Your Approach on Sterilizing WC Aquatic Snails

[Dakota]

By my house, there is a freshwater canal that has a pretty good population of invasive Apples snails (not sure of exact subspecies). They are about the size of your fist or so. Now, if these snails were to be terrestrial, (and obviously collected from a pesticide free area) I would not hesitate to feed them to the skinks after quarantining. But what would you do to make sure it would be safe to feed aquatic, without worrying about parasites?

I was thinking:
- Quarantining them for a bit
- Freezing them quickly
- Boiling them

Not exactly sure on the order of the second and third.

Or would freezing/boiling kill all parasites, leaving no need for quarantining? Or perhaps am I over-thinking this?

Thank you in advance,
Dakota :-)

[RoryBreaker]

Dunno about the aquatic snails. Had a mate who used to have a File Snake and he fed it freshwater fish that he would catch in a cast net. He did however store those fish in the freezer for a minimum of five to six weeks before thawing out and feeding them off. I forget the exact reason why.

That skink of yours spat babies out yet or what?

[Dood]

Freezing to -4F for 4 days will kill the vast majority of parasites that could be in meat

The length of time you freeze depends on the parasite you are trying to kill and the temperature of your freezer. I keep my raw food storage freezer at the coldest setting (which is only 0'F) and freeze pork at least 3 weeks before feeding it raw to my animals but chicken for only one week since their parasites are not as compatable with dogs and cats and hence not as likely to infect them.

You could also do a twice yearly deworming to be certain nothing gets too bad.

[donkeybuff]

I've fed pond snails from my fish tank live. I don't do anything special to them. Of course, since they're from my tank, there's a lower chance of them having parasites.

[Dakota]

Very informative, thanks guys! I think it would be safe to say that freezing would be best. I put them in the deep freezer this morning. When it is time to feed, I will boil them, assuming the meat will come out more easily..

That skink of yours spat babies out yet or what?

Unfortunately, no.. her last mating is coming up on 200 days, so it will be safe to say that she is most likely not gravid.

[Richard.C]

I dont bother with snails much these days.theres plebty of more healthy stuff to feed them that u dont need to worry about pesticides or parasites with,when i use garden snails i just feed straight from the garden

[scaredofbees]

I would echo the sentiment that there's enough out there to readily feed your skink rather than deal with the potential risk of what nasty things aquatic pond snails could carry... and believe me, they can carry some nasty stuff!