Native species with non-native substrate?

[limacology]

hello, all ! i'm so glad i found this forum, i didn't know there was so much to keeping snails and slugs. ^_^ i read some articles a while back about slug keeping, and i was wondering if it's ok to have a native species with bought substrate? will it hurt them?

thanks in advance !

[littlegoldsnail]

Highly depends on the substrate, if you buy coconut fiber or similar substrate from a pet store I’m sure it’s perfectly safe and I know of quite a few people who use that, I’m not 100% sure about potting soils from the garden store, probably just read labels and make sure it is chemical free. Alternatively you can bake soil from you backyard or garden to make sure their is nothing bad living in it before you use it for snails enclosures. I don’t even bake the dirt from my property because all my snails I found around here and we have good soil with no chemicals, but probably my best recommendation (and many others) is coconut fiber from a pet store, it’s great substrate for any type of snails. You can find it at just about any chain petstores (Petco, PetSmart, etc) in the reptile or small pet section.

[littlegoldsnail]

Btw, the slug on your avatar is adorable! Is he some type of banana slug or similar species?

[morningcoffee]

Yes they'd be fine. As littlegoldsnail says, coconut fiber / coir is a very good substrate for most slugs and snails.