Housing Garden Snails

[Miss Lily]

So, I am trying to breed snails for my young Jackson. Up until now I have been keeping them in a cricket tub but I found a lot more today since the weather is now warmer and wetter. I have a large plastic tub with a really tight fitting lid. Do I need to cut out part of the lid and replace with screen? Do they need much ventilation, or can I just put the lid on?

 

[coldbloodedAL]

Im not sure if they need ventilation or not, but they do need it wet and humid. But not too wet. I keep mine in a large cricketkeeper and havnt had any issues yet.

 

[suzi]

I am wanting to start a colony of snails. Do you use a substrate and what do you feed them? Can you please post pics of your set ups? Thanks

 

[coldbloodedAL]

I am wanting to start a colony of snails. Do you use a substrate and what do you feed them? Can you please post pics of your set ups? Thanks

I will post some pics when I get home I use a large cricket keeper(will be moved to a 10g aquarium), filled with a few inches of sterilized organic soil, sticks, leaf litter, little bit of grass. I feed them a lot of the greens I use in my gutloads.i mist them just enough to keep everything moist when needed, but not to the point where its drenched. Sandrachameleon has a good blog on snails too(where i got all my info from)

 

[bradley]

When I kept Giant african land snails which share similar care to our natives I had them in a bid plastic tub with a few air holes poked in the top. They like a nice deep soil substrate to lay eggs in. Also get some cuttlefish or put in some egg shell to give them lots of calcium which can be passed onto your dinosaur!

 

[Solid Snake]

Dont feed them mustard greens. I caught some to breed, and gave them some. The next day, they were melted.

 

[Miss Lily]

When I kept Giant african land snails which share similar care to our natives I had them in a bid plastic tub with a few air holes poked in the top. They like a nice deep soil substrate to lay eggs in. Also get some cuttlefish or put in some egg shell to give them lots of calcium which can be passed onto your dinosaur!

Thanks Bradley, I have already got the cuttlefish (I have also been reading Sandrachameleon's snail blog).

Dont feed them mustard greens. I caught some to breed, and gave them some. The next day, they were melted.

Oh dear! I have so far fed mine rocket leaves that I also use as gutload.

 

[Miss Lily]

Im not sure if they need ventilation or not, but they do need it wet and humid. But not too wet. I keep mine in a large cricketkeeper and havnt had any issues yet.

Are you keeping garden snails or GALs? Have you offered any to your Jacksons yet?

 

[coldbloodedAL]

When I kept Giant african land snails which share similar care to our natives I had them in a bid plastic tub with a few air holes poked in the top. They like a nice deep soil substrate to lay eggs in. Also get some cuttlefish or put in some egg shell to give them lots of calcium which can be passed onto your dinosaur!

Dont feed them mustard greens. I caught some to breed, and gave them some. The next day, they were melted.

Lol that sucks man! Ill keep that in mind

Are you keeping garden snails or GALs? Have you offered any to your Jacksons yet?

They are garden snails. I have not fed any off yet i am waiting til they start producing young. Once they do that all young will be moved to another enclosure to grow.

 

[Miss Lily]

I have quite a few large ones now thanks to the miserable UK weather! I just wish they would hurry up and get jiggy!

 

[pssh]

I had mine in a tub with a tight fitting lid for quite a while. I only opened it to remove eggs or feed them.

 

[coldbloodedAL]

I had mine in a tub with a tight fitting lid for quite a while. I only opened it to remove eggs or feed them.

You can see the eggs? What did you do with them once removed?

 

[Miss Lily]

I had mine in a tub with a tight fitting lid for quite a while. I only opened it to remove eggs or feed them.

Thanks - did you put any screen in the lid or air holes, etc? Or did you just put the lid on?

You can see the eggs? What did you do with them once removed?

I would also like to know this! What do the eggs look like? Do you have any pics please Kara?

 

[pssh]

I just put the lid on. I just bought a shoe box tub from a store and popped it on. I did try it with some holes in the lid once, but it was summer time and it dried out too quickly so the snails never came out.

With these particular snails, if you dig around a little/see the adult laying the eggs you find clumps of small clear-ish balls (about 3-5mm in length and squishy.) The clumps I found were usually in the 20-30 range.

edit: like this

http://cdn2.arkive.org/media/B4/B4F...43FC/Presentation.Large/Garden-snail-eggs.jpg

 

[Miss Lily]

Cool! Thanks! I'll just put the lid on them then! They are currently in a cricket tub and I find that it has too much ventilation really, I have to mist them often and a few are sealing themselves in until I mist them.

I have found a small yellow/orange ball in the tub that wasn't there when I put them in. Just the one and there is only clean eco earth in there.

 

[sandrachameleon]

You can see the eggs? What did you do with them once removed?

You should probably move the eggs (or at least the young snails) into new container, so that anything nasty the parent snails have is less likely to be passed along.

baby snails:

 

[banshee1]

Can i feed any type of snails or just this one??

When I put my panther in the garden he is always trying to catch lizards i dont let him. Should i let him????

 

[sandrachameleon]

Can i feed any type of snails or just this one??

When I put my panther in the garden he is always trying to catch lizards i dont let him. Should i let him????

This is the only snail I've tried / know that is safe. It is very possible that at least some others are too though. Land snails, that is. Water snails carry more worms, Im told.

Wild lizards likely to carry many parasites also.

 

[Goatsniper]

I dont understand why people say not to feed your lizard meal worms, because the shell is too hard, yet there are lizards out there digesting snails....am I missing something?

 

[Benton1576]

I dont understand why people say not to feed your lizard meal worms, because the shell is too hard, yet there are lizards out there digesting snails....am I missing something?

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.

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?

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.