Freezing Prey Items and Nutrition

[Kuamata]

So, as my other threads stated, I will be getting a Caiman Lizard within the next month or so, weather permitting. This fella is on canned snails, but I personally don't find that as nutritionally sound as fresh killed. Caiman Lizards usually eat a diet exclusively consisting of snails, though you can introduce new food items, too, but that's not the point of this thread.

At any rate, so, I'll be breeding Apple snails, the 'diffusa' variety. This specific variety can lay clutches of 200-600 eggs in a clutch, and lay a clutch every 4-7 days during their breeding cycle... Quite obviously, that is more snails than a lil' lizard could reasonably eat (as mine is a baby). So, I'm wondering... could I freeze the excess snails for later thawing without losing nutrition?

If I remember correctly, it doesn't make any huge change to nutrition like cooking does, but just making sure.

[toddnbecka]

Keep in mind that the eggs take time to hatch, and the snails won't grow up overnight either. You'll have plenty of snails at some point, but I suspect it will be months before you'll have to worry about freezing the excess. Freezing won't affect the nutritional value, for that matter canning isn't likely to make much difference either. As far as I know vegetables are more affected by cooking than meats are. Some vitamins break down or get boiled out, steaming is actually the best method to retain nutritional value.

[Kuamata]

Okiedokie! Thanks! And yeah, they take 2 to 4 weeks to hatch out.