How long can a snail go without food?

[Deleted]

Not that I want to starve a snail, but I'm just thinking hypothetically. I wanted to put this under "Food", but couldn't.

Obviously, its gotta depend on size too, I figure. But I have had both pond snails and an apple snail in a tank of water outside for months, without feeding them. Obviously they eat a lot of humus/detritus too, so maybe they aren't the best examples..

I have an A. Achatina and a lot of A. Fulica babies, and I'm not going to be home for a month. Of course I will be giving them some food, but even if they eat all of it - how long would they be able to be okay without any other food at all?

[vallery]

Can you find someone to take care of them. A month is way too long. Aside from food they need misting every day.

[Deleted]

Mine can go a few days at MOST. check your local pet shops they may offer a boarding service.

[muddydragon]

You couldn't post in food as it is in the reference section. Posts which would be useful for reference are moved there by mods

The snails outdoors will almost certainly be getting algae that will be growing in the water.

In theory snails can go a very long time (months and months maybe much longer) without food as long as they are dormant (but i wouldn't consider it as a going away option).

With the correct long lasting foods and setups mine are happy to be left for up to two weeks, they could probably do longer but i am not happy to do that. Where are you going away? could you perhaps take them with you? if not you'll need to find someone to feed them and do an egg check.

[Deleted]

Eggs wouldn't be a problem. The only one big enough to lay eggs, I won't mind if she did.
There are nobody I know that could take care of them. I don't have a lot of friends or contacts, and the few I have, are probably going on vacation themselves. I'm going to visit my mother for christmas, and right now I just have way too many babies to be able to take them all with me, and make sure I got all of them.
Misting won't be a problem either, because I rarely even mist anyway, because my primary tank is setup with lots of plants in soil, and a water dish, all on top of a heating cable. The cable wouldn't be turned on of course while I'm away, but the sun through the glass is usually enough to keep a nice humidity in the tank.

So really, my main problem is food. For now, my plan is to buy some food that doesn't spoil, mainly live plants. But I'm not sure how long it will last though.

[vallery]

Hi giesjl ,

Sorry to hear that it looks like you will have to leave your snails on their own when you go on holiday since you don't have anyone to care for them and can't take them with you. So I was wondering if after your holiday you could let us all now what you did and how it worked out, it would be very helpful for other members that find themselves in this same difficult situation.

Thanks
vallery

[morningcoffee]

Nov 26, 2013 0:12:57 GMT @giesji said:

Eggs wouldn't be a problem. The only one big enough to lay eggs, I won't mind if she did.
There are nobody I know that could take care of them. I don't have a lot of friends or contacts, and the few I have, are probably going on vacation themselves. I'm going to visit my mother for christmas, and right now I just have way too many babies to be able to take them all with me, and make sure I got all of them.
Misting won't be a problem either, because I rarely even mist anyway, because my primary tank is setup with lots of plants in soil, and a water dish, all on top of a heating cable. The cable wouldn't be turned on of course while I'm away, but the sun through the glass is usually enough to keep a nice humidity in the tank.

So really, my main problem is food. For now, my plan is to buy some food that doesn't spoil, mainly live plants. But I'm not sure how long it will last though.

Sorry to hear that you don't have any choice about leaving the snails, and no-one to help out. That's tough
If you remove the skin from a sweet potato, or a squash, chop it into 4 pieces or so and leave it, I'm sure they will eat most of it before it goes too mouldy/rotten, and without skin there shouldn't be any inedible parts to get left over and grow mould.
I think live plants would also be a good idea - you could get some planted lettuce, basil, as well as some other snail-edible plants perhaps (ficus, hostas, birds nest fern etc). You can maybe plant some seeds into the soil as well so that they'll start sprouting up while you're away and give some seedlings for the snails to nibble on - this used to happen when I gave the snails tomato or butternut squash, some of the seeds would inevitably get into the soil, sprout, and the snails would then munch the baby plants If you have natural sunlight falling on the tank then that's even better for live plants of course
You can also try some nuts and seeds that would keep for a long time - my snails loved peanuts, cashews, sunflower hearts and pumpkin seeds, and I'm sure you could try other types too (obviously nuts and seeds should all be plain and not flavoured!). Try them in advance and see what your snails like - then when you go you can leave a big pile of them for the snails to get through while you're away. I don't think they would spoil too badly.
You could possibly also try dried fruit? I remember giving my snails dried apricot before and they ate it, so you could look into this - also maybe things like dried coconut? I don't know if dried fruits would keep for a month but I think they'd keep for longer than fresh food.

Obviously make sure the water dish is full, and give the tank a good spraying before you go to make sure the substrate is nice and damp and hopefully won't dry out too much

[tsrebel]

Good to hear that keeping humidity is not a problem, because that is a huge problem here whenever I go away. I use sunflower seeds as holiday food mostly (haven't tried nuts, will do). I leave my snails for up to two weeks ca once a year and they are fine with it (although their tanks are usually quite dry when I return). Last time, I left one big chunk of sweet potatoe with skin and it didn't spoil. I've birds nest ferns in my terrariums and the snails don't eat them.

[Deleted]

I decided that I'll take my 3 favourite snails with me, just in case. The rest, I'll leave with live plants and potatoes (already sown some bird seeds in their soil).

How is beets as an alternative to sweet potato, when considering how long it takes to spoil? I got a few of those, and some other root fruit ("root fruit".. that was probably a bit of a direct translation )

[muddydragon]

I'm assuming beets is beetroot? I've found my guys don't like it, i'm not sure how long it takes to spoil when raw sorry.

[wreckoning]

I recommend leaving some dog biscuit too, and depending on how many snails you have, more live plants than you think. I can't believe how fast my slugs ripped through two small basil that I added to the tank. But if the terrarium is fully planted with lettuces, basil etc, that will spread the load so individual plants don't take too much damage and die off.

[tsrebel]

Dog biscuits will spoil pretty quick in a moist environment. I don't recommend that.