not eating :( Cepaea nemoralis/hortensis

[magdalenak]

Hi I'm pretty new to this snail thing, i got my 2 snails less than a week ago from my friend's garden, the larger one is Cepaea nemoralis and the smaller one hortensis. I have them in a cage together and try to spray it and keep it pretty moist, i also have lettuce, cucumber, carrots, and sweet potato but they don't seem to be eating at all (at least not when i'm around) and they just look skinny to me .. i have a cuttlebone in there that they haven't touched and i crumbled it up and sprinkled it on their food. I see that they are pooping but it's very small. I'm really worried that i'm doing something wrong. Most of the time they just close up and sit at the top of the cage. The larger one also has white-ish discoloration on his shell like the smaller one is scraping it for calcium (like snailhappy was talking about with her snails). If anyone has any ideas let me know! thanks so much!

[Katie]

Try putting some damp goldfish flakes ontop of their food, i find that my snails cannot resist them

When you take the food out, are their any signs that they'v been munching at it?

[ness]

Katie's suggestion is a very good one.

You could also try picking some plants from around the area that they were found. Some Cepaea like eating nettle leaves.
Some wild snails don't touch cuttlebone, but there is calcium in the fish flakes. They may not need to eat a huge amount of it, it's highly nutricious.

This species of snail does look skinny when stretched out, it sounds normal.

[coyote]

Hi magdalenak, welcome to the forum. It sounds like your snails might be trying to estivate for the summer. It is normal for small snails such as yours to close themselves up during the hot weather of summer. I keep aspersas and milk snails, and mine spend most the day closed up near the top of the tank. Sometimes they stay that way for 3 or 4 days at a time.

Try finding a very cool place for your tank at night. I live in California where we get hot, dry summers with a significant cool-down overnight. I put my tanks outside in the back yard until I go to bed at night, to let them get several hours of cool night air. They tend to wake up more fully and crawl around and eat more during the night. By morning they're closed up again and ready to rest that way through the heat of the day. All of mine are wild-caught.

[Paul]

I've found that certain species may refuse food for a number of days when you first introduce them and that may be the case with yours.

However, I've kept Cepaea nemoralis and they seemed pretty confident when introduced. The problem may be the heat indoors. Snails obviously react to heat and moisture and you've mentioned you've been spraying them often. Even though you're spraying them, if they're not very active it may be they think it's too warm. It's very hard to cool tanks down. I would just try to keep them in a cool room if possible - and spray your tank walls and substrate with chilled water.

Calcium is another tricky one. Snails have to figure out what it is. If you think of Helix aspersa - they are everywhere in the country with no great sources of calcium. They probably just manage to get enough out of the foods they happen to eat. So in my opinion, you're doing the right thing by powdering over their food. You could also try calcium spray.

As a last resort you could put some empty snail shells in - they obviously recognise it as a source of calcium and for many snails, perhaps those with poor quantities available naturally, old shells are obviously an important source. I say last resort because ideally you want them to get out of that habit, not in it.

Lastly, if the problem isn't your tank conditions but the problem persists, you could consider finding some baby snails instead. In my experience they adapt much quicker to tank conditions, including more varieties of food and calcium.

[magdalenak]

thanks everyone!!! I will try getting some goldfish flakes. The carrots look like they've been munched a little and so has the lettuce. They haven't touched the cucumbers or sweet potato. And I moved them inside because it was really hot out I'm hoping once they cool inside they'll come out. Ill try to peak inside tonight to see if there's more eating going on. thanks again!

[cepealove]

I have 11 cepea.nemoralis and 1 hortensis they love banana,wet lettace and normal potatoe. They like spraying in the morning and evening, and are breeding well i have 80+ eggs and 3 more batches of eggs to come :)hope this helps?

[magdalenak]

Thanks cepealove. This morning i noticed some cucumber was nibbled but not much on the lettuce and sweet potato. I do spray them in the morning and evening and they seem to get more active during the evening but the nemoralis still stays closed up near the top of the cage most of the time i am going to have to try the goldfish flakes

[lee2211]

Get plants from outside like doc leaves, and dandelion leaves. They are a more natural food source for your snails and they contain high amounts of calcium and protein and low oxalates. Which is great for them.

Mine prefer powdered eggshells on their food and I mix limestone flour into their soil.

I plant in seeds as well and they sprout which my snails eat. You can mash up pumpkin seeds, sunflower hearts and hemp and they like them to.