Raising snails - learning experience
- Thread starter snitz427
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Andee
Chameleon Enthusiast
Sexual maturity can be reached at 8 months with an increased heat and food cycle but that has shown in my snails to have poorly grown shells or they die from improperly kept temps, snails need room to fluctuate a lot with temps at least 5 degrees minimum on either side.
snitz427
Chameleon Enthusiast
I have a little bit of butter leaf lettuce leftover (say that 10x fast). This lettuce always comes with roots, so technically you can put it in soil or water and continue to grow and harvest leaves. I think I’m going throw whats left in the snail enclosure and see how it goes.
The snails dont get a lot of light, but theyve gotten enough to sprout little planrts in the past. Fingers crossed!
The snails dont get a lot of light, but theyve gotten enough to sprout little planrts in the past. Fingers crossed!
Franquixote
Established Member
100%, so will a carrot if you leave 2 inches and the leaves (,(mine actually had no leaves and grew lraves!(.
But the snails don't really eat it, they need like chunks of stuff.
Also I think found it impossible to culture snails without a healthy spring tail population going. Order them adao , Josh's frogs is easiest. Big size ($10 or so). Temperate kind.
Coir has worked best , I tried repti-soil too but coir or a mix of media is best.
Moist too.
For light the carrot and probably everything else will grow with a couple of cheap aquarium daylight bulbs or cheap UV bulbs.
Feed gut load and critically, throw cuttlebone in there!
But the snails don't really eat it, they need like chunks of stuff.
Also I think found it impossible to culture snails without a healthy spring tail population going. Order them adao , Josh's frogs is easiest. Big size ($10 or so). Temperate kind.
Coir has worked best , I tried repti-soil too but coir or a mix of media is best.
Moist too.
For light the carrot and probably everything else will grow with a couple of cheap aquarium daylight bulbs or cheap UV bulbs.
Feed gut load and critically, throw cuttlebone in there!
Franquixote
Established Member
Do you have springtails with them? Eating that much is going to make a lot of poop.
For whatever reason I couldn't get them to really do well without the cleanup crew.
For whatever reason I couldn't get them to really do well without the cleanup crew.
snitz427
Chameleon Enthusiast
Yes they have springtails. Its been debated as to whether springtails bother them or not, but mine are active so I guess so far so good. I was hoping they wouldn’t decimate the lettuce so quickly but hey, they’ve earned it!
Hashtag ChamLife
Avid Member
Hey gents, what type of snails are you culturing?
I live in Florida... unfortunately not quite far enough south for the good ones. Regardless, I've collected garden snails (aspersa variant I think?) and was able to separate a generation of eggs, rinse and as of two or three days ago I have snail babies. They're so tiny they looked like water droplets. This was mostly just to see if I could handle the task.
I guess my question is, have any of you determined if any one species has more or less benefit? Would it be worth making a trip to uh, "re-locate", a few of the proper tree snails?
I live in Florida... unfortunately not quite far enough south for the good ones. Regardless, I've collected garden snails (aspersa variant I think?) and was able to separate a generation of eggs, rinse and as of two or three days ago I have snail babies. They're so tiny they looked like water droplets. This was mostly just to see if I could handle the task.
I guess my question is, have any of you determined if any one species has more or less benefit? Would it be worth making a trip to uh, "re-locate", a few of the proper tree snails?
The Wild One
Chameleon Enthusiast
I never thought that I would find snails cute
coastal_chameleon
Avid Member
Black water reptiles ripped me off !! I bought a gravid female Jackson and iv had her for two years and no babies yet !the second time I order 3 spiderlings from them and they only shipped one as the other two were no longer available so I paid 40 bucks shipping for one spiderling
snitz427
Chameleon Enthusiast
I think most of us have regular ol garden snails (helix aspersa). Not sure anyone really knows the nutritional info enough to recommend one over the other - but just adding snails in general is a great addition! Just make sure you separate the eggs and raise them separately to avoid parasites
Hashtag ChamLife
Avid Member
Yea, after re-reading this thread I realized you said which type you had. I had read someone speaking of the "Florida Tree Snails" liguus genus (I believe). Just wandering if it's worth my while to take a "camping trip" and grab some of those.
Appreciate the reply though. How often do you feed snails off? I think I've read it takes about a week to break down the shell into calcium proper, have you had similar results?
Have you been able (or brave enough to try) reduce the amount of calcium supplements?
[Sorry if this is redundant... but it's this thread that got me into snails to begin with!]
snitz427
Chameleon Enthusiast
Im still waiting for eggs as my initial colony is mostly younger snails. I also took a little while to get it dialed in and active snails. So havent gotten to feed any yet
I plan to offer them maybe once every two to three weeks. I wont scale back supplements but I try to only dust half their feeders with LOD so hopefully Im in a good place right now. I figure they can regulate the calcium, otherwise we would be limiting how many BSFL they get. Obv snails are very different from BSFL but as far as cutting back, it seems calcium is of the least concern for ODing and D3 and Vit A are the highest concern.
Hashtag ChamLife
Avid Member
Lol I get you. I only started my snails maybe a month and a half ago? They dropped babies super quick for me. I honestly didnt expect eggs... nor expect the eggs to hatch. I housed the 1st gen in with some hornworms that had pupated and threw in some random scraps of outside plants and orange/apple pieces.I also have 6 chams so Im hoping my feeding schedule once I have clean snails will keep the population in check. I dont want to have hundreds of snails and only feed a dozen or so a month
Honestly, if not for the ambient humidity and temps of living in Fl, I doubt I'd have a 2nd gen. The eggs I rinsed thoroughly and put in a Tupperware sandwich size box. Found babies maybe a week ago.
Now I'm kinda shocked and looking for what to do next. I also noticed my 1st gen (I've been meaning to toss the out) have now laid more eggs and I haven't touched them since stealing the last batch.
I have 2 chams at the moment and 2 more my wife bought for me "on the way". [Mostly waiting for me to build another cage] I too, dont need many, I havent even tried to get a cham to eat one! With my luck it'll be like my discoid roaches.... I started with 35 and have about 45-50 left, my guys just wont eat em yet.
Thanks for the info and best of luck!
snitz427
Chameleon Enthusiast
From what I hear the chams will love snails. I’d theow them in a clean bin and feed them before they get larger than a dime.
I have no clean up crew at all in with mine and as long as I remember to mist them they do well and I get several batches of eggs spring thru fall. I keep cleaned eggshells in with them and dust their food with calcium powder. It's not an attractive setup but it gets the job done. I'm probably on my third generation.
krikinit
Chameleon Enthusiast
Damn!! Not cool to spend $40 shipping for 1 spider. Especially if you ordered 3.
snitz427
Chameleon Enthusiast
So that small lettuce head I added has been completely, 100% eaten in 8 days. No evidence it ever existed. Which is insane considering there are maybe a dozen small to medium snails in there? Average size is of a black bean or pea?
And........ I have babies!!!!! I havent been checking the soil as I thought maybe they werent large enough or happy enough. Now I know we are good and i can start looking for eggs. Woohoo!! I noticed that some of the babies were squeezing between the lid and getting smushed, so ill need to make sure that the lid is fully latched tight and no babies are near the top when in their bin.
And........ I have babies!!!!! I havent been checking the soil as I thought maybe they werent large enough or happy enough. Now I know we are good and i can start looking for eggs. Woohoo!! I noticed that some of the babies were squeezing between the lid and getting smushed, so ill need to make sure that the lid is fully latched tight and no babies are near the top when in their bin.
