Please Help with Baby Snails (What to feed and Release)

[monssnails]

Hello

I have done much research on snails, Helix Aspersa/Cornu aspersum and baby snails via the internet and this website. But I need some help on some things I couldn't find. 

Thanks in Advance 

1. My Helix Aspersa/Cornu Aspersum are very very very very common in my area, as in you will see one ALL THE TIME. So I am going to release the babies, but I need to know at what age is the best time?


2. I am currently using CuttlefishBone and Oyster Shells to feed them calcium (Crushed) - but I saw on a post an owner made a gorgeous paste with eggshells and Cuttlebone - Does anyone have a recipe?


3. What age do I put them with my adults? Around a month? two months?

4. I am feeding them smaller bits of vegetables I feed my snails, from the list on this forum - Is this okay? Or should I not give them domestic food, or they will not know how to hunt?


5. Release - Is a park, forest or my garden the best place to release?

6. Before Release - Before I release my babies (they would be juveniles at that point) should I stop feeding them vegetables, and begin giving them leaves and stuff from outside? So they know what to eat? And stop giving cuttlebone? I'm worried they won't know how to find food


Thank You for anyone who can respond, I really need help and I want them to be as healthy as possible and I don't want them to die of hunger in the wild.

[HazelSnail]

1. I would release them sometime after their shells have hardened and thickened more, so they are less vulnerable. The rate of growth can vary a lot, so I don't know exactly when this would be, so I would just go based on observation.

2. I don't know a recipe, sorry!

3. Similar to the answer for #1, when their shells have become more like the adults in hardness, and they are no longer so small that there is risk of the adult snails smushing them.

4. It should be fine, I think.

5. I would say a forest. A garden may have pesticides, even if you don't use pesticides, the soil may have runoff from a garden that does. The same goes for a park, depending on what sort of park it is.

6. You certainly can, but in my experience snails are pretty good at finding food, even when raised in captivity.

Hope this helps!

[etana]

I wouldn't worry very much about them getting along in the wild. If you release them to be with adult snails of their own kind, they will follow their slime trails to good stuff.

Feeding the babies small amounts of everything the adults get is perfectly fine. Try to get them to eat as many different tastes and textures as possible, that way they'll be more open to new tastes as adults too.

[witchpig]

I would release them when their shells are one centimeter in diameter, just to be safe.