lost snail!

[ultrapoi]

i had seven snails. three adults and four jueveniles. for around a week i have counted only six, but thought that one was just having a burrow due to weather. had a good rake about this morning and found nothing! no seventh snail to be found. could he have died and the others ate him? but there is no shell - nothing. there is no way he could have got out the tank. im so confused.

[starcrazy19]

They would not have eaten the shell, it would take... I don't even know, weeks, months, I know they do eat the shells of their fallen comrades in the wild but it would take ages. It's amazing how they manage to escape sometimes... also how they manage to hide, you can only keep looking in and around the tank, I mean comb through everything in there and then start a search grid around it! Good luck!

[snailboat]

Oh, no! I hope you can find your snaily right away!

[ultrapoi]

devastated to admit what i had done. the only explanation i could come up with was that he had been hiding in the food bowl when i threw old food away. ive been through every bag in the wheelie bin and sadly found him. im horrified that i have done this and truthfully didnt want to post this. but id rather someone else may learn from my mistake than not admit what had happened.

im so sorry little snail.

[snailboat]

Awww :-(

[wreckoning]

i am sorry for your loss.

[starcrazy19]

Oh don't be too broken up! It is awful when mistakes like that happen but we do all make them, big or small. I've done this with my tortoise - left a binbag on the floor and he's climbed in it - and if he haddn't been wriggling around he might have been lost forever. Pure luck that he was found in time. They get dropped, stepped on, cockups with chemicals... we're not perfect and I sympathise very much Hope you feel better soon! X

[muddydragon]

oh im so sorry to hear this. did he survive his ordeal or was it too cold?

[latebloomer]

I have had to check foodbowls, leftover lettuce and under the water bowl when they were tiny. The other night I heard a "plink" on the carpet and thought it sounded like a little snail fallen, but oouldnt find anything. When I went to bed I was down looking under the bed again and yes there he was lol.

[vallery]

Hi ultrapoi ,

I have accidently tossed a few snails into the garbage bin with the old food before without knowing. Luckily when I opened it up later on they were crawling up the inside of the garbage bag. I am not sure if before this I had done it and lost some because I don't know the exact count in my tanks. So now I check very carefully with a flashlight to make sure I don't do it again. So sorry for your lose.

Vallery

[ultrapoi]

thanks everyone for being supportive and non judgmental. xxx

[malacophile]

Although it's hard not to, there's no need to beat yourself up. Accidents happen, especially with small, sticky critters like snails. Despite checking dishes and food, I'm sure I've probably accidentally thrown some out. Also, there's the accidental deaths by smashing. Ever have a ton of tiny little snails that like to hang out on the lid? Then when you go to put it back on, you hear that dreadful crunching sound, only to look underneath and find that one got squished? With that many little snails, it's bound to happen eventually.

[moon]

Back in the summer I had over 100 baby snails in my outdoor run. It was a nightmare changing the food because they would all be hiding amongst the folds of lettuce or wrapped up in the curly kale. I decided to put all the old food in a carrier bag on changeover days, then place the open bag inside the wheelie bin. Next day I would check the bag and any stray babies were always attached to the inside of the bag. I'd carry on looking every day until the bin men were due, to make sure there were none left.
I used to thoroughly go through all the veg so carefully, I could never understand how I managed to miss them, but quite a few were rescued from the bin!

[Zorst]

I've lost a few baby snails hiding in leaves thankfully, I managed to find most of the escapee's alive and well but did beat myself up when I found one that had found its way into some dirty washing n it went through the wash cycle n the dryer. It sadly didn't survive n I felt just terrible.

It was an accident but it shouldn't have happened, from what I could gather the rug rats found it on a walk n put it in a pocket to bring it home, but forgot it was in the pocket. I still don't know how I missed it but I did.

I now double check everything n the rug rats have a little tub with lid each in there pockets with some air holes in for any snails they find n rescue. I also put all the used food I clean out of the snail tanks with babies in a plastic tub with a lid. I leave this for 24 hrs before I put it outside so that any escapee's get a chance to crawl up on the side or roof of the tub, its meant a few wandering snails have been re found and returned to there tanks.

Zorst

[crucify]

I've lost a lot of baby snails sadly, it's so difficult to manage all of them because they're so small. Don't beat yourself up over it, it's one of those things that happens to most people and everyone makes mistakes.

[Cashell]

Ouch! Based on what I read from the posts above, it seems like losing baby snails is a rather common, unfortunate event that has happened to most of us with myself included.