another snail retracting very deep

[daniel]

its me again another one of my snail is retracting deep we cleaned the box fullly with new dirt but we forgot to clean the snails i know its a stupid mistake but one of my snails is retracting deep again he is currently sitting on food they constantly have access to food please help i dont want to lose another snail

[orchid]

i know i’m late, but deep retraction syndrome maybe? this happened to my snail when i replaced the dirt, but he’s back to normal. maybe he’s just confused?

[snerdahmik]

Is he alright now? He may have just been dry. Sometimes snails retract deeply just to sleep for longer periods of time. You don’t have to clean the snail every time you change the soil, unless the soil was moldy (I recommend changing it out before that point).

If you do feel the need to clean him, just set him in very shallow water. They usually groom themselves around the skin and the mantle. Anything nasty stuck on their skin will also usually fall off into the water. Use a wet Q-tip to gently rub any mess off of his shell.