Housing Garden Snails

[sandrachameleon]

The shell of the snail is made of a different substance than that of mealworms. plus you dont feed snails as a staple, unlike some people who feed mealworms as a staple without realising the problems they can cause..

right. Mealworm skin, the chinton, doesnt digest well. Snail shell, calcium, digests a little more easily. Neither should form more than 10% of your animals diet, IMHO.

Im going snail hunting today, Im wondering though, how long should I keep them before using them to feed, Im thinking around a week to be sure they have been gutloaded well and the bad stuff has been excreted. Is this about right?

normally recommended not to feed any wild snails to chameleons, ever. Parasites are not going to be excreted. Rather, collect them and breed them. They breed very readily and quickly. once you have a few hundred eggs (will not take long!) return the parent snails to the wild and raise up clean baby snails.

I know what you mean about the crappy UK weather, I arrived back from Germany on Wednesday and its done nothing but rain since! lol. It was 33c in Germany last week.[/QUOTE]

 

[Goatsniper]

So snails shell digest easy? That's cool. The snails around myhouse are the size of golf balls.

 

[sandrachameleon]

NO, not easily digestable. If you want easily digestable, use silkworms or crickets.

golf ball size = those are too big
use younger ones.

 

[Goatsniper]

ill skip the snails. wouldnt want to collect anything from outside. southern california is like one big petri dish

 

[beeek0]

I've been trying to look for somewhere to buy snails online.. If possible at all, would you be willing to ship me some snails so I can start my own colony? I will pay for shipping costs.. Private message me if you are willing. If not, that is okay too.

 

[Miss Lily]

I have given up trying to breed snails. I just couldn't get things right for them and they stayed permanently sealed in their shells. My friend sent me some baby GALs but I'm not having much luck with those either, lol! I'm going to give up on the snails idea!

 

[bradley]

I have given up trying to breed snails. I just couldn't get things right for them and they stayed permanently sealed in their shells. My friend sent me some baby GALs but I'm not having much luck with those either, lol! I'm going to give up on the snails idea!

GALS were my first exotic and they can get pretty big with good food and calsium. My primary school had one with a 20cm shell length!

 

[pssh]

If they are in their shells all the time its probably too dry. They need it to be nice and moist/humid to come out.