Post by etana on Oct 24, 2014 7:15:41 GMT
I have a few adult Arianta and many babies & young ones, whose momdad is the lovely Big Eyes (his partner is in snaily heaven). The babies are learning very well to use the cuttlebone and especially the biggest ones have gorgeous shells, but I was wondering about this:
Big Eyes is my only Arianta whose shell looks nibbled on at all. Not much, but the nibble marks are in places that he can't reach easily. Could it be possible that he's consciously let his babies do it?
It'd make sense that snails would sacrifice a little bit of their shells so their offspring can have a better chance to grow good shells until they can locate other calcium sources on their own. Then again some say that baby snails are just so opportunistic, they see an adult snail as just slow moving calcium - but I would suppose that if that were the case, other Arianta would get nibbled on as well, not just their very own parent!
Comments, observations?
Big Eyes is my only Arianta whose shell looks nibbled on at all. Not much, but the nibble marks are in places that he can't reach easily. Could it be possible that he's consciously let his babies do it?
It'd make sense that snails would sacrifice a little bit of their shells so their offspring can have a better chance to grow good shells until they can locate other calcium sources on their own. Then again some say that baby snails are just so opportunistic, they see an adult snail as just slow moving calcium - but I would suppose that if that were the case, other Arianta would get nibbled on as well, not just their very own parent!
Comments, observations?