Snail shells for calcium?

[Pheonix]

I have a ton of snails in my backyard and was wondering (1) if they will eat them and (2) if they will eat the shells for Ca? I also used to kill the snails about a year ago with Cory's Snail Killer. Should I be worried that the poison is still in the shells and the birds might get to it?

 

[matimeo]

I've been feeding my baby chicks slugs, and they seem to have got a taste for it in their mouths. They fight over them now. At first I had to cut up the slugs, because they wouldn't deal with the sliminess otherwise. You could try that and see if you could get them to acquire a taste. Not sure about the shells. I believe snail shells are made of calcium carbonate, so they should be a good source of calcium, and relatively digestible, but you'd probably have to crush them to get them to eat it. But who knows, maybe they would break it on their own.

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

I am quessing here.

But Snail killer a year ago, it should be well out of their system by now. Especially seeing you have a lot of them, now.

If your chickens will eat them, sure thing. But I wouldn't count on their being much calciium there. I would still offer oyster shell free choice. Chickens should like the snails for the protein though.

Hope they eat all your snails for you. I say let em loose to hunt down those pesky snails.

 

[roosters4sale]

HI. I found out by reading about diseases in goats, that, snails and slugs carry a host parasites,like, lung flutes, that can make goats very ill.

 

[Pheonix]

Humm. That is right. I think I remember hearing something like that. That snails are born with it in them and that it grows as they grow. I wonder if it is able to live in bird systems? More research.

 

[Samilitant]

I think any bird that freeranges is going to be eating a lot of natural parasites. I know for a FACT that my chickens eat snails---Two days ago I was following one of my BR's around and she was picking at a snail. She pecked it a few times, and then down it went.

 

[DaniLovesChickens]

My chickens would eat mice and voles too if I let them. I know that that is how my outside cats got roundworm.

There are a lot of living "critters" that chickens eat that while they are probably not going to kill them, can give them some very dangerous parasites.

 

[Judy925]

If snails give chickens parasites then 'oh well.' Tweety eats them by the dozens. She LOVES her escargot. Do you have any idea how much they charge for that stuff at French restaurants?