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I gave a very large apple snail to my BTS & he seems to be struggling to eat it. How do they normally go about cracking into snails? Should I crack it for him?
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0.3.0 leos, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
0.0.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton & Olivia Newton John
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena

I think the key to answering your question is that you wrote it was "a very large apple snail." I've never observed a BTS eating a snail in the wild, but I would bet they choose them based on size. Most animals choose prey that they can handle. So, they probably eat smaller size snails rather than very large ones. Mine have absolutely no problem cracking shells that are about a half inch or smaller. (Remember, BTS have very strong jaws.) However, I usually help them by cracking the shell, just to make it easier and because I'm paranoid about avoiding dealing with a choking skink.
I hope this helps.
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Edward
Carpe diem

I agree with Edward. A Pomacea is too large for a BTS which isn't an exclusive snail eater anyway. A Pink-Tongue (Hemisphaeriodon gerrardi) will bang a snail against a hard object to break the shell but with a Blue-Tongue; assistance would probably be the rule.

Best Regards,
Jean

Hi Edward, Buffysmom and everyone
Can relate to the choking worry. My small BTS took on a large live snail which she managed to crack open, but only JUST managed to swallow. It was an anxious minute or so watching her repeatedly trying to swallow the snail which was stuffed in her wide open mouth - her blue tongue was hanging out the whole time, and I was moments away from attempting to extract the snail (some of which was already half way down, so it wouldn't have been easy...or pretty.) So yes folks, pick the smaller snails!!
Susan

Must agree! Ideally 1/4 inch to 1/2 and no larger! My Northern comes running when he sees them, and has gotten pretty good at chewing them up and spitting out pieces of shell! Once my snails get larger I take them to the pet store, they are very happy to get them!
Beth

Thanks all. I'm thinking my eyes were bigger than his stomach! Now I'm debating between just keeping it in my newt tank as industrial sized vaccum, or butchering it myself for him & giving him pieces. He did try to slam it against things to crack it, but was not successful.
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0.3.0 leos, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
0.0.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton & Olivia Newton John
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena