Canned slugs and insects as treats?

[moxiewild]

Wasn’t sure which forum this would be best suited for.

I’m a wildlife rehabilitator, and some of the meals I prepare for certain species contain canned (dead) gaatropoda, worms, crickets, and other insects.

I was preparing a meal for some recovering opossums and squirrels earlier and accidentally left a can of snails out -

EXOTIC NUTRITION De-Shelled Snails Canned Hedgehog Treats, 1.2-oz can - Chewy.com

Three of the cats devoured it.

I never thought about feeding them this stuff as a treat before, but it got me thinking,

I can’t find any apparent reason it might be bad for them, and it could technically be apart of their natural diet outdoors (especially insects like crickets).

Snail meat in particular contains protein, fat (primarily polyunsaturated fatty acid), iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, zinc, vitamins A, B12, B6, and folate, and contains arginine and lysine amino acids in excess of what can be found in a whole egg.

Usually the risk with gastropoda is they can carry parasites like lungworm or potentially could have ingested snail bait/poison. Commercially prepared snails do not carry that risk, however.

I’m going to consult a vet, but just wondering if anyone knew of anything off hand here. The cats have been doing fine.

 

[Silver Crazy]

Escargots for cats..lol
How interesting they ate it, one of mine as a kitten ate a slug and was sick immediately after but something I have never heard of before with snails.

 

[Kieka]

My cats eat grasshoppers all the time, not that I feed them on purpose but they find them and eat them. I can't imagine that slugs would be a bad thing since they are from a safe source.

 

[LTS3]

There's a separate thread about insect-based cat and dog food. It's something new and kind of unusual. Many people don't think about feeding house cats insects. I wonder if the cats thought the can contained some new treat that they found appealing. If the cats don't have any tummy issues from eating it, an occasional treat would be ok.