What to feed baby snails

How to Care for Baby Mystery Snails

By Asa Jomard | Updated September 26, 2017

Things You'll Need

Aquarium
Aquarium plants
Aquarium light
Air stone
Air driven sponge filter
Fish food
General hardness kit
Plastic box
Paper towels

The mystery snail is an aquarium snail. There a several different types of mystery snail and it is difficult to classify these snails. Various names are used such as apple snails and golden apple snails. A common form is classified as Pomacea bridgessii. These snails belong to the family Ampullariidae. The mystery snail comes in a wide range of colors, including gold, brown, tortoise shell, black, white, green, blue, purple, pink and ivory.

Use a plastic box to transport the baby mystery snails. Put damp paper towels or moist synthetic filter cotton in the box to protect the shells during transport. Mystery snails can stay out of water for days even weeks. Make some breathing holes in the lid. Baby snails can also be moved in water-filled plastic bags.

Keep baby mystery snails in an aquarium with the parents. Large fish may eat baby snails, so keep fish in a separate tank. If a new aquarium is used, prepare it with plants two to three weeks before adding the baby mystery snails.

The recommended number of snails per tank is 1 per 2 1/2 gallons of water. You can keep more baby snails in a tank, but it is ill-advised because snails grow quickly. The filtration and aeration of the aquarium also influence how many snails you can stock. A tight-fitting lid prevents the snails from escaping. Provide small ventilation holes.

Mystery snails prefers tropical conditions and keep the temperature of the water between 65 - 82 degrees F.

Use a general hardness kit to test the water. Use a product like Aquasoft to treat the water if it contains metals. The water level should be at least twice as high as the largest baby snail. Leave a 2-inch gap from the top of the tank, and provide filtration to keep the water healthy. An air stone or air-driven sponge filter will help to keep the water well-aerated.

Provide light to the aquarium to encourage the growth of algae on the walls. This may give the snails the only food they can reach. Baby mystery snails eat the same kind of food as their parents, but a young snail raised in a tank may not be able to reach the food. Fish food is the preferred diet, but snails may also eat aquatic plants. Regular feeding may prevent snails from eating plants. Baby mystery snails also eat lettuce and other vegetable likes carrots, cucumber and spinach.

Water with a pH above 7, is required for healthy shells.

Warnings

During the first weeks, many baby mystery snails die.

Baby mystery snails grow quickly and they may devour aquatic vegetation.

References

Apple Snail: Apple Snails
Apple Snail: Home

Photo Credits

Writer Bio

Asa Jomard began her career as a freelance writer in 2008. Her work has appeared in print and online publications, including Baby Corner. Jomard holds a Bachelor of Social Science in psychology from Umea University, Sweden, as well as a degree in counseling from the Australian Institute of Professional Counselors.

How to Make a Homemade Habitat for Baby Snails

By Judith Willson

i Rusheng Yao/iStock/Getty Images

The United States is home to a multitude of different land snails, but most of them have largely the same basic needs. If you plan to raise some baby snails you found in the garden, you almost certainly don’t need much in the way of equipment or expertise. Normally, snails don't make particularly demanding pets, although they do need a suitable habitat and a plentiful supply of food.

Snail Basics

Snails are mollusks, distantly related to squid, clams, cuttlefish and oysters. Specifically, they’re gastropods, along with limpets, slugs and others. Unlike slugs, snails can retreat into their shells when necessary, so they won’t die immediately in dry conditions. They can even seal themselves up and become dormant for a while. However, their skins are not waterproof and so they much prefer damp environments, which is why you often see snails emerging after rain. Most, although not all, land snails are herbivores, munching their way through a variety of plant material, including leaves and fruit.

The House

To maintain humidity and prevent escapes, you need a glass or plastic container. Snails will eat their way out of cardboard, and even if a cage contained them, it would be very difficult to keep it damp enough -- the air in most homes is too dry for optimum snail welfare. A plastic box, such as a large, clean ice cream tub or storage box, is fine, as is a small aquarium. Make numerous holes in the lid with a sharp knife, poking it through from the underside of the lid and twisting. These are necessary for ventilation; just make sure the holes aren’t bigger than your snails.

The Furnishings

Snails don’t need elaborate homes, having only a few basic requirements. Add 2 or more inches of chemical-free potting compost at the bottom of the box. Garden soil is not ideal because it contains a range of other organisms, some of which could be dangerous to the snails. A shelter, such as a large piece of bark or a plant or yoghurt pot on its side would be appreciated. Also include small saucers or lids for water and food. Other decorations, such as moss, are optional and mainly for your viewing enjoyment.

Food and Drink

Unless your snails are an unusual species, they’ll probably be happy with a varied supply of leaves, such as lettuce, cabbage and various weeds, vegetable peelings and scraps from the kitchen, and the odd slice of fruit. Remove any uneaten food when it starts to rot or go moldy. The snails may or may not drink, so provide a small dish of water just in case. Tap water usually contains chlorine or chloramine, which won’t hurt you but are not very good for snails. Preferably, use bottled or rain water. If you want to use tap water, leave some in a bucket for 24 hours to allow the chlorine to evaporate.

