compared to other types.

[monkeyboy]

I know, he does get rocket aswell, but he prefers a good munch on the iceburg

[lee2211]

I think it also should be included that you shouldn't always feed your snails their "favourite" as they'll become fussy.
Also you don't neccesarily know it's their favourite, because they may eat a lot of it, but if it's not very nutritious like cucumber then they have to eat a lot of it compared to more nutritous things like sweet potato.

[crossless]

From not to give list: grapefruit, pomelo, lime & lemon all those are high on citrus acid and I would not give to animals avocado it's dead to animals and can cause heart attact I would not give it to my snails. Here's more about avocado en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado#Toxicity_to_animals

Darker salads are better to snails they contain more of chlorophyll. My snails go mad when they get rose hip puree. It's high on calsium they love it.

[lee2211]

But Dusk feeds her snails advocado and they're fine.
It's just feeding in moderation.
I read a thread the other day where you said the same and Dusk said that her snails were fine and really liked advocado.

In my experiance snails know what they can and can't eat and don't tend to go anywhere near things that are poisenous.

Like cucumber, mine tend to go for the inside and usually leave a little ring when they are younger, but as they get older they eat the outside to. I did some research and found out there are minute traces of arsenic in the skin of a cucumber. Not enough to affect humans at all, but obviously enough to do damage to a baby snail.

[aerliss]

Lee, mine do exactly the same. Good to know about the arsenic (nice bit of research). I think I'll be leaving the skin out of my seed mashes from now on, when I mix them for sickly/baby snails.

I also give mine avocado from time to time. They're not much interested in it though.

[coyote]

Mine have never shown any interest in avocado. But that was a very interesting article about avocado toxicity to so many species and some of the controversy about feeding it to cats and dogs.

When it comes to my snails, I always err on the side of caution. I would rather not take any risks.

[red608]

I could be wrong but I thought it wasn't so much that the snails aren't keen on Iceburg lettuce as it is just that Romaine has far more nutrients for them making it the better choice in retrospect.

Also collard greens and swiss chard are good leafy greens to try =]

[muddydragon]

just thought i'ld add for lettuce that the darker green the leeves the better it is for them, you can find some nice 'open type structure' deep green lettuces of various sorts which my snails love, there's a particular one, i'll see if i can find the sort.
growing lettuce variety packs either from seed or ready started packs from the shop can be brilliant, nice variety of different lettuces, you know where they've come from and its alot lot cheaper and fun too! when i was working down in london i pretty much filled the tiny garden with pots of lettuces and i didn't have to buy any lettuce again until i moved back home. deffinatly worth it i have alot of snails!

[crossless]

Yes well about this thing "snails knows food when it's dangerous" to it. I know one person that gave to snails rhubarb leaves she said why they are on not to give list when snails seem to healthy, but I heard rhubarb leaves have more oxalic acid than stems and even humans can't eat rhubarb without drinking loads of milk after words so imagen what it does to small snail. And in nature animals eat things that are not healthy if there's nothing else to eat and so in terrarium if they don't have any chance to choose.

[aerliss]

Aug 24, 2010 15:14:51 GMT crossless said:

even humans can't eat rhubarb without drinking loads of milk after words

Never heard that before... and having grown rhubarb for years, eating it fresh out of the garden, I can say I've never had to consume a lot of milk afterwards.

*looks up rhubarb toxicity information*

Aha. Rhubarb affects the mucus membranes in humans, causing them to produce less mucus. I suppose if you ate a ridiculous amount of rhubarb (I'm talking a few kilos) then you might a glass of milk after, as dairy aids the body's production of mucus.

Anything that affects the way our bodies regulate mucus production might also affect mollusc mucus... so feed with caution.

[lee2211]

Aug 17, 2010 4:22:57 GMT katatsumuri said:

I have been feeding this food to my snails sense I found them. It is highly nutritional, and my snails just love it. It is the only food they come running for. It is a dry food, I just add a little water to it as I feed it to them. And the best part is it is only about $3 for 13oz.

You're not feeding them this all the time are you?

Also Crossless, if it was true that snails will eat anything when there's nothing else around then there'd be less in the wild.
The amount of time a snail in the wild will be without food is probably countless, and I doubt that evolution would have left them without an instinct to tell what's bad for them.

Fair enough, if it's something they probably wouldn't normally encounter then maybe they wont know. But I wouldn't underestimate them.

I'm not saying it's an excuse to chuck in whatever you've got to see if it's OK to eat, but I think that they know within reason what is good and what is bad for them.