Snail shells in the wild

[Amy]

Ive just been watching a snail crawling round in the garden and to be honest its shell was perfect, very yellow and not a single mark of rasping on it, it really puts all mine to shamr because there shells are practically white from rasping -.- I was wondering how snails in the wild have such nice shells and where they get there calcium from?

[coyote]

Snails can sense calcium in the environment and will naturally gather where it can be found in the soil or near a creek or stream whose source is in limestone-rich hills.

[Robert Nordsieck]

Hi there,

and there is the fact that snails in the wild tend to spread more widely: Usually there are not so many in one place, like in a terrarium. Many snail species also eat earth to get calcium, which they usually cannot do in a terrarium unless you enrich the soil with calcium sand or the like.

There is, though, a problem, which snails cannot have in a terrarium: In nature, snail shells are often harmed by air pollution such as acid rain, especially in larger cities. Even rich calcium sources in nature will not help there...

Fact is: You can do what you like, but a snail in its natural environment is always better off than in a terrarium.

Kind regards
Robert