Maintenance and Care

Mist the snail house regularly to stop the compost drying out. You’ll need to clean it occasionally, probably about once a week or every two weeks. Transfer the snails to another container, such as a smaller box with air holes and a little damp compost on the bottom. The shells of newly hatched snails are extremely delicate and remain so for a few weeks. As the snails mature, their shells will become tougher, but take care moving them when they are babies. Instead of picking them up with your fingers, just move whatever item they are resting on. Tip out the old compost and rinse the box and shelter before drying them, adding fresh compost and new food and replacing the snails.

References

University of California Museum of Paleontology: The Mollusca
Washington State University Museum Collections: Gastropod (Snail) Family Index
Conchologists of America: Terrestrial

Photo Credits

Writer Bio

Judith Willson has been writing since 2009, specializing in environmental and scientific topics. She has written content for school websites and worked for a Glasgow newspaper. Willson has a Master of Arts in English from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Snail care, snail feeding

Snail diet basis: AKHATIN

The basis of the diet is plant foods - juicy (according to the season) or dry. Each snail is unique and has its own taste preferences, often choosing the types of food fed by the breeder. Therefore, if your pet does not eat any product, try offering it after a few days or replacing it with another one.

Juicy foods include all gourds (pumpkin, rinds or pulp of watermelon, melon), vegetables (carrots, beets, cucumber, tomato), parsley, dill, lettuce. They love snails and fruits (apple, pear, plum).

Please note that snails are not recommended to give potatoes, although they love it, because. it can promote calcium leaching. But with the proper amount of calcium in the diet, you can sometimes pamper your pet with potatoes (raw). In summer, plantain leaves, dandelion, wood lice, beet tops, carrots, leaves and flowers of pumpkin, zucchini, cucumbers serve as an excellent addition to the diet.

Dried nettle and plantain leaves are a good source of vitamins in the winter, when it is not recommended to give out-of-season vegetables (cucumber, tomato, lettuce) due to the high content of nitrates or preservatives.

A good way out of the situation is ground grain mixture. It is better to do it yourself, grinding cereals in a coffee grinder. For example, you can take food for guinea pigs (sold in pet stores), grind. It is undesirable to use cereals from ordinary stores, because they are cleared of grain shells, and there are a lot of useful substances in shells for snails.

Calcium for snails

But only succulent products or grains are not enough for snails. The SECOND IMPORTANT part of the diet is calcium. From calcium, the snail builds and repairs its shell house.

The source of calcium is fodder chalk (school or chalk for rodents is not suitable), sepia (cuttlefish shell, sold in pet stores) and ground shells from raw and boiled eggs. All this can be given at the same time, because the calcium in these products is “different”.

The share of calcium products can be up to 40-50% of the volume of all food.

Do not be afraid of overeating - if the snail does not need calcium - it simply will not eat it.

Protein in the snail diet

The THIRD COMPONENT of the diet is protein. Protein is needed to build and maintain your pet's healthy body. Snail protein is well absorbed from food for ornamental fish - daphnia and hamarus. You can give a small piece of frozen meat or poultry to try. The proportion of protein in the diet is small, you can give it once a week.

It is worth considering several facts: snails are crepuscular animals, so they eat mainly in the evening and at night. In the morning, the remains of wet food must be removed to avoid spoilage and reproduction of fruit flies.

The larger the snail, the less often it "dines" - adults can eat 2-3 times a week. So if your adult snail does not eat for 2 days - this is not a cause for concern

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care, maintenance, feeding, breeding of snails

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Basic rules for feeding small Achatina snails

Video: How to feed newborn Achatina

What is the article about:
How to feed small Achatina (depending on the season).
List of fruits and vegetables, protein and calcium supplements for newborn Achatina snails.

The diet of the African snail must be varied from an early age.

First, it will help the snail grow and develop properly.
Secondly, if her diet consists of only 2-3 types of food (favorite food), and it may not be at hand for various reasons, and you decide to feed the mollusk with food unknown to her. Achatina will begin to refuse to eat foods unfamiliar to her, so supplement her menu daily with various vegetables, herbs and fruits.

👉 Be sure to read the article about the care and maintenance of small Achatina here.

What to feed newborn snails

Snails hatch in the third week after the eggs are laid in the ground.

For the first few days they feed on the remains of their shells and may not even come out of the ground. Many biologists believe that eggshells are a kind of basic food for a newborn snail, so you can sometimes read that babies can not be fed for the first five days.

Laying Achatina in the first days

However, the crumbs are unlikely to refuse a fresh leaf of lettuce sprinkled with ground shells, food chalk or sepia. You can even arrange shredded vegetables or fruits in a feeder or on a salad, generously seasoning the top with a calcium top dressing.

