the amount of food

[foghog]

I've noticed in many of the pics people present, there are often huge amounts of food. seriously, like food 2-3 times the size of the snail, and multiple types often leaf lettuce, strawberries,melon/etc. in the same feeding....anyways it seems likes it is just a huge amount of food, do snails really eat that much? I'm aware that common sense would tell someone more intelligent than I, "Hey...their snails look really healthy and gorgeous....if it's in the picture, then ya...duh...they know what they're doing." but still figured I'd ask, do you put the food in their until they eat it, it starts to spoil and get soft, or do they eat it like within a day?

[coyote]

If your snails are eating all the food you give them within a day, you could probably offer a little more and see if anything is left over. That way you'd know you probably would not be underfeeding them.

From experience I know how much my snails are likely to eat (and it also depends on the season and if they want to estivate or not), so I tend not to put in a lot at any one time. I leave it in for up to three days, removing it sooner if it develops an odor or visible mold. Sometimes the snails will eat it more if it sits for a day or two and isn't quite as fresh anymore. Even so, I wind up chucking out a fair amount of uneaten food anyway.

[Amy]

I think you have to get to know how much your snails will tend to eat. For example mine dont have an overly huge appettite from time to time but a slice of cucumber wornt last very long in the tank. I'd say it also depends on what the snail eats depending how much its going to eat, if they dont like something they wornt eat it ^.^ But if they do, they may be small but they find space in there to fit a heck of alot of food in o.o

[crossless]

I did with my a. fulica group so that I weigh how much they eat and then counted about how much they eat and I added little extra and that was good way to know how adjust amount of food.

I could start to do that with my tigers too soon.

[foghog]

thats a good idea, and what I am doing as well. I haver to say I am glad mine love zucchini since I have literally 50 lbs of it probably from my gardens. heh....I do find it slightly ironic that I work to keep snails out of my garden, yet am feeding them stuff I pick for them out of it, and even transferring whole plants from it for them. I only wish it could continue all winter. I'm glad they also like winter squash though, which actually I have some butternut from last years crop still, the squash lasts in storage forever.

[crossless]

I did it so that wrote down about 1 to 2 weeks foods what I gave how much and what was eaten and how much left untouched then you get nice baseline to help weigh food for them.

[SojMad]

My snails eat A LOT, especially my fulicas and immaculatas - I can definitely understand why they are considered being pests in some parts of the world. Eating a whole bell pepper in a night would probably not be a problem at all for my four immaculatas, but I use to give them almost a half, and then a lot of cabbage, carrots and such. I feed them every night, and everything is almost always gone by the next day, no matter how much I feed them. The ones that eat the least are my L. flammea, they aren't as insatiable as the Achatina-species. ;D