Beets for Briggs

[snoopy65]

I am going to try an experiment with a couple of my ivory bridgesii. Nothing that will hurt them as beets are not harmful for them. I just need to bounce this off someone. Tell me what you think.

Many people have been wanting pink briggs and while I have not seen them occur naturally, I think that the ivories could be made to appear pink or at least blush.

Now coming from a country background where we can alot of food, I know that beet juice is used to color many things. One that comes to mind is pickled eggs. If you eat too many oranges you get an orange hue, tomatoes red..etc. Food is used in natural dyes as well.

So if ivory snails are fed a diet high in beets, it stands to reason their body/foot would become tinted with the beet coloring. That beet coloring should show through the shell, making the snail appear pink or blush.

I would make their jello out of babyfood beets and their fresh veggies would be blanched/cooked beets as beets are pretty tough raw. I would still include their normal veggie sticks and other foods to make sure they received all that they need nutritionally.

Of course once the beet diet is stopped, after a while the snail would go back to it's normal coloring, but for those wanting "pink" bridgesii a diet high in beets could conceivably give them one.

So what do you think?

[kyryah]

It may work, I have fed my white egg laying chickens beets for pink tinted eggs, and blueberries for blue tinted eggs.

Kristina

[Bethany1979]

In theory it probably will work. It will probably take time, and only new shell growth would be affected. You'd also have to continually feed them beets to maintain the color. Sounds like a pretty neat experiment. I'm very interested to see what comes of it.

[snoopy65]

I will use a couple of my baby ivory brigs and put them in their own tank and keep a couple ivories from the same clutch in another fed what everybody else gets. You never know, it won't hurt to try. I will pick up the beets tomorrow and get everything set. Take pictures and post. How often do you think I should compare them?

[pealow]

Great experiment...keep us posted.

[mtnhomedude]

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[Wycco]

If you feed them gold and bananas maybe you could make some yellow mystery snails! ;)


Being serious though: I'm really interested how this turns out... keep us posted.

I would suspect the younger you start the snails with this the more likely you are to have success.

[Bethany1979]

I'm wondering if the beets will tint your water pink(even in jello), they stain everthing, lol. Also curious what would happend if you fed a blue, beets. Better yet a yellow (would it turn orange), lol. I'll definately be watching this thread.

[Hurley]

It makes sense. I'm curious to see how this plays out. Good luck.

[Wycco]

If you do have success- I'd be curious if you could do the same with ghost shrimp.

Beet-Red Shrimp. ;) You may ask why, when Red Cherry Shrimp are so easily available: but ghost shrimp, from what I understand, are more active when placed with fish and less likely to hide than some of the other dwarf shrimp...


Or, if adding food colourings to snello (not sure which would be safe... some I'd trust more than others).


The one thing I'd be weary about though is health. If you always eat the same thing you might not be as healthy as you would with a varied diet.

[Bethany1979]

Just a thought, 1 cup of beets has .1mg of copper, would that amount prove harmful to brigs?

[Otter]

I think this it a very cool idea and think it really might work.

Will be so interesting to see what happens I know you bring out color in canaries with food hi in beta carotene maybe the beets and other veggies would bring out more color too.

I would love to hear regular reports on how this is going.

Otter

[1oooop]

sounds fun, I might try

[BettaFishMommy]

snoop, my ivory brigg that was nearly a pearl colouration went pink due to eating bloodworms, as that was the only red thing in her diet. make snail jello with frozen bloodworms? might work?

[snoopy65]

Good idea, will add them as well

[snoopy65]

After 2 weeks of primarily red colored food. Beets, bloodworms, etc.....no change in color as compared to the other ivories.

[Hollygirl]

It does make a lot of sense. Please keep us posted.

[Wycco]

How's the experiment coming along... is your little blondie a red-head yet? Are you still trying this?

[snoopy65]

Yeah I am, but no change in their coloring.

[Wycco]

That's a shame. It's been a month or so now... Not familiar with how quick baby briggs grow- have they grown a lot in that time period?

[snoopy65]

Yeah, they have almost doubled in size. I would think I would have some indication that the color was changing, but nothing.

[thesixis]

Keep going, it may take some time.