Babies need large amounts of calcium from the first days. For the first few days, the babies eat the food you offer and often burrow into the ground, gnawing the remnants of their shells.

👉 Don't forget to give the kids water to drink, read here how to do it.

Calcium is necessary for the formation of a beautiful and regular shell.

On the 4-5th day, newborn Achatina are transplanted into a specially equipped small container. Lay out a few lettuce leaves on the bottom of the box, instead of soil. For the first week, the snails move little, eat a lot and gain strength.

The daily diet of newborn snails should include various finely grated or chopped:

vegetables - pumpkin, cucumber, marrow, carrot, cabbage;
fruits - apple, strawberry, pear, watermelon, melon;
greens - lettuce, dandelion, burdock, parsley, nettle, dill;
protein-calcium top dressing - daphnia, gammarus, chalk, sepia, shell rock.

Do not feed Achatina newborns with soft and viscous food (banana and boiled cereals), as babies “load” in them and may suffocate.

What to feed small Achatina

The basic food of small snails should be finely grated or chopped vegetables, herbs and fruits. It is useful to add vitamins to the diet. Little Achatina are happy to crunch on lettuce and thinly sliced cucumber.

At the age of two weeks, snails are taught to eat carrots and apples. You should sprinkle all the vegetables and greens with crushed calcium, since the Achatina actively grow and develop in the first months of their life.

Little Achatina snails with their main dish for the first 9 days: lettuce and calcium supplements Little Achatinas: lettuce leaves as if they were not there

In addition to plant foods and calcium supplements, the little snail needs protein food. A good protein supplement is dried gammarus, daphnia. These are common aquarium fish foods that are sold in pet stores and the bird market. The food is dried freshwater crustaceans, which contain a large amount of nutrients, vitamins and trace elements, so necessary for the growing body of the snail.

👉 Read more in the article about gammarus.

Gradually add a protein supplement, gammarus, to the diet of small Achatina

Starting from the age of three weeks, you can introduce products that are fed to adult Achatina. Now give preference to thinly sliced vegetables and fruits, rather than grated foods. Peel vegetables and fruits from hard peels, so it will be easier for kids to get to the tasty and juicy center.

From the age of one month, feed your snail all vegetables and fruits that are in season. For example, Achatina loves beets - both leaves and turnips. It is advisable to wash the leaves thoroughly and finely chop, and grate the beets and mix with calcium top dressing.

Young snails, like adults, eat all kinds of vegetables, all kinds of herbs, fruits, cereals, herbs.

👉 Here we have analyzed in detail what vegetables and fruits can generally be eaten by Achatina.

Small snails are happy to eat Chinese cabbage, crunch zucchini and pumpkin, lettuce and Jerusalem artichoke, sweet pepper and peas. They love Achatina - sweet apples and peaches, bananas and pears, apricots and plums, strawberries and raspberries, melon and juicy watermelon.

How to feed small snails in winter

The choice of fruits and vegetables in winter is as diverse as in summer.

Starting from banal apples and bananas (but definitely not in the first week), ending with juicy pineapple and exotic papaya.

Include more cereals and vegetable protein in winter.

Don't forget the sepia and crushed eggshells.

You can buy frozen vegetables and fruits, mixed vegetables with mushrooms. Treat your pets to the new dry food for vegetarian fish.

Lettuce is the basis of the diet of the Achatina snail

Basic rules for feeding small Achatina snails

Small snails should have fresh and nutritious food around the clock.
Put food in lids, bowls, or use lettuce leaves as an edible tray. No need to pour food directly onto the bedding for small snails.
Feed babies at room temperature
Always wash vegetables, herbs and fruits thoroughly and then remove the skin - primarily to remove pesticides and nitrates from the surface.
Change food regularly (every 4 hours), remove leftovers. Not only do your pets love the warm, humid environment in a terrarium, but so do flies, bacteria, and nasty smelly mold. Try to avoid mixing leftover food with the soil. Keep clean in the "house" of little Achatina.
When removing uneaten food, inspect it carefully, suddenly a baby is hiding there. Pay special attention to uneaten lettuce leaves before disposing of them.
Do not forget to give water to the snails. Spray twice a day the substrate and walls of the terrarium. You can place a shallow saucer with boiled water, but you must make sure that the babies do not drown when bathing.
Newborns and very small snails should not be given soft and viscous food - there is a high chance that they will suffocate. Babies can boot into banana pulp, so why take the risk.
Products prohibited for adult Achatina should not be given to small ones. This food is harmful even for humans - everything is fried, smoked and sour, spicy and sweet. White flour, eggs, semolina and pasta are prohibited, and the main mortal enemy for all snails is ordinary table salt.

You can feed small snails with the same products that you feed your adult domestic Achatina, only grind everything on a grater, in a blender or cut into small pieces and bars.