What to feed/not to feed your snails

[bobbiflower]

Do you cook the sweet potatoes and carrots??

[Bumblebee]

Well, you can cook it if you want (just dont add anything in the water, like salt, and make sure to let it cool off before serving), but most people tend to give their snails fresh veggies.

[crossless]

I would grate or slice them really thingly. You loose in cooking process some vitamins etc.

[coyote]

Raw foods are most nutritious.

[crossless]

I noticed that my tigersnail is picky when it comes to leaves. He will rather eat rotten courgette than fresh leaves. Or are they leaves just bitter tasting because after snow melted weeks ago here haven't been any rainy days?

Interesting discovery I'll be checking on hes taste preferences on this summer and hes siblings when I get a friend for Smirnoff home safely someday. My fulicas liked all leaves even when they were tiny, this species not seem to yet like them.

[coyote]

Interesting observation. Snails that normally eat decomposing vegetation in the wild would prefer rotten food over fresh. Some snails are omnivores, but others are primarily scavengers of decomposing plant material and shun fresh foliage and vegetables if given the choice.

[crossless]

My snail loves salmon, (rarely given) boiled egg yolk and new favorite is nektarine.

[crossless]

Hi. I thought I could give to my snail new food Carambola. But I found out that it has oxalates in it so I'm kind of confuced where I can find out how much it contains it?! I always make research before giving anything new to snails.

Because of these risks en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carambola#Risks I think it should be added in don't give or give it with moderation group if we don't find more info how much oxalates it has.

[coyote]

Try doing a search for carambola oxalate content.

[crossless]

I'll try. I tasted it and fruit should be ripe and it's so sour that I have to let it ripe more so I can eat it some how..

I found out just that you can polish metal or clean textiles with it's juice. Hrr.. I think I'll still skip feeding it to my snail.

[jessicamartin]

Mine seem to love cucumber the most, as with a lot of snails and as their previous owner only ever fed them this, I'm finding it a bit difficult to wean them onto other foods.
The last few days I've been making them little picnics of romaine lettace, banana, sweetcorn and less cucumber. I put them all near their food, further away from the cucumber, but they just seem to push past anything else and go straight to the cucumber and only have little nibbles on everything else.

Any ideas on how how I could wean them onto everything else?

[coyote]

Stop the cucumber for several days. That's the only way to get the snails to eat other foods. The snails may not eat anything for a day or two but that will not hurt them. In the wild they do not need to eat every day. Soon enough they will begin accepting other foods.

Because snails love cucumber so much, I rarely give any to mine, to make sure they will accept a wider range of foods.

[jessicamartin]

thank you!
I will begin doing that tomorrow

[snailarious]

I feed my snail lemon and orange in small amounts, thoroughly washed and with some of the juice squeezed out of it. I might stop because the snail never eats more than a third of it but I don't see how it's particularly harmful as long as alternatives are offered. Cornu Aspersum and similar species have been known to devastate lemon and lime orchards so they're obviously able to live off of it if necessary.

[coyote]

There is some controversy about offering citrus to snails. As you said, aspersas can wreak havoc in citrus groves, but at the same time they don't seem to like acidic fruit/veg all that much.

If your snail likes citrus I would say it's okay in limited amounts and not as the major portion of its diet. The more variety in the snail's diet, the better.

[coyote]

Afterthought: the radula is composed of chitin, and I don't know if acid would dissolve that over time. Something to consider.

[crossless]

I think sometimes animals live with any food they can eat even if it's harmful if in area isn't anything else to eat.. So we can't know how long they live with that kind of diet and I think when there's so many foods to offer why give harmful ones?

[foghog]

I wouldn't give them acidic fruits myself, its fine to give them citrus leaves and blooms though, and the snail itself actually emits a acidic mucus that it uses to dissolve limestone with to consume the calcium. you also notice a big difference in the shells of snails in those types of areas, and they eat other things besides just the citrus groves to surely.

[Amy]

Ive just read a post on here about food snails can eat, i had no idea snails could eat things like herbs and dog biscuits.. I try to vary my snails diets but am always to paranoid about making them poorley to give them anything unusual like that. Dose anyone know any unusual foods like dog biscuits that wornt harm them and they seem to like? Thanks

[coyote]

Any dried pet food, whether it's dog or cat food, should be soaked before offering to your snails. When I fed my cat kibble, I used to offer some to my snails once a week, and they enjoyed it. Now I offer a little bit of fish flakes once a week, which they seem to enjoy just as much.

Do not offer grains to your snails, though, because it can cause problems in their digestive tracts and cause death. I've heard that soaked bread and well-cooked millet are safe, but I've also heard that cooked pasta caused death, so I simply avoid all grains whether they are cooked or not, and focus on the fresh fruits and veggies instead.

[prowljazz]

VERY Helpful List!!!!

Couple of Questions though...

Any Beans that I should Avoid and shouldn't Raisins be soaked first as They Swell up?

Thanks for Sharing

[snailsmith]

Yes this list is great! I also have a question... If feeding snails sweetcorn, is from a can ok or does it have to be fresh? I have a tin of sweetcorn that says: salt<0.1g. Is this harmful?

Thanks

[coyote]

Sept 11, 2011 8:07:33 GMT prowljazz said:

Any Beans that I should Avoid and shouldn't Raisins be soaked first as They Swell up?

I would not offer beans, just to be on the safe side. Even though they are not starchy, soaking raisins couldn't hurt, to be on the safe side.

[coyote]

Sept 11, 2011 14:33:44 GMT snailsmith said:

If feeding snails sweetcorn, is from a can ok or does it have to be fresh? I have a tin of sweetcorn that says: salt<0.1g. Is this harmful?

I would rinse it off well before offering to the snails, and offer just a little bit.

[prowljazz]

Thanks Coyote....
I Have some Runner Beans from My Aunt's garden.... And if Snaily's don't like the Raisins, I Do.... ***Grin***