something to eat snails?

J

joey

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
42
I have been keeping, (and breeding not surprisingly ) giant african land snails for a few years now and one of the disadvantages , are the number of babies that i have.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to rehome the young, and i really cant kill the babies. I normally get rid of the eggs, to avoid being over run.

So my question... yes there is a point to my rambling.....does anyone have any suggestions of what i could keep that I could feed on snails. This would seem to me to be a solution. And the chance of a new pet:}

I am interested in all suggestions and anyone elses experiences of keeping ... whatever???


thank you
joanna
 
MEXICOYA415

MEXICOYA415

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
588
I have no experience in this but I think certain smaller snakes wil eat snails, such as gardner snakes.
 
P

psionix

Arachnobaron
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Sep 21, 2005
Messages
325
wolf snails and flatworms will eat them, not much else will besides some birds, etc..

here's a decent link


@MEXICOYA415
(BTW, it's Garter snake, not Gardner snake)
 
Malkavian

Malkavian

Arachnolord
Old Timer
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Feb 12, 2004
Messages
615
find a monitor or tegu owner, I'm sure they'll be in your debt permenantly!

Also recall reading that blue tongues and shingleback skinks are partial to a bit of snail.
 
G

Grim91Z

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
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Jul 12, 2006
Messages
68
I'm sure many reptiles will eat them. Buy a young Monitor and feed them to it. Just be prepared to have a 7 foot lizard in your near future. ;)
 
G

Ganoderma

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
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Jan 24, 2006
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467
thats ok as a supplement, but snails are nto staples in monitor diets. i think tegus would be better but again, not 100% snail.
 
Nick_schembri

Nick_schembri

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
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Apr 1, 2005
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485
snails form a large part of the blue tongued skink's diet in the wild...mine loves them...and....theyre beautiful and ideal pet lizards
 
dGr8-1

dGr8-1

Arachnoknight
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Jun 19, 2006
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228
I think a pet turtle would be nice.
A snapping turtle sound cool too.
 
TheDarkFinder

TheDarkFinder

Arachnoangel
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923
By far the best snail eaters in the world are Tetraodon sp. namely
Tetraodon schoutedeni
Tetraodon miurus
You could not produce enough snails for these guys.
Get a 30 gallon with good filter and 4-5. They do like to live in groups.

Had a dutch aquarium that was over run with snails, over 700.. Two days with two T. miurus and you could not find a snail. And they are really cool. They cannot live in a community tank, they have to have a Genus tank, you can have different species.
 
G

Gigas

Arachnoprince
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Apr 6, 2006
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1,976
Varanus exanthematicus snails make up a very big part of this animals natural diet, they love them
 
M

mikeythefireman

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 15, 2006
Messages
224
OldHag said:
My duck LOVES snails!! :D Get a Duck!
Click to expand...

That's what I was gonna say.

Ducks love 'em. Only problem is getting their bills clean enough to eat feed later.:D It's like a dog with peanut butter.:D
 
B

Barbedwirecat

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
185
Um.....escargot? Yum Yum Garlic and olive oil simmered in a pan....
Sorry I have weird eating habits.

I mean if your gonna feed them to something anyway.....

I went on a trip to Africa in the Tanzania area and remember these guys quite vividly. And I am pretty sure they were part of the local diet so.....maybe you would have corner of ze frech cuisine market in your area. I personally love it.


PSt...btw they are kinda illegal in the US I'm not sure about other countries, I do see you are from England.........

The giant African snail is also a vector of Angiostrongylus cantonensis (Nematoda; Protostrongylidae) or "Rat Lungworm", the roundworm responsible for eosinophilic meningo-encephalitis in humans and the spread of the disease has been correlated with the spread of the snail.

i think this is why they are illegal.

HUMAN HEALTH RISK
Giant African Snails are carriers of the rat parasite, Angiostrongylus cantonensis. This parasite can be contracted by ingesting improperly cooked snail meat or by handling live snails and transferring snail mucus to the human mucus membranes such as those in the eyes, nose, and mouth.

If you have a Giant African Land Snail, PLEASE DO NOT RELEASE IT OUTSIDE OR GIVE IT AWAY.

Be VERY VERY CAREFUL. seriously I don't know what these would do to a reptile if they get this parasite....
 
S

sarah1031

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 1, 2006
Messages
30
The reason for them being illegal here is how fast they reproduce. They are hermaphrodites and can lay hundred of eggs after just mating once. Then you have thousands of giant snails eating every plant they can get too. They also don't have any natural predators here. America is also starting to ban many species of aquatic snails now for the same reasons. Like the Pomacea canaliculata problem in Flordia going on right now. http://www.iswgfla.org/Channeled applesnails.htm
Giant African Land Snails arn't illegal in most of europe though, and many people keep them as pets.

Anyway... If you don't want to actually feed them to anything or buy another animal to feed them to then there are probably people who would want to take them off you hands at http://petsnails.proboards3.com/

I still say turtles though...
 
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