I am totally freaking out! I have been, as I thought, giving my mice nice, healthy food by getting a mix of grains and pulses from a health food shop and bird seed from a pet shop. I went to scoop some out tonight to feed them and found a tiny baby snail crawling around on the scoop! I've been feeding my babies this for almost three weeks!!! OMG!!! Will this hurt them at all? I haven't noticed any change in them and if I have to go back to pet shop food then they won't be eating much as they were leaving almost all their food before. Does anyone have any idea what I can do to prevent this in future? Or what I can give them instead??? Sob!!! Help!!!

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Run free my beautiful rainbow babies. I love you.

throw away all food clean all cages out.

buy new food and scoop and possibly put the food in a small storage box with lid , to prevent snails!

Xxx

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My Zoo!
Hamters - Millie & Princess.Gerbil-Drexel Mice-Salazar, Chocolate-drop, Snowflake, Monty, The Twins. Rat-Walter Goldfish-Orange Horses- Sinbad, Pinkie & Jasper Dogs- Freddie, Charlie, Suzie & Tacco 60+ CockRoaches, 13 Giant african land snails and 22 Stick insects! R.I.P TO ALL MY BABIES OVER RAINBOW BRIDGE <3

and mice eat what in the wild??? it won't harm them. I would possibly complain to the food shop that their food is contaminated though assuming you don't leave the food somewhere where snails from your own garden can get to it.

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This is not a game of 'who the fek are you'.

Not a single gram of fek shall be given today.

All the food - other than the bird seed - was from a health food shop (Holland and Barrett.) So I think it's the bird seed that may be the problem. It's from - go on, have a guess - P@H. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I store the sealed bags in an airtight freezer box and the mixed food I'm using in a sealed airtight container as well. So it definitely hasn't been from in my house that the snail has come from. Do you think I'm better getting rid of all the food just to be safe??

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Run free my beautiful rainbow babies. I love you.

It probably won't harm them, since they are likely to eat stuff like that in the wild aren't they?

Char
xxx

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From what i know, mice will purely eat seeds, nuts, plants etc.....and in the wild, they will occassionally eat insects and worms but not snails.

The mice that people have as pets were not origionally from Britain, they were from hotter climates where snails wouldn't survive

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marcia you get snails all over the world, including africa and other hot climes.

mice and rats eat snails no problems at all, they are not a regular food item but they do eat them when their main diet is reduced.

If there was only the one baby snail in there i wouldn't be worried as it may have been after packaging contamination, or just blind bad luck. Food packaging for animals is generally very controlled but as it's bird seed then you're out of luck as birds are big snail eaters so contamination in their food isn't a big deal to the manufacturers or the sellers or the pet/wild animal food authorities.

Check the rest of the food if there are more snails get rid of the contaminated stuff, as you will have hundreds of the things floating around showing up for YEARS. If you've ever kept an aquarium and have had snails accidentally introduced via plants you'll know what i'm on about.
they're a pest rather than a poison problem.

__________________
This is not a game of 'who the fek are you'.

Not a single gram of fek shall be given today.

Thanks for the advice!! I can cope with the getting rid of them (I have aquariums. The little blighters drive me nuts!) I just wanted to make sure that if there were any further snails that they wouldn't harm the mice. Blobs to all!!

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Run free my beautiful rainbow babies. I love you.

welcome

the only reason i'd get rid of the food is to stop getting snail infestations in the food jar lol as much as i love snails wouldn't want hundreds of the blighters adorning my house

__________________
This is not a game of 'who the fek are you'.

Not a single gram of fek shall be given today.