Snails?

Tygerr

Avid Member
I've heard that chameleons might eat snails, and that if they did they would provide a good source of calcium (since the shells are almost pure calcium).

Has anyone ever used snails as a feeder? And if so, how do you go about gutloading them? Is there any information about what sort of nutritional values they provide?
 
Most resources will advise you to stay away from snails. While you are correct they should provide a different set of nutritional vitamins and minerals, they often carry very high parasite levels. It seems not worth the risk involved.
 
I still think its a bad idea. They could easily pick something up in the culturing. The bad part is that many of the lifecycles of snail parasites can have intermediate hosts. I don't know of many but there are some parasites of humans can pick up. A parasitite of the Ramshorn Snail for instance is causing frogs in the US to have multiple limbs. I think when it comes to poikiltherms I would just not risk it.
 
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