BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hi! I had a few questions about feeding mystery snails to my Northern. My local pet store has mystery snails, with the Latin name Pomacea bridgesii. I’ve read that all mystery snails are the same as apple snails, but I’ve never seen this particular species listed on apple snail sites.

I wanted to know if anyone has any knowledge of these snails, or fed them to a BTS before. Here are some pictures of them!




If they are safe to feed, I assume that I wouldn’t be able to feed her one straight from the pet store to see if she’d like it? I’ve read that it’s best to keep them for a while to make sure they’re healthy. I was just wondering if this would be necessary for only one. I would hate to set up a whole snail tank and then have her decide that she hates live snails.

I was also wondering what species of land snails are good for blue tongues?

Personally, I would not recommend feeding snails from a PetSmart like that due to the risk of parasites. Those snails are mass produced and often not in the most sanitary environments before being shipped to the store, so parasites can be common with them.

I'm not familiar with feeding any kind of live snails, but I have fed canned snails to my BTS before! There are different brands you can try and they're generally a safer bet. This isn't a topic I have a ton of experience with though, so that's all the advice I have unfortunately.

I do not use pet shop feeders for any of my reptiles. I breed all my own feeders, you may want to look into something like that if you want to feed live snails. I do not trust pet shop stock, more often than not they are uncared for. As far as snails, I have only used canned ones also. Breeding live ones is way more trouble than it's worth, IMO.
Believe it or not, some of my skinks do not even like the canned ones. Their diet is so varied I find it unnecessary anyway. Now and then I'll buy them as treats.

If you can find frozen snails intended for human consumption at your local asian market, that might be your best option.

Yes but check the sodium content.

I’m definitely going to try out the canned snails, I’ve been planning to do that. I definitely won’t try a snail from PetSmart due to parasite risks, thanks for the advice on that.

I don’t necessarily want the snails just for feeders, it would be a fun little pet to have, and I could use skink food as an excuse for that. I don’t really have other opportunities to feed live food, so raising my own snails would be fun for me, a slightly more interesting thing for my skink, and then she’d also get the nutrition of the shell.

I was able to find that this species is indeed a kind of apple snail, which I’ve seen many skink keepers recommend. Maybe I can find some of these guys from a more reputable source someday.

Only snails my BTs get are snails cultivated commercially for the restraunts ( I'll buy a couple tubs of a dozen or so every few months) and I give them as treats to George & Mildred. These are not cheap garden snail or aquarium snails. The snail farmer is only an hour away , but I get the tubs of live food snails delivered by mailorder.
I figure if they are fit for human consumption they should be OK for my beardies to eat and I don't mind paying for them.

I know people who gather snails from their gardens and keep them for week or two in a plastic tub and they feed them there , the week or two is to make sure haven't been poisoned and they have plenty of time to be purged and to pass any parasites.

I definitely would never buy aquarium snails to feed to my skinks - too risky.