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Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:01 pm
by Nick
Perhaps the bone was not cleaned properly and had some cartilage or undertissue on it?
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:10 pm
by spoot
Could be. I guess I should buy another one for the new snails. I'll make sure to scrub it very well first.
RTR, the KH in our tap water is about 4-5 and the pH is around 6.5-7.0. We have quite soft acidic water because it comes from the mountains.
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:11 pm
by Boxermom
What you could also get is the powdered/pulverized calcium also sold for birds. Its what I use for my hermits, I imagine it would work just as well for snails.
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:13 pm
by spoot
would crushed coral be ok as well?
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:15 pm
by Boxermom
Not sure they'll be able to eat it. They need to eat it for it to work on their shells.
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:55 pm
by spoot
hmmm.....i guess cuttlebone it is.
Just out of curiosity sake, BM, how do you feed the hermi's the powdered calcium?
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:57 pm
by Boxermom
They have three shells I put edibles in. One has the calcium, one has fruit, one has the "basics." I've seen at least two of them sitting in the calcium shell eating so far.
Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:46 pm
by my name is mike
new to snail raising, so i googled cuttlebone an i got a bunch of bird food sites. is that the stuff you are talking about?
also, if i have fairly hard water, would i need this kind of supplement??
Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:05 pm
by Boxermom
Yup, that's the stuff. They consume calcium to harden their shells, has nothing to do with the water (although those in softer water do tend to have softer shells as well from what I've heard).
Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:59 pm
by my name is mike
makes sense, thanks
Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:02 pm
by Nick
Sufficiently acidic water will disolve their older shell parts slowly as well, eventually killing them.