Breeding/raising/feeding off wild snails?

Hi I was wondering if it's possible to breed wild snails, then feed of the young, since I would figure they would have a lesser chance of parasites if they were raised in a clean environment.

I honestly don't even know about feeding snails at all though, I live in Cali, and I always see can/o/snails at the pet stores so I was curious about how it would go. Would you remove the shell? ext.

Thank you to whoever may help and have knowledge on this topic.

Clean, non-WC snails can be used as a feeder. The common garden snails are really easy to breed. The adults just need a little soil/moss to dig and lay eggs in. They will eat just about anything, and I've even heard of someone breeding them with nothing but paper as their food! They need to stay humid though, or they will stay in their shells and never come out.

I made the mistake of keeping mine on paper towel substrate for a day or so. Needless to say it was gone the next day (all of it). But as Kara said, super easy, nothing to it really.

Lol, they eat paper towel? That's pretty hilarious. So a spring mix of vegetables would work?

djfishygillz said:

Hi I was wondering if it's possible to breed wild snails, then feed of the young, since I would figure they would have a lesser chance of parasites if they were raised in a clean environment.

I honestly don't even know about feeding snails at all though, I live in Cali, and I always see can/o/snails at the pet stores so I was curious about how it would go. Would you remove the shell? ext.

Thank you to whoever may help and have knowledge on this topic.

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Captive bred land snails are a good addition to your feeder choices, and very easy to breed/keep. Leave the shell on - full of calcium the chameleon will crunch up. Not necessarily easy to digest, so you wouldnt offer snails as a staple!

Its spring where I live and a great time to collect snail eggs and breeding adults.

how to: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/133-snails.html

So, has anyone bred UK snails and had any success? Jacksons seem to love snails and slugs, etc, but I am reluctant to feed them to Monty straight from the garden. If I could find a pair of common garden snails I might give this a go! Does anyone know how long does it take to get babies?

If they are adults (the kind around here get a lip around the opening of the shell when they are mature) they will usually lay eggs right away. I got babies after a few weeks. The neat thing is that since snails have both reproductive organs, they can all lay eggs and fertilize each other.

The wild kind here are Helix Aspersa. Have been out hunting for some but I don't think the weather is warm enough over here yet as all I found wre empty shells. It is certainly damp enough for them though! I think I may have a rival in the form of a slow worm - we have at least one living in the rockery! Haven't seen that out basking yet this year either.

Yep, those are the same as my plain old garden snails!

We have that kind in Canada too. I've fed them to my chams.

They started roaming my garden again about two weeks ago, when the daytime highs became consistently over 10°C, and only occassional light frost some nights. You could be right about it not yet being quite warm enough where you are.
In cold weather the snail bury themselves becomes dormant. They can survive -10°C becoming active between 4.5°C (40F) and 21.5°C (71°F) - possibly a little warmer if it is also wet. When it gets too hot/dry, they again bury themselves, seal off their entrance and wait it out.

The snails may take up to two years to mature, but the more calcium in the environment the faster they grow up.

Thanks both! I will keep searching and in the meantime, I will buy a cuttlefish bone from the pet shop ready.

I will be out collecting shortly! I know just the spot im not sure what species they are but i will do my best to ID them

Went out and collected almost 40 snails yesterday!!! Mostly adults, so it should be a good start They appear to be Cepaea Nemoralis, I can post a photo shortly for a positive ID.

Here it is

I am very interested in this subject but have a couple questions. I live in washington and the snails here seem to be found in my pond. Live mostly in water it seems are these safe anyone know there common name? also wat about the mystery snails sold at petstores? Hugely similar to snails found In my back yard except I dont find pretty colors just black/brown.. any info I Googled it just cant come up with anything

Well, I found a snail today in the most unlikely of places, lol! I was putting my shopping into the boot (trunk) of my car and saw a snail glued to the underside of my parcel shelf! At first, I though there must be a hole somewhere that it had gotten in through, but then I remembered we had some garden waste in the boot last weekend and it must have fallen out of there! So, I have kept it in the tub I have set up ready and it's already been snacking on apple! Sadly, I think it is only half the size of an adult snail, but I will keep it for now and learn the best way to care for it before I embark on breeding some adults when I eventually find some!

They will become adults at roughly two different sizes, a very large robust size with the shell well over an inch, and a smaller size of around 3/4 of an inch. So that would be about 3-4 cm for the larger size, and 1.5-2 cm for the smaller size. Look for a lip on the shell all around the opening to see if it's an adult.

coldbloodedAL said:

Went out and collected almost 40 snails yesterday!!! Mostly adults, so it should be a good start They appear to be Cepaea Nemoralis, I can post a photo shortly for a positive ID.

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I believe you have identified it correctly.
Looks the same as my grove snails:

Found some more snails today! Yay! Suddenly thought to check under the rims of planters in the garden, and sure enough I found 9 more, but these are smaller.

sandrachameleon said:

I believe you have identified it correctly.
Looks the same as my grove snails:

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Thank you Sandra! The one with multiple lines are very similar to the ones I have. Are the ones with the thicker bands on the shell the same species?