Thanks for the reply.
Its been 4 days since i catch the snails. In the terrarium, they have water and food (and moist), but i didn't put soil. Everything looks good - they sleep enough, they are active when they don't sleep and eat well... They digest the food, and they don't show any signs of problems.
Is it really impossible for snails to live without soil if they are kept as pets and don't live in the wild?
Also, i heard that snails can keep the eggs inside themselves until the last moment before the hatch, and when they feel the eggs are about to hatch, they will release the eggs. They do this, in the wild, too, if they decide it's unsafe to leave the eggs alone. Is this true? In this case, is soil still needed for the hatch?
Can you explain me how soil helps snails to digest? My snails don't have soil, but they still digest the food im giving to them.
Thanks.
Yes, they require soil. Keeping them in a bare enclosure without any substrate is unnatural and cruel. Please don't keep the snails if you are not willing to provide them with an appropriate environment.
At least just go outside somewhere and scoop up some soil and put it in the tank, as even that would be better than giving them nothing at all.
The soil as part of the digestion cycle is thought to be related to requiring natural bacteria from the environment in order to digest their food, this is also why you should not keep snails in an environment that's too clean. It takes longer than 4 days for digestion problems to occur.
This is an extract from a paper called "The Life of Achatinidae in London" which discusses the digestion cycle of snails:
"When the animal has finished cleaning itself, it extends its head and foot and ambulation
commences, the dorsal body waves now being more powerful. Shortly after this a snail may
cease ambulation, its head being slowly lowered to the soil and then raised again. The process
is repeated a number of times and the soil below the head is ingested, leaving a shallow
depression that is wet from the snail's activities - apparently due to secretion that
accompanies the dorsal body waves. Ambulation may then recommence, the snail may
delicately examine a piece of apple with its anterior tentacles, its down-turned optic tentacles
and with its lips. It may now commence to feed, its activity being accompanied by powerful
and rapid dorsal body waves that bring a watery secretion from the external surface of the
head and cervical region into the feeding area, There is some evidence for suggesting that
each snail may have a cycle of feeding activities, viz. the ingestion and communition of food
that is then defecated without, or with very little digestion; the ingestion of soil - and some
food - followed by digestion and defecation; and, finally a period (?one night) of little intake
of food followed by a day when the faecal string consists of material from the digestive
gland. There may be a 3-day cycle, that raises problems in the feeding of these animals. It
also raises the question of the animal's possible need for regular ingestion of soil flora and
fauna together with rotting food material. In one useful but hazardous experiment a vivarium
was provided with double-sterilized soil, all surface soil and faeces were removed 3 times
weekly and the loss replaces with more sterilized soil. The first sign of trouble was a
cessation of oviposition in a formerly actively reproducing population of mixed ages. In 3
weeks the snails then ceased to feed and became lethargic and, in the following month, 13 out
of 24 snails died. At this point the experiment was terminated!"
