Snails are very easy to keep so they make good pets. They don’t take up a lot of room, are not messy and their food can be a number of different things. If you can’t find anybody who takes care of them in the holidays, you easily can release them in the wild.
You can keep your snails in many different housings but there are some basic things to remember. Snails like moist environments but too wet isn’t good. So old aquariums are ideal as long as you replace the hood with something that will let the air in. For ideal purposes I would use plastic or glass for your snailarium. This makes it easier to clean and you can see your snails better. Although snails don’t need a lot of space I recommend giving two or three snails about 30 cm (a foot) by 30 cm floor space. Especially if you keep adult Helix aspersa. Of course, the smaller species need less space. The soil can be from your garden, but be careful not to bring in snail enemies. You can bake the soil to kill all bacteria. Sandy soil or clay is not good, an alternative is peat. Make sure you have at least two inches of soil on the bottom, more if you want to breed snails. You can also place flower pots filled with 3 or 4 inches of soil on the bottom. This will give the snails a place to lay their eggs. During the daytime snails like to hide under or in something. A broken flowerpot will do nicely, but some rocks or cork-bark work too. It’s nice to have some plants in your snailarium, plants with broad leafs will give your snails shelter. Give your snail-house a place away from direct sunlight. This will prevent the soil from drying out and your snails from being roasted. It’s sometimes suggested to put a few earthworms in the soil. They will keep it loose and eat some of the snail droppings. But you will need to replace part of the soil after a few weeks, especially in small housings. Here are some ideas to use as a snailarium: aquariums, big glass jars, propagators you can buy at your local garden center, anything you can make yourself.
Snail food can be a broad variety of things. Naturally they like greens. Lettuce, cabbage, leafs from garden plants (Hosta’s!) and weeds. But also cucumber, boiled potato, carrot, oats and bran. It’s important that the snails have plenty of calcium for their shells. You can provide it by giving them egg shells (small pieces), old snail shells or a cuttle bone. Make sure whatever you give them is washed. This counts for all food. If you spray your snailarium daily, it isn’t really necessary to give them water. But if you feed your snails a lot of dry food you can place a bowl of water (not too deep though) on the soil.
Please note that this is aimed at garden snails only and not at Giant African Land snails.
The largest land snail ever found was 15 inches long and weighed 2 pounds!
Snails’ bodies produce a thick slime. Because of this slime, they can crawl across the edge of a razor and not get hurt.
Some snails have been known to live up to 15 years.
Snails are hermaphrodites which means that they have both male and female reproductive organs.
Snails usually travel in irregular paths, often traveling in a circle.
Snails reply mainly on their sense of touch and smell when finding food because they have very poor eye sight.
Snails can retract one or both of their tentacles at a time. Because of the suction created by their slime, a snail can crawl upside down. Snails are nocturnal animals which means they are more active at night. Garden Snails mainly eat garden plants and vegetables, but they will also eat decaying plants and soil. The fastest snails are the speckled garden snails which can move up to 55 yards per hour compared 23 inches per hour of most other land snails. Garden snails hibernate during the winter and live on their stored fat. Garden snails breathe with lungs. Garden snails evolved from sea snails about 600 million years ago. The garden snail is cooked and eaten as a delicacy called escargot. May 24th is National Escargot Day.
