Snails

[Nick D.]

Does anyone breed snails for feeders? If so, what kind and where do you get them, as well as care for them would be great, thanks

 

[Dimidiata]

feeders foooor????

 

[Nick D.]

Bts. Sorry ha, i guess that was pretty important

 

[marauderhex]

Apparently, they are super easy to breed. Just set up a 5 gallon aquarium and get some from petco/petsmart/etc.

 

[Dimidiata]

What kinda snails, i breed for my loaches who love them. Apple snails get rather large but at certain stages are a good meal size. Nerite and Assassins are out of the question, Pond snails and Rams Horns are a smaller thumb nail sized snail. They breed super fast and are pests for most. Between the 2 of them Pond snails are a softer shell. However, rams get just a bit bigger with more meat.

To breed either rams horn or Pond snail, buy the crappiest looking plant from the crappiest looking tank at a fish store. Yup. Almost guaranteed to have snails or eggs. Feeding is simple, spinach and zuchini. You need to be sure your waters PH is above 7 though and that your tank is planted enough to keep the ammonia down.

 

[Fatal_S]

BTS can eat just about any kind of snail, including trumpets (which have very hard shells). Aquatic snails from a clean tank are great, as are land snails (detox wild snails for several weeks before feeding).

 

[Nick D.]

Alright, thanks all. No bts yet, but it doesnt hurt to look into prospective food items.

 

[marauderhex]

As far as food items goes, I recommend supplementing the normal meal with this: I call it crunchies, since it looks like grapenuts to me.

 

[Nick D.]

I may very well, i saw that in a previous post of yours

 

[marauderhex]

Awesome. Also, be sure to check out the forums on bluetongueskinks.net, it's one of the best online resources out there for info on blueys.

 

[Nick D.]

I have, it's awesome and the care sheet is very detailed.There is the discrepency of cat and dog food though; the care sheet said to feed cat food and sparingly, while moderators and knowledgable members on the forums said dog food, an that it makes a good portion of the diet. A little confusing, but i ill just go with high quality dog food with some live feeders, and perhaps some of those canned feeders as the meat portion, i guess.

 

[marauderhex]

I recommend the Wilderness brand by Blue Buffalo. It's a blue can with a wolf on the label.

 

[Fatal_S]

The caresheet was compiled many years ago. Some parts have been proven wrong, and some parts just need an update.

For example, the caresheet (and forums in the past) recommended cooked chicken as a good staple food. I used a lot of cooked chicken in my early meals. Sadly, chicken has a terrible calcium ratio, and since supplements were nay-say'd at the time, my skinks developed MBD. We learned, and our knowledge grew. BTS.net is an always-learning group, which I love.

As for cat-food/dog-food, the reason dog food is now recommended is because it's more of an omnivore diet already (cats are carnivores, dogs and BTS omnivores). Also, cat food has added taurine (cats need it added, other animals make it themselves). It's unknown if too much taurine could hurt anything, but it's something we're cautious about.

 

[Nick D.]

BTS.net is awesome. The care sheet may be aged a bit, but it is the most detailed care sheet ive ever seen, for any animal. I will definitly have to join BTS.net in the near future.

The same question continues to bug me, and ive posted it here and saw it on the BTS forum; how do animals in the wild get the proper calcium and other minerals. I was told wild bugs were naturally gutloaded, perhaps but this still probably isnt sufficient. And with omnivores it's different still. Strange how wild animals seem to have no problems with mbd