Hellew

[eibhlin]

Hi

I'm new here obviously, I live in Belgium and just took in my first snail ever. It's a regular snail from my garden.
I kinda accidentally stepped on it but the snail was fine. His house was just a bit damaged. I found information online, also on this forum about helping snails to recover. So that's what i did. He's been in my home for 4 days now and his house seems to be healing.
I wanted to join here because i have a lot of questions since i never owned a snail before.

He is currently living in a plastic box with holes in the lit so he can breathe.

The fluffy orange things is one of my cats. He wanted to see what i was doing

[eilisnail]

Hi Eibhlín,

The shell is actually a very integral part of the snail, and unfortunately shell damage can lead to death, but if it's only a little bit damaged with a bit of TLC he should make a full recovery. The most important thing is that he has a constant source of calcium available to him - I think I see a cuttlefish bone in your setup? That'll help a lot.

If you're putting anything like bark etc from outside, make sure to pour boiling water over it first to kill any mites etc. Don't put rocks in, he could damage his shell further by falling on them.

I'm trying hard to see the snail in the photo but I can't find him! Any chance you could take a close-up so we could see what the damage to his shell is like?

I also have cats. Snail-watching is excellent entertainment for them!

Welcome to the snail world.

Eilís

[eibhlin]

Yes i placed some sepia in there for calcium supplies. I checked the snail when the accident happened. I learned quite a lot about snails at school (did animal care for a while) but we never talked about housekeeping lol. I only know their anatomy and reproduction stuff.

I'll cook the bark, i just added it in the container. But i have to replace the soil as well. I placed some earth from my garden in it. But i read somewhere that it's better to have coco based stuff in it. I heard you can buy that in a store we have here so i will have to check it out. So one of these days i will clean and boil the stuff in there

The snail is hiding in that orange flower pot.

Here you can see him/her/it


I don't have a close up tho, i don't really dare to take him out to take a pic. I'm afraid to damage the shell again.

I was wondering, is it ok to place an other snail with it? This one is a Cornu aspersum or common garden snail. I was thinking about placing an other one with him, like grove snail or brown-lipped snail (Cepaea nemoralis). I wonder if they also would breed if they are 2 differend types of snails. I don't think they would kill each other, i see them both a lot in my garden.

[eilisnail]

Yeah coconut coir is great. You can get it in blocks on Amazon, or in a pet store. He looks to be in good shape from what I can see. If you want to pick him up you can do so by allowing him to crawl onto your hand or onto a leaf which you can then pick up, that way you don't risk further damaging the shell.

I would say probably wait until the shell has healed a bit before putting another snail with him, but yeah cornu aspersum can live very happily with cepaea nemoralis, and no they won't be able to breed with each other. They definitely wouldn't kill each other, and snails do love company, so I think once his shell is a bit better it would be a very good idea to get him a snaily friend! Even if you do put another cornu aspersum with him and they breed, if you don't want to keep the babies you can just release them in your garden as they are a native species.

As snails can keep sperm in their system for up to two years, there's a chance he'll lay fertile eggs anyway, even kept on his own or just with a cepaea nemoralis, and of course the same goes for any wild-caught snail friend you might put with him (unless they are caught before reaching sexual maturity).

[eibhlin]

I tried waiting for him to slide onto something but it usually takes a looooong time. When i clean the container i usually do it when he is on something so i can take him out with that. His shell, the back where all the peaces were gone has new growth. It was a thin grey skin as it seemed. But this started to harden out. On the side that spiral thing was cracked but seems like it is reattached to the rest. But his shell will never be as pretty as it was. I think if it heals completely, it will stay deformed. It doesn't seem to bother him tho. He can still crawl into it if he wants as far as i have seen. But the last few days he doesn't go in his shell, he just lies there while he sleeps. Probably feels safe or something?

Yep, i was planning on placing those eggs in the garden if it would happen that i find some. I have been looking around for a snaily friend for him last night. Lot's of different colors out there. I found a nice brown/pink one. But it's kinda hard to tell how old both are. The one with the damaged shell for sure. The other one seems to have only one line at his shell so i assume he's young?

[eilisnail]

Jun 9, 2016 2:59:52 GMT eibhlin said:

I tried waiting for him to slide onto something but it usually takes a looooong time. When i clean the container i usually do it when he is on something so i can take him out with that. His shell, the back where all the peaces were gone has new growth. It was a thin grey skin as it seemed. But this started to harden out. On the side that spiral thing was cracked but seems like it is reattached to the rest. But his shell will never be as pretty as it was. I think if it heals completely, it will stay deformed. It doesn't seem to bother him tho. He can still crawl into it if he wants as far as i have seen. But the last few days he doesn't go in his shell, he just lies there while he sleeps. Probably feels safe or something?

Yep, i was planning on placing those eggs in the garden if it would happen that i find some. I have been looking around for a snaily friend for him last night. Lot's of different colors out there. I found a nice brown/pink one. But it's kinda hard to tell how old both are. The one with the damaged shell for sure. The other one seems to have only one line at his shell so i assume he's young?

No, the amount of lines on the shell doesn't change as they get older and has nothing to do with age. You can tell if it is fully grown by looking at the outermost edge of the shell; it is still growing if it is thin, fragile and paper-like, but if it is solid and defined the snail is no longer growing.

[eibhlin]

The line looks quite sollid. I hope they will still live for a while?

[eibhlin]

Since i can't post a new question in like all the boards, i'll ask it here...
I was wondering if a snail could be lonely even if they are with 2 in a tank. I have 2 different species and they don't seem to hang out together. They also have sleeping patters that are totally different. One is active when the other is asleep and visa versa. I have been looking in my yard for an other Cepaea nemoralis but i'm a bit picky on which one i would like to add. Is it possible that this snail could be more active and happy with a fellow species member?
I have been looking outside in the rain because i was looking for a specific color but didn't find it yet (unless i would take a HUGE one but i prefer a younger/smaller one). My garden is filled with babies i noticed but they are all Cornu aspersums.

[minineko]

I'm keeping 1 aspersa with a bunch of cepaea and they are doing fine.

The different species can't breed with each other. Try might try, but it won't work.

[eibhlin]

Jun 13, 2016 16:37:49 GMT minineko said:

I'm keeping 1 aspersa with a bunch of cepaea and they are doing fine.

The different species can't breed with each other. Try might try, but it won't work.

Do your cepaea lay a lot of eggs when they are with a few. I kinda got a bit excited when i searched trough my garden and found 2 very very nice cepaea so now i have 3 and one Cornu aspersum. I can't find a lot of info online about them. When i look for care for these snails i only seem to find either scientific papers or 'how to cook snails' websites

[eibhlin]

My snails haven't touched the sepia yet. I tried to put some powdered sepia but they didn't touch it either. Maybe it takes them a while to discover it?