Can snails breed before being fully grown?

[ariannak]

Snails CANT breed before forming that lip of their shell that signals they are fully grown, right??

[Dumbledore]

I think they can, but they won't get any eggs out of it.

[tsrebel]

It also depends on the specie. I think they can mate a little time before forming the lip.

[Cashell]

They might try to "copulate" but won't actually be able to produce anything.

[Tomáš Protiva]

Many species from family Achatinidae are reproducing before they reach their final size. Same for Subulinidae.

[muddydragon]

as Armak says.

I know from experience these can breed before reaching their final size:

Achatina fulica (all varients),
Archachatina marginata suturalis (i would expect the same of the other subspecies)
Hadra webii

I suspect most species can breed before reaching their full size so i would start doing egg checks well before they reach full size

[snailboat]

One of my Helix aspersas isn't full size yet but has already mated twice! (No eggs yet, though...)

[vickyholt13]

I too have had experience my rodatzi and my white jades so fulica species have bred before been fully grown and produce eggs

[Cashell]

So after reading this thread again, it appears that others are saying that snails can actually produce eggs before reaching full sexual maturity. Most of us know that when most animals (especially upper class mammals) produce babies before reaching full maturity it's normally not good for the animal themself nor the offspring, so now I'm wondering if snails suffer any consequences from producing while immature?

[Tomáš Protiva]

You are mixing sexual maturity and final size. In many species snails are sexual mature before they are full grown. So they can reproduce and it couses no problems for them. Cluthes could be smaller because of the smaller size of the parent animal.