Nerite snails and pH

[sas]

You can purchase liquid Calcium at a pharmacy, would this not be a better source for calcium? It's not expensive at all and we use it for our birds?

[Melody]

Cuttlebone is more use for them to gnaw on and some use it to harden the water, but I don't know how fast it disolves.  Liquid calcium can be used in the water column or in homemade foods.  I use human grade liquid calcium in my homemade foods, but I just snip off capsules of it.  It never occured to me that there was liquid calcium there.  I bet the price is better than Kent's!   Is it calcium carbonate?

Good thinking!

[PrincessFish]

Hey Melodie are you talking about homemade 'fish' food?  And if so, can you tell me more.

pF

[Melody]

I've never looked back since researching homemade foods.  The dry stuff is great for convenience and to ensure that you have all of the vitamins/minerals in the diet.  I consider them a daily multi-vitamin and I'd never give them up.   In other words, don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-commercial-foods, but most leave a lot to be desired and the high-priced ones aren't any better than the mid-priced ones for the most part.  Its all down to processing - processing kills the vitamins and things like Garlic's most effective component - Allicin.  Most foods are heat processed.  Just like boiling, you lose nutrients.  On top of that, they start with ingredients that are already processed much of the time, like Garlic powder rather than fresh Garlic, vegetable powders, etc.

You can customize homemade foods, supplement them, include commercial foods, and ensure that the nutrients are coming from what you put in there.  You don't have to find the food that comes closest to suiting the needs of your creatures, you can create the perfect food for them.  Its not difficult either.  I couldn't be a bigger fan.  The main thing is the initial research - there's little sense in bothering if you don't read about the specific needs of your creatures.  You also have to be aware of things like digestive capabilities.  Making my recipe that is high in vegetables would not be good for your carnivores because they can't digest vegetable fiber well, for example.  Sounds good on paper, type thing.

I have every link I can find to recipes & some originals here, and I'm constantly searching for more.  We share our content freely with clubs, so the OVAS is welcome to it as long as the simple criteria is met.  Otherwise the content via our site is open to the public - membership is not required.

For snails, Applesnail.net also has a nice collection of recipes.  The only caution I would mention with some of theirs is I'm not a fan of using dog or cat food in aquatic recipes.  The formulas are completely different and there's often a great deal of salt, as well as mammal fat.

I'd love to hear about what you come up with in your own 'cauldron', as well as anyone else's experiences.  Maybe we could start a new thread for that.   

[PrincessFish]

Wow Melody, thanks!
I will read your site in some detail and may indeed start another thread.  I am very interested in what home-made foods have to offer.