Fussy new blues

[Lisa]

Question about the snails: is it safe to feed our animals snails from the garden (or their descendants)? Mightn't they have parasites, etc.?

-- C

Wild bluetongues eat wild snails!
The only issue with them is to make sure they have been collected from somewhere that does not use pellets, baits or insecticides.

Here in Australia we are encouraged to make our backyards skink friendly so that they eat all the snails and slugs and grubs and then you don't need to use insecticides.

Although our animals are captive bred, their genetics are a long way from altered and feasting from nature's supermarket comes naturally to them. Their organs are designed to cope with the digesting of them.

A healthy captive animal with good husbandry and a varied diet can cope with an amount of parasites and bacteria in them, like most animals and also humans. And if you want to be extra sure you can have your animal wormed every couple of years.

[jasjmm27]

Ok Jo...I think you have been given long enough...it's PICTURE TIME!

[SailleSkinklover]

Celeste, I was told by my vet that yes, snails can carry parasites. I'm not sure what kinds, but I guess if you raise them in captivity, you can at least monitor them and get rid of the parasites after a few generations.

[Fatal_S]

Aquatic snails have been known to carry some parasite.. flatfish?? If you leave them on their own for a month though, the parasite dies off. Dunno how it works, just that it apparently does. Garden snails would probably be the same. The 3 day or 1 week period would be used to check for pesticides (if the snail lives it'll be clean) but it could still have other things. However I think our BTS are pretty much designed to handle that stuff, so the week waiting period should be just fine. Plenty of people offer garden snails with no problems so obviously there isn't much in a snail (aside from pesticides) that'll hurt our guys. A dewormer would be good though every year or so, just in case.

[Scotts1au]

Liver fluke, Shistosomas etc fun stuff. See the USDA have banned importation of aquatic snails due to these parasite host relationships. Heaps of stuff on it with a simple google.

Scott

[Leigh]

LUKE, I watched a docco yonks ago, and it went on about nematodes, they live in all sorts of funny places, you should of seen the the ones they microscoped from LETTICE( your story jogged my memory) of all things,they live in the white stemmy part,and they say a veggie diet is healthier pffft, OH and SUSHI, you take your life in your own hands people,.

[Blotch]

that's probably what it was then Leigh - cuz i do feed the snails lettuce and cabbage.

[Scotts1au]

Nematodes are a very common part of soil based fauna, many are parasitic and some eat and kill snails.

Best to use a non soil or potting mix substrate to keep snails or like me, non at all. Mine are on wet cardboard. They eat it but probably not doing anything any harm.

Scott

[Johelian]

Id just like to say thanks to everyone that helped me...from what I can gather by reading other threads on here it seems that mine dont have a poor appetite at all. Rather, the normal amount that adult blue tongues consume just seems less than that of my other lizards, who are all total pigs and will eat a lot in a sitting! I think I have just been offering too much food, and then getting paranoid when it hasnt all been eaten.

Many thanks again. I will post some pics of my two soon

[SailleSkinklover]

Veggies and Sushi. . . hmmm? I am probably a writhing mass of parasites on my insiides then! (But I thought thats why they gave you ginger. . . which I loooooooooove!)

Jo, can't wait to see pics! And post pics of your other critters in the Off Topic thread!

[Leigh]

Veggies and Sushi. . . hmmm? I am probably a writhing mass of parasites on my insiides then! (But I thought thats why they gave you ginger. . . which I loooooooooove!)

Jo, can't wait to see pics! And post pics of your other critters in the Off Topic thread!

Dont worry about that,if its your thread and starts ON TOPIC,you can choose to take it OFF and backON at your own will.


Hey sallie, I read that fast (But I thought thats why they gave you ginger. . . which I loooooooooove!) and thought it'd given you ginger hair or something

[Johelian]

Veggies and Sushi. . . hmmm? I am probably a writhing mass of parasites on my insiides then! (But I thought thats why they gave you ginger. . . which I loooooooooove!)

Jo, can't wait to see pics! And post pics of your other critters in the Off Topic thread!

Dont worry about that,if its your thread and starts ON TOPIC,you can choose to take it OFF and backON at your own will.

Ah cool I will get some up ASAP - both of my blues are shedding and are a mess at the moment. They came to me with dry retained shed on the tops of their heads, and it looks like its coming off nicely - yay!

[Leigh]

Nice,Ihope they dont need much helping mate,its good seeing an ill one come good with some TLC.

[Johelian]

I cant complain, as they are otherwise in very good body condition - just insufficient humidity was provided at last shed. I will get some pics later though, as they are just about done now.

[Johelian]

Righty ho, I have a couple of pics of my blues finally:

My female Samba. She is absolutely huge! As you can see, there is still some stuck/peeling shed on her head. I think it will take another shed or two at least to improve the condition of some of scales - but it is looking a little better already



Eventually she lost her fear of the camera and decided on all-out offensive action!


My male Moose (I did want to call him Janeiro but my boyfriend refused, lol). His head needs more improving than Sambas. He is a big wimp.



I have a couple of the rest of my beasties too incase anyone wanted to see:

Some of my monkey tails:







Tegu


Chuckwallas



Desert Iguanas




Whew!

[Leigh]

Excellent mate,you wont be harming them if you fancy holding a warm damp towel on the stuck shed,and it looks like it'll fly off with a light rub,or give'm a warm bath shoulder height for 15 mins,make the water the same temp as they feel to touch,use an old towel to dry off,no worries.

[Funda]

Yeah i agree with Leigh it wont hurt if you just wipe it off with a damp cloth because they look pretty lose already.
Or even bath them in warm water for a few minutes.

Great collection of beasts you got there!
Post some more in the "Other animals" thread.
Im sure everyone would love to see them, i know i would!!

Thanks for sharing

f.C