snails and calcium

[brnttoast]

snails and calcium

one post keeps leading to another today, i just mentioned the iguana i used to have and it reminded me about this
in owning an iguana i had to find all the calcium rich foods, so here they are
collard greens are the highest
mustard greens and spinich
and if you have a fertalizer/pestacide free yard dandelions(yay to free food)
although snails love cucumber, its low in calcium, and my snails all love the collards, but i bet my plant friendly brigs would prolly destroy a planted tank after eating these for as long as they have, hope that trait is not passed on to the babies

[Laura]

It sounds like you've had very happy snails (and iguana). No worries on them eating plants after being so well taken care of. AFAIK, they just don't have the mouth parts to eat most fresh plant matter.

[Melody]

Some vegetables read like they have a lot of calcium, but they're not actually a good source of calcium. All four items you listed are medium to high in oxalates and the calcium is rendered useless (or a portion thereof). Spinach and Collard Greens are the highest of those listed. There are other wonderful nutrients in them, but they're not a reliable source of calcium.

There is a calcium/oxalate chart here (http://www.anapsid.org/iguana/cal_ox.html) with a list of veggies commonly fed to Iguanas.

Bridgesii can't eat healthy plant tissue. They require broken down plant matter in their diet (blanched, prefrozen, etc.). Feeding them vegies won't make them eat your aquarium plants.