Ferrets Eating Slugs

[J.T.]

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Because of all the :rant: rain my garden is full of slugs & snails. I'm not too bothered about them unless they eat my plants, I never use any slug pellets or chemicals because of the dogs & cats. Usually I'll collect them up & flirt them over the back fence into the rough ground there :- " . They come back again but at least it takes them a while to get here :lol:

I let the ferrets out every day for a roam around & have noticed that they are eating the slugs :x they'll even squabble over a particularly juicy specimin :x :x

I'm fine with that unless it's going to harm them. As I really dont want to have to de-slug the garden every time I let them out, I'm hoping they can carry on chomping & then maybe my plants will stand a fighting chance of flowering :angry:

The ferrets end up with right messy faces but then wash one another clean again :wub:

Can anyone advise me on this please?

thanks,

Julie.

 

[TC]

What a lovely topic (w00t)

I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question, but I hope for your sake, and mine that it's alright for them to eat them...

Your ferrets will be okay, and when I get mine in a couple of weeks they can eat all the slugs in my garden too (w00t)

 

[rustypolecat]

Because of all the :rant:   rain my garden is full of slugs & snails. I'm not too bothered about them unless they eat my plants, I never use any slug pellets or chemicals because of the dogs & cats. Usually I'll collect them up & flirt them over the back fence into the rough ground there :- " . They come back again but at least it takes them a while to get here :lol: I let the ferrets out every day for a roam around & have noticed that they are eating the slugs :x   they'll even squabble over a particularly juicy specimin :x   :x

I'm fine with that unless it's going to harm them. As I really dont want to have to de-slug the garden every time I let them out, I'm hoping they can carry on chomping & then maybe my plants will stand a fighting chance of flowering :angry:

The ferrets end up with right messy faces but then wash one another clean again :wub:

Can anyone advise me on this please?

thanks,

Julie.

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[kris]

i was listening to a bird expert on the radio yesterday and he said slugs being eaten by birds was a major cause of death as they usually contain poisons from slug pellets.dunno if it would affect ferrets,just passing on what i heard yesterday. :blink:

 

[Karen-Coral]

ours have eaten slugs too with no ill effects :x

 

[beaker]

i had a cat called chilli that used to go slug hunting of an evening, frogs to

she would eat her fill then leave a few headless ones for me at the back door :x :x

i know that like me my neighbours didn't use chemicals in their gardens so it was fine, maybe check to make sure your neighbours don't use pellets either :thumbsup:

i don't know, maybe someone does, but do animals who have died because of slug pellet poisoning generally die from one or two large doses or can they die from a low dose toxic build up?

 

[Cathrine]

If you want to get rid of the slugs, just drizzle some salt on them. It kills them quick! Since each slug is capabel of laying 400 eggs, I have no mercy!! And they don't need a partner to lay eggs, since they are both male/female (can't remember the right word for it in english )

 

[kris]

i think from what this guy was saying its a gradual build up of toxins.which would happen when an animal is eating a certain insect.

the correct term for an animal with male/female sex organs is an hermaphrodite.

 

[Nicola]

Julie...your posts always make me chuckle What a fantastic way to get rid of slugs :thumbsup: Can they come round and train my guinea pigs to eat slugs? I've gone to feed the piggies at night and found dozens of those big, slimey speckledy slugs making their way through the mesh of the hutch :x Trying to wash the slime off one I accidentally touched once was quite hard work. It stuck like glue. :x

 

[rach125]

Julie...your posts always make me chuckle What a fantastic way to get rid of slugs :thumbsup: Can they come round and train my guinea pigs to eat slugs? I've gone to feed the piggies at night and found dozens of those big, slimey speckledy slugs making their way through the mesh of the hutch :x Trying to wash the slime off one I accidentally touched once was quite hard work. It stuck like glue.  :x

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:x :x :x

 

[pegun1]

Hi I just want to say that eating slugs and snails can give them lung worms,

I have a dog that the vet thought had lungworms and he said they can get them by eating these :blink: turned out he hadn't got them but thought i would pass on the info

Dawn

 

[urchin]

before you all go to war on slugs - its worth knowing that not all will eat your garden; some only eat compost or lichens, others are carnivorous (mainly eating other slugs, snails and worms)

BBC Science has useful identification charts

worryingly though, i did find a link to a story of a Sydney student who nearly died from meningitis (w00t) after eating 2 slugs for a bet (w00t) Don't try this at home!

 

[rach125]

Its amazing the things u learn on this forum! i have told my friend bout ferrets being able to eat slugs n snails!

 

[J.T.]

Thanks for all the info, don't like the sound of lungworms though.

I've not got a neighbour on one side atm as the house is up for sale so no slug pellets there & on the other side is a 6ft fence which slows em down a bit. I'm fairly sure that all "my" slugs are pellet free ones.

Nicola, YUK :x slug glue, now theres an idea :- "

I have found the odd suicidal one thats slithered it's way into the hutch.

And as for the idiot who ate the slugs, well he must have had something wrong with his brain to begin with even before getting meningitis :- "