snail personality and emotions

[earthmama]

hello snail lovers!
i have recently had my eyes opened to the wonderful world of snails by my 2 and 4 year olds who are snail fans. when weeding the veggie patch we came across a "family" of seven living under the rim of a large pot plant. i removed them gently and showed the kids. the snails then put on a fab performance of slithering up and down our arms and appearing to be very social with us and each other. im not into keeping animals in cages so we popped the back after a while but plan to keep visiting them regularly and got some ideas from your site on food etc to try. my big question is though, how do snails behave when happy, stressed etc. i was really amazed at the interaction the kids and i had with them. i figured if they were fearful they'd curl up in their shells but they really seemed to be having a nice time. do they show any obvious signs of contentment or stress we could look out for? and, taking that a step further, do you find that different snails have different personalities? in our snail family there were definitely adventurous and not-so--adventurous. does this extend further to other personality characteristics?
thanks for helping. javascript:add("%208-)")

[earthmama]

i don't know if garden variety snails vary country to country so i thought i should add i'm in the dandenong ranges, victoria, australia.
Cheers!

[keira]

hi
i think they do, as ive got 6 different species of snail and they all act differently ( not individual species as such)
but i have found tigers seem to be a little shyer that say fulica, and the vetricosa are a little more dubious of saying hello but do eventually. i know these are not garden snails but hope it helps a little
sandy

[coyote]

Hi, welcome to the forums!

I tend to agree about individual snails having their own personalities. A few of mine have been on the shy side, others more outgoing. I think if you can manage to do some on-going observations of your wild snails, you might find the same thing.

As to signs of stress, withdrawing into the shell is one sign. Usually they will come out again when they feel safe. Also, if the snail foams and bubbles a lot, it's a sign it doesn't like being handled. My current garden snail Buster used to foam a bit when handled, but once he got used to it he stopped. If a snail stays retracted into its shell for a long time it could be a sign of illness; it could also be a sign of estivation too.

Do you know what kind of snails you've found? Can you post a pic here? We'd all love to see them.