Snails and newts, pt II, as a food source...

[brian]

Anyone have experience using small aquarium snails as a food source for newts. My tropical tank runneth over with then and I'm wondering if some of the smallest "bite-sized" snails might be a potential food source. Can small shells be digested without causing some type of blockage? I've used slugs with some success, but the shells have me nervous...

 

[nate]

Hi Brian, I've never used snails for feeding, but I've caught several T. granulosa and neotenic Dicamptodon which were full of them. You could feel the shells through the body when holding them. They passed all of the shells (as far as I could tell) whole within a couple weeks.

 

[rancidevilpingu]

woodlice are good food, and earthworms. dont like the sound of givng newts snails.

 

[ralf]

Hi Brian,
my P. waltl frequently "shake" the bigger snails out their shell if and when they can get a hold of the softer parts. They will just eat the snail's soft parts and leave the shell. Lead to a severe deficit of snails in my P. waltl tanks (I like to have them in all of my aquatic setups) and took me quite some time to find out where that clicking/rattling noise came from down in my basement.

Ralf

 

[rob]

I had a similar time. My P. Waltl would suck them out of their shell as soon as they were large enough to be a meal.

I think snails would make a good food source for salamanders, provided they are small enough or you deshell them. I've been trying to find a good terrestrial snail to feed to the ambystoma that I'm going to be working with.