help! hibernating snail!

[psyence]

hey~

my fulica, jupiter, has suddenly decided to hibernate. he's about 18 months old. he didn't hibernate in the winter, which i thought was odd but i left him to it, since he had no other problems. i assumed that it was because i was living in my university halls of residence, which were heated 24 hours a day, so he didn't feel the cold and therefore didn't know to hibernate.

anyway, i moved into a new house about 3 months ago. he was acting as usual up until about 3 weeks / 1 month ago, when he suddenly started burrowing under the soil [ i know that's common in snails, but he has never done that - he prefers to sleep above the soil in the moss ]. i left him to it after digging him out once, since i figured he was just sleeping, but just checked on him now and he's definitely hibernating now.

is this normal, because he didn't hibernate in winter? should i leave him to it, or dig him out and wake him up - and if so, how do i wake him?

thank you!

[Katie]

it is normal for snails to burrow. if you want him to come out though, then place him in about 1cm of WARM not hot water and that should wake him up.

[spook]

Try upping the temperature in the tank if that's poss........

[psyence]

crisis over! i put him in some warm water and gave him a bath, and he woke up in about a minute XD he's happily munching strawberries now.

another question though: does anyone know what the best heat mats available are, and where i can get them?

thanks!

[Ryan]

I keep snakes and have all my mats from snakey shops,saying that I`ve never used any form of heating for my snails.... It`ll ba about twelve quid for a small one

[Rachel]

ebays got a good range of well priced heat mats, although some of the postage is overpriced, it is still possible to get a bargain.

[monday]

go to your local petshop they'll point you in the right direction. If you have a plastic storage box set-up you'll have to drill some holes in the back of the tank where the mat will sit, otherwise no heat will get through.
It is best to go to a local shop though for a few reasons. They make their profit from dry goods suck as food, tanks, cages etc. they hardly make any profit at all on the animals and fish they sell, as they have to care anf feed them and employ people to clean them out etc.
They know what they're talking about because they have experience.
they value their customers and ofer their regulars discounts.
If something goes wrong with a product you bought their it's easier to replace than if you bought it online.

For example you buy a heat mat from an online shop and four weeks later it breaks, you'll have to send it back before they can replace it, maybe this will take a week or so. Long time for a snail to have no heat esspecialy in winter. If you buy from a local shop and it breaks you can go down their and get a replacement instantly.

Sorry to go on about it but these superstores are forcing little petshops out of buissiness, and the emploies in the big places know nothing about the stuff they're selling most of the time.