Post by lissydrum on Jul 4, 2010 3:30:34 GMT
I have a garden snail named Stanley. This is all very new to me so please help!! Occasionally he does this weird thing with his tongue and puts this white milky stuff all on the inside edge part of his shell. Then he creates a spit bubble that closes off any space between his shell and a surface. Then he stays like that for a while. I dunno how snails work but I think he's trying to grow his shell. Usually he only stays like that for a few days. . . the longest was five. But he's been sitting in his spit bubble for almost two weeks now! What's going on???
I suspect your snail is estivating. If that is the case, it is normal for estivation to last for two weeks, or even longer. Warmer, drier weather can trigger a snail to estivate by sealing itself up against a surface to protect it until the weather cools off and the humidity rises. I keep Helix aspersa garden snails, and they spend a lot of the summertime estivating. I leave them be unless it goes longer than 2 weeks or so, in which case I gently wake them up to make sure they eat a little something, then I let them go back into estivation again. It is their survival strategy to cope with conditions that are less than ideal and it is an instinctive thing for them to do.