Things snails do that you didn't notice before you kept some

[freethinker]

For example, when they're eating they pull their tentacles into a narrow position and tilt them down towards the food/ground. I never noticed that before at all. They don't always do it, but mine do it when they're getting apple or oatmeal. I'm not sure, but it seems to be a behaviour they do specifically when they're enjoying a particular food. Snails really seem to relish certain foods in particular.

And when you try to pick one up, they put their tentacles out either side. Maybe that's to see what the "predator" that's after them is like, or maybe it's just a general "I do not like this" position.

And they kind of wiggle their tentacles ever so slightly when they're moving forward. Like they're trying to sense what's around them.

These are just some things I hadn't noticed when I just saw them outside. All you would notice otherwise is that they eat plants and like wetness.
What kind of things have you noticed ? I find them very interesting. They're the kind of animal you really have to watch closely.

[gpew]

Before he went into hibernation (GAH!) Rocket liked to "splat" after a good meal. He'd let his body sort of turn into a puddle and sit outside of his shell in what I assume was food coma mode. He also used to sit in his water dish. sometimes he'd slime up to the water, dunk his head and leave it there for a few seconds and then move almost his whole body in and sit in it like a bath many minutes at a time. It wasn't deep, but he'd always keep part of his foot on the edge -- very careful and clever, I thought.

Actually, I'm amazed at the well considered nature of all the instinctual behaviors I observed. For something without much of a brain, these little guys sure are smart ... or well programmed, as it were. And so good at finding their food. I always put it somewhere else in the tank just to make sure he got some exercise. And he'd always find his favorites.

They are absolutely fascinating and adorable sweet little critters, aren't they?

[malacophile]

Before I kept them, I had no idea they could enjoy a bath with such obvious pleasure. I also never noticed how the bigger ones seem to hold their food with their foot to keep it in place. Or that you could hear them eat. Or that they'd be so curious and outgoing. They're just full of surprises!

[pinkunicorn]

Slimers have some smell sensors also in the upper tentacles where the eyes are located, though the lower pair is the primary smell organ. I think that explains why they bend down the eyestalks when eating something particularly yummy; it's like us humans smelling the food to get the most out of the flavour with sense synergies. Slimers, too, want to experience the flavours to the full!

[Kitana]

Actually the upper two tentacles have hundreds of thousands of chemoreceptors used for smelling, very similar to the human nose and they detect smells in the wind from long distances. The two 'eyes' on top of the tentacles are used to detect light and shadows, they cannot see. The 2 bottom tentacles are for tasting (like 2 tongues), especially before ingestion and they can distinguish between salty, sweet and bitter foods they literally devote half their brain to smell/tasting and that's what they use to navigate themselves.

[pinkunicorn]

Smell and taste are basically interchangeable as senses (in humans at least some 90% of perceived taste is actually smell), I just say smell when the contact to the aroma is via air delivery and taste when it is ingested. That's why I call the lower tentacles noses because they seem to not directly touch the food they are sampling with them. They must be able to smell/taste more than humans, though. It's been proven (at least) Limax maximus can tell the protein content of otherwise identical foods, learning to choose the food higher in protein. So some kind of umami receptor must be present. I guess umami as it's what humans have and its taste is associated with protein rich foods. The reaction when a wild slug or snail gets fish food for the first time suggests there's quite some tasting and smelling going on, and the offered food is almost always preferred to those with less nutrients.

We all know what the other half of a slimy brain is used for btw... you don't, as a species, keep up mating rituals like snails do without sacrificing some brain power!

[Kitana]

I wouldn't say smell and taste are interchangeable, you can't smell with your tongue or taste with your nose and both use different receptors to distinguish one another (things that smell sweet for example aren't always sweet) Although smell makes up 90% of flavours, it doesn't make up taste. If you block your nose and eat something salty, bitter, sweet, sour etc you will still be able to tell the difference but not get the flavour of what it is very well. I think the top pair for smelling is just to find the food and the bottom pair of tentacles contain the taste buds so the mouth doesn't have any, probably so they didn't need to be in the position of having to actually put something inside them without being slightly sure if it's poisonous or not but it does make contact with the food
I don't think they need to smell/taste as much as we do, we're completely different evolutionary wise so require completely different needs, I think from the word go we've been different lol ( us being deuterostome and them being protosomes ) but it probably has a lot to do with the relationship with the brain and food, we are fortunate to detect flavours but not everyone enjoys the same tastes even though chemically they're the same, I can't stand marmite but my partner lives off the stuff. We're also able to relate senses with each other like smell and memories so it can give a more pleasurable experience, our tastes change too so something hated as a child can be loved as an adult, So our way of tasting and relating to our needs is different
Umami is a hard one, it's still 50/50 about whether it's a taste or not and food that have a strong umami taste aren't always high in proteins, but that's detected by our gluconate receptors binding to proteins so it's another different story, but I think that they could detect the levels as it's not a secret that they prefer decomposing flesh to fresh and our umami sense is detects stronger levels with cooked or decomposing meats. However it might be something that is detected after ingestion rather than before.

I applaud them for having such a complex mating ritual lol ours isn't far off though if you were to break it down, they way we find our potential mates and the hormones involved are really something special. It doesn't look like that from our eyes though and we all know the effects alcohol can have on 'choosing the right mate' lol

Suddenly I have the strangest craving for a big, juicy burger! All this talk of umami has gotten me going lol