New food item

[GarterGuy]

Hello all,
Today I tried something out with my T.s.concinnus, I gave him/her (still working on this one!!!!!) a snail. I've seen pics of garters eating slugs before, so I thought I'd give it a try. I have these snails that I feed to my Bluetongue Skink...they're made by ZooMed and sold as Can'O Snails. They're captive raised, "cooked" and deshelled snails for feeding reptiles and such. I actually by a can of them and then freeze them so they last longer. Anyways, my T.s.concinnus took it right off the bat with out any worries...of course this was Petra, the same snake that was trying to eat silicon! So yeh, you might want to give them a try with your snakes. Figure the more variety the better, and since they're a commercially produced product, there's no worries about parasites or anything.
Roy

[mikm]

Interesting that you mention that Roy as while browsing through the pet store yesterday I was looking at that and other foods like it and wondering ...

thanks :D
marian

[drache]

Yeah, thanks, I'll try them.

A couple of years ago we had a bunch of little slugs on a carved pumpkin outside and I tried offering them to a snake - no interest

[adamanteus]

I've used slugs in the past. I reared some baby Dekays snakes (Storeria dekayii) on tiny slugs the size of match heads, it worked out well. I've fed them to Garters and to Slow Worms (Anguis fragilis) too. The preferred type seem to be those little beige coloured ones...no idea of a latin name, or common name for that matter! I didn't know you could buy such things from a shop though.

[Thamnophis]

My T. s. sirtalis ate them (living ones) too last year. Caught them in our garden. Maybe I will try the this year on the onter species. I do not know the canned type.

[ssssnakeluvr]

most of my garters take slugs just fine. Have fed slugs for years when I have been able tofind them.

[adamanteus]

What kind of slugs? All sorts, or just the little beige ones?

[ssssnakeluvr]

the only ones I can find in my area are gray ones...haven't seen any others....

[adamanteus]

Right. In my garden I have some big black ones, about the size of a small family car!! Nothing seems to eat them!

[ssssnakeluvr]

wow..big ones!!! While in the army I was stationed in Germany. There were some big brown slugs with yellow bellies over there...several we found were close to 6 inches long!!!!!!

[adamanteus]

They're disgusting creatures, don't you think? We get those brown ones here too....they look like they have an orange/yellow fringe.

[ssssnakeluvr]

thats the ones!!! I don't think they are disgusting....getting slimes by them is nasty, but I think of them as snails without shells...I am into all the creepy crawlies no one else likes....:D

[Stefan-A]

Limax cinereo***** - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limax_cinereo*****)

This is our biggest slug, but I think that it might be protected or poisonous (or both).

edit: dear moderators, it is now blocking the scientific name of a species of slug of the genus Limax. :D

[adamanteus]

I'm okay with most things, but giant slugs...pointless!

[adamanteus]

Limax cinereo***** - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limax_cinereo*****)

This is our biggest slug, but I think that it might be protected or poisonous (or both).

edit: dear moderators, it is now blocking the scientific name of a species of slug of the genus Limax. :D

Followed the link but couldn't find a picture?

[Stefan-A]

Followed the link but couldn't find a picture?
Well, the problem is that the later part of the scientific name is very similar to a certain racial slur, and gets blocked by the forum's software. :D Just look for "Limax c.i.n.e.r.e.o.n.i.g.e.r".

[adamanteus]

Okay. I'll have another look!

[adamanteus]

Found the picture, Stefan...mmmm lovely, thanks for that!!:D

[drache]

While we're on the subject:
Have you ever seen a Banana Slug?
They're common in the Santa Cruz Mountains and the colour is freaky

[adamanteus]

I've seen pictures, but never a real one. Maybe we should open a slug forum. But if we do, I'm not joining!!

