The biggest snail on Earth

For you snail lovers, on a previous post we talked about snails as pets. That’s right, as home pets as fish, dogs and cats.

One special kind of snails are the Achatina Fullic or African Giant Snails. These are the biggest snails on Earth, when they are babies they only have 0.5 inches, but they can reach up to 12 inches and weight 2.2 pounds in their adulthood.


Original from Africa, these large beauties can be found almost anywhere since the times of World War II when they were used as canned food. Just imagine animals that eat almost anything and grow large in length and weight so fast.

But it is their big size what makes them a hard to raise as pets: all the food it has to eat, their massive reproduction (300 to 500 eggs!), their fast growth, their destructive potential (especially for agriculture), and that they can carry the parasite that causes meningitis. But still, very impressive animals, only for truly dedicated snail lovers.

Please note, African Giant Land Snails are illegal in the U.S. (but not in other countries).

Snails can be adorable pets (II)

Snails are not only nice decoration for the fishbowl; they can also be adorable pets that can live alone or with other animals.

There are two types of snails, that due to their differences, each kind has a particular care.

Water snails

• Also known as conches, water snails are small and have eye-catching colors (they present different shades of green and yellow).

• They can live alone or with other small sea animals in a fishbowl. You better leave 8 inches free of water, since they lay their eggs in the dry areas.

• For hygiene reasons, when changing the fishbowl water add chlorine tablets to prevent diseases.

• You can get them pet stores for $1 each.

Terrestrial snails

• Mostly known as escargot, these snails present a brown or coffee-like color and they can reach up to 10 inches (as the ones in Ecuador). Their feeding is mostly vegetal; they eat lettuce, papaya leaves, and any other edible leaf.
  

• The best place to have soil snails is a delimited place in your garden or a humid place with compost so they can comfortably lay their eggs on.

• You can get them pet stores for $2 each.

Source: El Universo

How to take care of a snail pet

Snails are fairly cheap and easy to maintain as pets, though you have to be careful of releasing them into the wild because someone could step on them or get caught by predators.

A special case is Giant African Snails which can not be released into the wild at all; they can cause ecological havoc due to their great devastating power, especially for agriculture. If you have or found one, contact the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

As for raising a pet snail you would need:

• A wide transparent and well-ventilated tank.
• Soil or compost.

Fun stuff for the snail, such as:

• A stick or log.
• Plant pot
• Ornaments
• Leaves
• Twigs

As for food:

• Fresh apples
• Carrots
• Celery
• Lettuce

As for cleaning:

• A bowl of water to drink and bathe.
• A Water spray gun to keep the tank moist.

For more on exotic pet animals, you may visit our friend site Exotic Pets.

Source: Petsnail.co.uk

Snails can be adorable pets

If you have always been fascinated or curious about snails, what about raising one as a pet?
5 reasons for having a snail pet

1. They can be cute and fascinating animals to admire and collect.
2. They can live for a fair good time, depending on the specie.
3. They are very easy and inexpensive to maintain.
4. They do not take much room, just a tank with soil in it.
5. They eat almost anything from plants, vegetables, fruits to fungi.

Snail facts

• They are hermaphrodites, they produce both spermatozoids and ovules.

• They must be kept warm and humid.

• Their main predators are birds, snakes, frogs, hedgehogs, turtles, and even some species of predator snails.

• Snails hibernate in the winter, and during this time they can loose up to60% of their weight.
  

• They lay ages when they are about 3 years old.

• Snails only have 1 foot, 2 eyes and 2 tentacles.

• The most common kind of snail for pet is the Lissachatina fulica.

Source: Petsnail.co.uk

Snail farming, a fast-growing business

A very interesting fact to take into account snail breeders: 300 000 tons of snail meat is consumed per year around the world.

The first consumer worldwide is France with 400 000 tons, followed by the emerging markets of Japan and the United States.

However, the problem is that the major producers as France, Greece, Italy and Spain are not able to satisfy the demands of other emerging markets as Mexico and Peru where the consumption of snail-based dishes is increasing.


So, what are they doing to satisfy the demand?

In Spain they are doing a research project to increase their annual snail harvest. They are working with the Helix aspersa specie (the most popular in Spain), they are scattering baby snail parcels of 4mm, where the vegetal covering gives shelter to the snail and provides conditions similar to its natural habitat.

Young fish are fed with fodder, which allows getting fast and uniform cultivations. Fodder increases the available useful surface of the parcels, which allows a great increase of the young density.

The growing and fattening phase combines supplying and fodder; and at the end the baby snails do not receive any more fodder and not consume the existing resources until the end of the cycle.

This method achieves 2 fattening cycles of 300 snails per 10 square feet (above the normal), preventing the diseases and problems related to the intensive system. In commercial terms, this means snail producers can adjust the raising cycles to the market high seasons and getting high production and prices for the sale.

Please take note this method was designed especially for the geographic and climatic conditions of Andalucía in Spain.

Source: ABC.es