Stimulating activities for snails.

[shaydeesnail]

I am aware that snails don't do a whole lot, but I do worry about them getting bored even though I try to put enough interesting things for them to climb on in their tanks. I'm in the process of upgrading to some larger tanks so they can have more to play with!

I thought it would be interesting to have a thread where people suggest things that they do to keep their snails happy and stimulated.

At the minute I'm stuck for ideas, all I really do is get them all out at once for a tank-top carrot picnic and let them all see each other and stretch their... feet?

I once read a thread in which someone said that they liked to place their snail on the (soapless) soap dish while they showered and let the snail crane it's head into the spray, it seemed to really enjoy it.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

[mechangel]

Snails seem to like exploring anything new, and other snails.

I don't trust the shower tiles not to have any chemicals lingering as of yet, so I took a plastic salad bowl and put it on a shelf meant for shampoo and things in the shower and they climbed all over it and enjoyed the spray and humidity. The smaller tanks I put on the bathroom sink counter and they get all steamed up and active (be careful if its cold in your house not to move them from steamy bathroom to cold rooms too fast without letting them adjust, at least I feel like that should be taken into consideration)

I let them climb around in the sink while I'm cleaning their tanks, they love to climb up and sit right on the handle that controls the water and try to stick their head up the water faucet (tap in the UK).

I want to find a sculpting material or toy castle or something for them without hard angles that is mildew resistant and can't be eaten by snails. (or if it can be, that it be healthy.. cuttle and carrot castle??)

I have some wooden tunnels they love, made for a hamster or something, but one of the tunnels grows little white mold no matter how many times I clean it. I baked it in the oven last night, so maybe that will help.

I put a fake wired plant with plastic and cloth leaves in the largest terrarium, and they don't actually climb it but it offers support for big romaine lettuce leaves when I feed them which they DO love to climb up, and the fake leaves are stiff enough to break a fall from the lid (and might save any snails on the substrate from a falling snail) I'm kind of paranoid about them falling.

[inky]

You should buy multiple coloured carrot seeds on EBay. (Yellow, white, purple, red, etc.) and grow them. Then you can cut the tap root off and grow the leaves in the tank. You can give them the multi coloured carrots, too. Little picnic

[inky]

Oh, by the way, the purple carrots are quite sweet for humans, too. Not sure about the others, but the purple ones stain. Just a warning.

[inky]

SUDDEN EPIC IDEA! Okay sorry for clogging this thread, but:

PURPLE PARTY!

Buy purple cloth/towel.
Place purple towel down.
Place snails on towel.
Give them purple carrots, purple cababge, purple lettuce, etc.
;D I was gonna do this once, but purple carrots are expensive here.

[mechangel]

..and voila! Purple poop?!

[inky]

Jun 14, 2012 18:08:16 GMT mechangel said:

..and voila! Purple poop?!

Don't let them eat that!

[shaydeesnail]

Oh wow! Love that idea!
It actually makes me chuckle a little bit when I see their poop after carrots or lettuce, when the poop is brightly coloured :') ...Makes it easier to find when cleaning though! I wonder if making a purple vegetable mush with limestone flour would come out a pretty lavender colour... I'm thinking about this too much ahah!
Mmm I hope they don't eat it Geckonator! I do sometimes catch the Cepaea poopmunching. ¬¬

[inky]

Ewwww... And also, a little confused about how you hope their poop is a certain colour... I never really think about it xD

[pinkunicorn]

My little sluggies seem to change their preferences now and then. I expanded the climbing area in the terrarium with cut up Chinese take away boxes (plastic ones), and at first they loved to sleep under them (I cut one box in half and put it upside down in the terrarium), in the box ceiling. But when the babies went in they got bored of it. So I returned to building hanging leaves from some bamboo sticks and lettuce/cabbage. I fold the leaf in two and hang it from the bamboo stick, so it hangs in 45 degree angle. They just love sleeping inside the fold that forms. Both sides of the leaf inside are covered in slugs (and poo, obviously). I also hide bits of food into little folds of the lettuce, usually fish pellets. They love climbing all over the leaves and I assume discovering the food caches is a nice bonus. I imagine this works for smaller snails, too.

I've tried a lot of things for the aspersas, but the thing they prefer most is a very deep soil for burying. And pottery, they like to sleep in pots. They don't seem too into climbing, though I've tried to put a lot of sticks into their box to give them something to climb on.

The leopard slug has a lair. It seems to be entertaining enough, since he doesn't do a lot else than gorge large amounts of food every night, and sleep in his lair. And poo in his lair. Need to chase him away so I can clean up daily. He also has some sticks, but he doesn't care for them. Perhaps some living plants would be fun.

Generally, I try to increase the sliming area as much as possible with constructions and sticks etc.

[actos]

Thank you all for these brilliant ideas!

Poor Dave has not had much stimulation in his tank (which used to be a small Pet Pal type of thing) - just the soil, the walls to climb and cucumber + lettuce to eat.

I've now put him into a big storage box, with a plastic flowerpot on its side to hide in or climb over, as well as a few plants (2 houseplants suitable for terraria, and a couple of basil sprigs which he'll probably munch). He spent the first 10 minutes exploring the middle of the box, and then climbed on the wall... and there I left him on Friday afternoon. I'll find out if he's moved from there tomorrow morning!

I'll try the lettuce leaf for climbing and eating - before, he just had tiny or torn leaves, but I have some romaine that I will take to work for him.

With branches/twigs, is it better that they are solid and thick, or bendable and soft?

[shaydeesnail]

Good ideas everyone
I'd probably use harder branches, unless there was a long way to fall on them. I wish I'd dried out the bark I let my snails climb on first! But then the resident woodlice had babies and they all hid in it and I couldn't do anything about it ahah