[Gyre]

I'm not bothered by anything little, slimy or crunchy, lol, but my poor gandfather stepped, (barefoot) on a HUGE leopard slug..
http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:pKR9rIOSPXVk7M:www.amonline.net.au/invertebrates/mal/images/limax.jpg

It says they only grow to four inches, but i see a lot that are at least six, six and half.. What makes this story amazingly rich, is that my grampa couldn't look at earthworms and not shudder... It was so funny. :p

The leopard slug mating ritual is also pretty cool.. Slug acrobatics. :D

[adamanteus]

I once read somewhere that Australia has a venomous slug! What's the point of that?

"Oh no! It's a venomous slug! Run away, tomorrow!"

[ClosedCasket88]

yes my garters have eaten slugs, the beigh ones b4 , butsometiems they will excrete soo much slime the graters will toos it up and skitz out in to ther den or something. io tried the caned snails and theywouldnt take them,my male eastern likes when i pull out the tongs so i would give him a few chunks of worms then fter like 3 i would slip in some slugs some of them he would spit out and some of them he would eat. besides that the snails in a can never had to much succes, but fresh slugs i find outside seem to gety eaten occasionaly .
as a defense the slugs will stiffen all up and become rather thick making it impossible for yoursnake to eat it but if you grab some small guys , mostly the tanish beigh colored ones they usualy work well.

[adamanteus]

Yes Ryan, that's what I have found. The tan/beige ones are the only ones that seem palatable to snakes.

[GarterGuy]

I once read somewhere that Australia has a venomous slug! What's the point of that?

"Oh no! It's a venomous slug! Run away, tomorrow!"

It's Australia.......don't they have to have a venomous everything!:eek:

[Thamnophis]

That venomous slug from Australia... wouldn't that be a sea-slug?

[adamanteus]

That venomous slug from Australia... wouldn't that be a sea-slug?

I really don't know, Fons. I read it somewhere years ago, and just thought "What? Where's the point in that?"

[Thamnophis]

I can imagine that a (sea)snail that catches other animals to eat is venomous.
But when a landsnail is venomous it might protect him/her from being eaten because he doesn't taste that good.
Like Bufo marinus...

[adamanteus]

I was thinking of the distinction between venomous and poisonous. Poisonous, bad to eat....venomous, bad to get bitten or stung by!

[KITKAT]

There's also a dif between poisonous and toxic.

Poisonous = life threatening

Toxic = makes you nice and sick

:eek:

[abcat1993]

I did a Google search and came up with

"toxin - any substance that can cause harm
poison - a toxin that causes its effect through ingestion or absorbtion
venom - a toxin that causes its effect through administration via a
specialised delivery system"

[KITKAT]

I did a Google search and came up with

"toxin - any substance that can cause harm
poison - a toxin that causes its effect through ingestion or absorbtion
venom - a toxin that causes its effect through administration via a
specialised delivery system"

Interesting. A vet once told me that Buckeyes (the nut from the Buckeye tree) were toxic to dogs, but not poisonous.

[abcat1993]

Well the site wasn't top-knotch, but my vet said the same thing with grapes.

[Thamnophis]

My thoughts about it...

Toxic = dangerous

Venemous = producing some kind of venom, but doesn´t have to be dangerous

Poisenous = possesses venom, but doesn´t have to be dangerous

[Stefan-A]

I'd use the wikipedia definition for now.

"Generally, a venom is defined as a biologic toxin that is injected to cause its effect while a poison is a biologic toxin which is absorbed through epithelial (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epithelial) linings (either of the gut or through the skin)."

"poison (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison) (as used in most zoology and medicine texts)"

[adamanteus]

Yeah, I'm with Stefan...
Poison, you eat it (or absorb it.)
Venom, it's injected.

[drache]

I had to look it up at last

according Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary they're successively more specific:

poison
Any substance taken into the body by ingestion, inhalation, injection, or absorption that interferes with normal physioligical functions. Virtually any substance can be poisonous if consumed in sufficient quantity. etc

toxin
A poisonous substance of animal or plant origin

venom
A poison secreted by some animals, such as insects, spiders, or snakes, and transmitted by bites or stings

learned something again

[Thamnophis]

The explanation from Rhea sounds right to me.