Vivariums-Inverts-Land Snails care

A good time to find snails is early morning or at night. You are most likley to find them in early summer. Choose active and healthy looking snails.

Tropical Land Snails Care :

land or air breathing snails basic General care articles ..

Keeping Pet Snails @ Home :

courtesy to : www.instructables.com/id/Keeping-Pet-Snails-Home/

Step 1: Housing & Substrate

A good sized tank is a 20 liters (5 gallons). I would suggest having one garden snail per 4 liters (1 gallon).

For the substrate i have used bird grit as it will give the snails calcium. This can be found at your local bulk food store or pet shop. If you choose another substrate it would be a good idea to provide another source of calcium such as a cuttle fish bone or crushed eggshells.

other substrates you can use:
Bark
Aquarium gravel
Peat moss
And soil

Make sure you wash it well first.

I have added Bark, Rock and pots to replicate a garden.

What ever you use make sure you wash it first.

~ Mist the cage daily.

~ Provide fresh greens daily.

~ Clean the tank weekly.

~ Move/change the decorations once in a while to allow more places to explore.

Australian Land Snails ;

courtesy to : www.thegreenscorpion.com.au/showcon.toy?cid=654715

Australian Snail Care Sheet

Slugs and snails are great to keep and come in lots of great colours, shapes and sizes. Most snails and slugs can be kept the same way and normally the temperature will vary depending if they are tropical, subtropical or temperate species.

Enclosure Set up
The size of the enclosure really depends on how many snails you want to keep in it. The more snails, the more room and the larger snails will also require more space to be comfortable, so use your judgement. Some snails like to dig, and if you are lucky enough for your snail to lay eggs it will need soil to lay the eggs in. So add at least enough sterile peat mix to cover your snail, double the height of the snail shell is best because this allows the snail to choose the depth that it likes best. The substrate should be loosely packed so that the snail can dig easily. Some moss should be put on to of the substrate to help keep the moisture and humidity up, and they also like (clean) leaf litter. I also add some decaying wood and even plumbing pipes for them to hide in. The enclosure will need to be heated and this will depend on which environment your snail lives in naturally. Tropical species prefer 20-28 degrees, while sub-tropical and temperate species (like panda snails) will prefer a cooler 18-24 degrees. A heat mat or cord is best because the snails don’t like the light. Be careful with your temperature! Snails are susceptible to heat stress if kept at high temperatures for long periods. If your snail becomes inactive it may be too hot, turn off your heater. Snails can climb the glass so you will need a lid; a mesh lid is the best option because the snails like the airflow.

Snail Care :

Snails keep the same shell for their entire life and the shell grown with them so it is important to take care of it. DO NOT DROP THE SNAIL. If the snails shell becomes cracked it can kill the snail or the shell will be permanently cracked. Snails require high levels of calcium in their diet, so a cutlet bone works well to give them the extra calcium that they need. I feed my snails every couple of days with fresh vegies such as cucumber, sweet potato, carrot and cabbage. I also give them a mollusc diet (the recipe is in the Bugs Alive Book) which is also high in calcium and they go crazy for it! The substrate of the enclosure should remain moist but not wet, mouldy or soggy. The snails do better if they have good ait flow so that their slime can “dry out” to a certain extent. I normally give mine a spray with water just before I go to bed because the snails are most active at night. Everyday any uneaten food will need to be taken out because it will quickly go mouldy or attract fruit flies and mites in the humid environment. You will especially need to watch the mollusc food mix because this will attract pests if left for too long. Snails can be susceptible to mites and their soft foot is very venerable. Every couple of weeks I check each snail and use a paint brush to brush off any mites, this stops them from getting out of control. You can also use clean water to wash them off if there are allot of mites. If you have allot of mites you should replace the substrate before putting your snail back into its enclosure and repeat the mite removal process several times over the next couple of days. You can prevent the snails from getting mites in the first place by using sterile peat and quickly removing any uneaten food. Snails are very messy so you will have to replace the substrate often. You will need to replace it AT LEAST every 6 months but could be more often if you have a messy snail, or a few snails in the same tank. You know it is time to replace the substrate when if the substrate starts to smell, goes mouldy or looks very soggy.

Snail Breeding :

Snails and slugs are hermaphrodites which mean they have both male and female sexual organs. First of all you have to have 2 snails for the same species (although some snails have been known to breed with other species to create a hybrid). Leave the snails in the tank together for a couple of days and then raise the enclosures temperature by about 2 degrees, they will normally begin to mate when the temperature rises. They will do a little snail dance where both snails will inject a sperm dart into the other snail, mating can last for a few hours. Both snails will then be fertilised and will go off to lay eggs. All of the snails that I have kept bury themselves in the substrate to lay the eggs (I am not sure if this is the case for all snails). Once they lay the eggs, it is s good idea to remove the adult snails from the enclosure because sometimes the eggs will be eaten by the adults. The baby snails will be very tiny and fragile but you can look after these in the same way as you do the adults, the only thing that I would recommend is that you do not put the baby snails in with the adult snails. I have noticed on several occasions the smaller snails eating the shells of the adult snails to get extra calcium which makes a permanent mark on the shell of the adult snail.