• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Land snail, Soon! Oo!

Thanks Janine. I admit I am a little upset, sounds silly I know but I do get attached to them, they are such wonderful creatures.

I documented her illness as much as I could with images and notes of what I was observing, because we still know relatively little about giant snails and maybe what killed her can in future be prevented/treatable.
 
Silly? You're talking to someone who cried when their stick insects eventually died. The only reason I gave up my snails was because I got upset at destroying the eggs.
 
Thank you, it is nice to know I'm not the only one who does get attached to them! :)

I am potty about snails. I have no idea why, but I've always loved them. As a kid I used to go out when it rained and gather huge handfuls of them. My next door neighbour would literally run indoors when she saw me with my snails. :rofl:
 
Oh yes! When I was little the stripey snails found on chalky soil were more common here, I've also been known to rescue slugs and worms from where they'll get squashed when the rain brings them out in force! I love snails' and slugs' faces, with their little tentacles and googly eye-stalks!
 
They are adorable! I will rescue them too, as well as move them in to shady areas when they get caught out in the sun and will dry out. Everyone thinks I'm insane. :grin01:
 
Don't worry, I indoctrinated my boys into saving them too, so at least I won't be the only odd one around here!
 
Plissken said:
Had a thought last night - do you have any spare little tanks/tubs knocking around? It occured to me you might like to have a hospital/quarantine tank, in case one of the snails gets sick.

One of mine sadly passed away tonight after being very sick for three or four days. I tried to save her but failed. It simply isn't true that snails do not become ill like other animals. I have noticed since I moved her to quarantine that my remaining healthy snail has been MUCH more active than normal, scouring the tank. I believe he's looking for other snails; I will be buying him another mate, as I truly believe they are social animals.

I hope you don't mind me posting this on your happy thread George, but a lot of people don't seem to realise snails can get poorly and I thought it was worth bringing it up. :)
Click to expand...

I can vouche for that at least in my garden they are very social, they're social on my lettuce, peas, carrots, artichoke you name they're social with it.:shrugs:
A little queston how do you know when your snail is sick? susang
 
susang said:
I can vouche for that at least in my garden they are very social, they're social on my lettuce, peas, carrots, artichoke you name they're social with it.:shrugs:
A little queston how do you know when your snail is sick? susang
Click to expand...

Depends what's wrong with it really, but the symptoms tend to be quite obvious things, the snail stops eating, stops moving about, withdraws in to its shell, etc. Drusilla suffered from a gut extrusion, which was very unpleasant indeed but very easy to spot. I found her one morning with a large white swelling on her neck and by the evening her mouth was swollen as well. She did not move all day and became increasingly less responsive to stimuli, ie. being washed, touched, etc. Nothing I did would encourage her to come out of her shell or to touch her food and she is gone now. Gut extrusions seem to be fairly rare, but it certainly does happen from time to time.
 
Of course I don't mind you using my thread, thats really sad about what happend to your snail and I wish you luck with his'her new mate!
Got some more money today and got some cuttlefish, only thing left now is soul, and then I'm done, she should get them in in a few days so I may have one then XD


oh and btw, this sounds really strange and something I would not do, but I read on a breeders care sheet that they enjoy beer but not to give them too much or they will drawn, just wondering if this was a joke or not..
 
Snails love beer and it doesn't do them any harm, so long as you only give them small quantities. Snails will drown in ANY liquid if it's deep enough, not just beer.

Did you manage to look around for any capillary matting, George? Soil will do, but I can't say it is the best substrate for them for the reasons I mentioned earlier on in the thread.

Looking forward to seeing the snails. :)
 
I did have a look around but it's not as easy for me to get now our ebay account has been closed, and none of the local shops sell it, I looked for soul too but they say its full of fertalisers, I may have to travel even for soul lol XD
 
B&Q will sell a soil that is safe for snails; I bought mine there when I was using it. If you can find capillary matting though, online or at a garden centre, I would go for that even if it is a little harder to get hold of as IMO it is far better for the snails. Damp soil attracts a ton of flies and bugs; I've not seen a single fruit fly since I started using the capillary.

Wait until you find a suitable substrate before getting any snails, as you have already discovered some substrates can contain harmful chemicals and so on, so it is worth taking your time. :)
 
Thank you for all your help XD

I'll check the local B@Q and im pretty sure there's a few pet shops and garden centres local so i can look for the matt too!

thanks!
 
I found a local shop that sell that Matt stuff, hopefully they will have found it out the stockroom tomorrow, it's been buried in there garden Christmas supplies :)
I really cant wait to get the snails, however I'm taking a slow approach because I want the perfect environments, I guess that's why I only have 3 snakes, I wanted to make sure everything was good before I got another one, now 2 of my snakes are in brand new Viv's I got from my Nana and a tank i got 2 Christmas's ago, there heating is perfect, and they are healthy weights! I want this kind of lifestyle for all my future pets, especially since I'm moving into the insect side of things as well, therefor I'm going to do a lot of research from now on, I want to research things like millipedes, and cockroaches.. Scorpions, and even though I'm petrified of them, possibly spiders =)

As far as heating goes, its winter and my room is still at temps of 75F + the cooler it gets outside the warmer it seems to be inside "strange i know..But I do live in England lol" so I still don't know if I'm getting a heat mat straight away, I possibly will do though :)

my plans to wait a while before I get more snakes means that this April any money I get can be spent on further improvements to making my Viv's look more natural, this will include the snails! I want to make things look as natural for them as possible and I wont hold back on spending, I spent £30 on plants for Damien and Sabrina at Christmas, therefor I want to make sure future pets get a nice looking environment too!

I might even create my own little rain forest LOL

all advise on making the tanks natural.. Ect.. IS MORE THEN WELCOME!

Id like to thank everyone for the help so far :)
 
Well done on finding the matting! It should be green too so really looks quite nice in the tank. :)

I'm glad you're taking a steady approach. Snails are definetly not "throw away" pets and should be considered carefully just like any other animal. No need to rush because the shop is getting some in, giant snails are very easy to come by and there'll always be another time! Maybe the shop will even reverse a couple for you until you're 100% ready for them.

Make sure the snails can dig as this is one of their most natural behaviours. You don't need to use a loose substrate but you should supply a nice deep bowl of damp moss or something similar so they can bury themselves. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top