African land snail query

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yermum

yermum

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No. 2 son purchased an African land snail for his younger brother at the weekend, which was very sweet of him, but now he's worried as the snail hasn't seem to be eaten very much. It has been quite lively over the last couple of days, but today it doesn't seem to want to come out of its shell. It was buried under some lettuce leaves when he came home from school, so he's worried.

I have looked for advice on t'interweb but haven't been able to find much, so if anyone who owns one would like to contribute, we would be grateful.

BTW, it's been named Usain Bolt. (We had to explain why this was funny to the 4 year old)
 
he sounds scared. take him down the pub to acclimatise the poor little bugger :D

on a serious note, do they really eat a lot? and he could just be tired... email the RSPCA and see if they can give you some advice maybe?
 
He/she is in one of those large plastic hamster enclosures, with compost from the garden centre in the bottom to the depth of about 3cm. The compost is moist and we were advised to put a small dish of water in, which we have done.
 
Is the compost peat free? From memory they dont like that very much at all. I kept them years ago but gave them away as i moved to fishkeeping. I'll see if i can dig some info out for you :)
 
Ok, my wife kept these guys for years.. She said:

- Put a cuttlefish in the tank. You can get them from the pet shop and are usually associated with budgies. They nibble on it and it's good for the shell.

- You should microwave the soil before putting it in the tank and introducing the snail. It kills off a lot of the beasties and bacteria that can upset them. Obviously let it cool as well :P

- They'll eat most vegetables, not just lettuce. After they've eaten, they can really slow down and rest. Probably not a problem, although seek advice if it continues for extended periods of time.

Have you one or two? If you have two you're going to be constantly separating them. They're hermaphroditic (SP?) and will breed like crazy.

Hope this helps.

S.
 
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I had one but he wore me out. Constantly taking it for walks to the park.

I tried to play fetch with it, but after 8h waiting i gave up.
 
ScottGTO said:
Ok, my wife kept these guys for years.. She said:

- Put a cuttlefish in the tank. You can get them from the pet shop and are usually associated with budgies. They nibble on it and it's good for the shell.

- You should microwave the soil before putting it in the tank and introducing the snail. It kills off a lot of the beasties and bacteria that can upset them. Obviously let it cool as well :P

- They'll eat most vegetables, not just lettuce. After they've eaten, they can really slow down and rest. Probably not a problem, although seek advice if it continues for extended periods of time.

Have you one or two? If you have two you're going to be constantly separating them. They're hermaphroditic (SP?) and will breed like crazy.

Hope this helps.

S.
Click to expand...
Used to keep these for years - the above is absolutely correct.

Give it a good dousing with a water sprayer (like the ones you get from garden centres) which should get it woken up. They like it to be pretty humid in there, almost sweaty.
 
My sister used to breed these semi-commercially for restaurants. (They stuff them inside French escargot shells, apparently). She used to keep hers in glass tanks with a layer of compost in the bottom and a lid on top with only a small air hole, in order to keep the moisture and humidity in. They like to be kept damp all the time, and need plenty of vegetable matter and calcium sources, with cuttlefish bone being ideal.

They breed like flies when they're happy.
 
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