African Land Snails...

pigpen

I went to collect Tiddles from school on Friday and she came out absolutely buzzing that she had been chosen to look after these vile things over half term.. the instructions were.. 'keep them at room temperature'


They have only had them in class a few days so the teacher had no idea.

So, despite the fact I have immortal pets I am terrified we are going to kill all these off.

We know how and when to feed them.. basically we are going with little and often.. being 26 of them.. about an inch across so just babies the tank gets pretty gross otherwise.


I'm sure there are too many in this little tank though!


Anyway.. the point of the post..


The gross things seem to generate water.. it is forming bit of a pond in the bottom.. what do we do with it?


Do we leave it or just pour it away?


I don't want them to drown being so little it won't take much.. I don't want them to be sea snails!


All the info I can find is about cleaning them.. nothing about this excess water.

danih

Kitchen roll to mop puddles?

begley

I LOVE land snails!! Feed them cucumber - they're mad for it. Ours used to like the tops of strawberries too. Cuttlefish will help develop their shells and is very good for them, they like that aswell. You're supposed to keep them damp, so we used to spray ours every day - sounds like yours are managing to keep themselves nicely wet though! 26 sounds a lot for one little tank, have you got anything you could split half into? Still, if they're only tiny I don't suppose it'll hurt for a week. They grow quite quickly, but only to the size of their environment apparently.


We had 5 at one point - Gary, Barry, Arnold, Ian and Fluffy. They have all gone to the snailery in the sky now though. I'd love some more, but Mrs. B says no! They LOVE beer and we used to put a small upturned lid with a drop of lager in for them. When Kiddo was younger we would get a plastic mat, drizzle a line of lager at one end and race them. Ace pets for kids.


Have you named them all?!!! I guess with 26 you could go with A, B, C, etc. etc.!!

begley

Just to add....is there anything in the tank - soil? Or are they just in a tank?? They should be in some soil, top soil bought from a garden centre is best as it won't have pesticides in......

kara7758

here you go:


http://arachnophiliac.info/burrow/caresheets/gals_care_sheet.htm

Fosterdog

I miss my GALS, nobody would believe that the snails had different personalities and one was very outgoing and loved being handled and the other one wasn't a fan of being held but loved water and a weekly "bath" (just an inch or two of luke warm water, splashing it over them)

pigpen

There are 26 babies.. about 1.5 inches .. but they generate water and I have no idea what to do with it.. can it just be poured out?


They have a very small amount of sandy type stuff in the bottom.. under a mush of food and water..


This is as they came to us.. I haven't done anything with them.

pigpen

26 of the ooze brothers!

pigpen

kara7758 wrote: »

here you go:


http://arachnophiliac.info/burrow/caresheets/gals_care_sheet.htm

that is the same as every other one but no mention of this water they generate..


we take out old food when new is added but the water is increasing.


thank all xx

Valli

Were parents not asked prior to the handover whether they would like to care for the snails?

pigpen

Valli wrote: »

Were parents not asked prior to the handover whether they would like to care for the snails?

No.. she came out of school holding them absolutely over the moon she had been chosen.


The teacher had no idea about looking after them.. I'd quite like to put together a list of care instructions tbh to hand back with them.

I asked the teacher what to do with them.. she said keep in a warmish place and that was it.. she had no idea