Food, Babies, and calcium OH MY!

[kristensaurr]

TL;DR? (Key points highlighted in red)


Hellooooo~ I posted a handful of days ago about the preparations I was making for my newly adopted snails c: Since then, they have taken quite the liking to their new home. Sometimes they even make use of the small, coconut shell hide I had purchased for them. So I am very impressed.

I was also really worried about them not getting enough calcium. I was informed that wild caught snails might not know that they can eat the cuttle. So, like any worried parent, I sprinkled cuttle all of their food and in their favorite places to sit. I am pleased to have personally witnessed two of the snails munching away at the cuttle itself. It's quite the relief.

The snails have also taken...quite the liking to each other...and I believe I have witnessed two of them mating! I was wondering if anyone could give me a general overview of how to deal with the eggs. I know that they look like a collection of white BBs and that the snail will burrow to lay them, yes? I also know that releasing the eggs into the wild could be harmful to the environment because there is so many. So I suppose my big questions are:
-How far down will a snail burrow to lay eggs?
-Are the eggs in a sac, or just clumped together?
.If they are in a sac, how would I go about keeping one or two for myself?
-How many eggs will my breed of snails lay? [H. Aspersa]
-If I keep some for myself in expectation of maybe one or two, how should I take care of the eggs? How many eggs should I take? Should I leave them where they are until they hatch or make a separate enclose for them until they reach adulthood then move them in with the other adults?
-How long will it take them to reach adulthood?
-How to I destroy the eggs? The idea breaks my heart...but should I just crush them or? My parents will not approve of me having dozens of snails in my room, and I'm not sure if I have the funds to support more than 5.
-Do both snails get pregnant, or just one? If so, how can I tell which one is pregnant? Should I move her to her own little enclosure until she lays them?
Anything helps!

Also, food. I know what to feed them, I just have a few simple questions:
- How much food should I be putting in there?
.I put about a handful of food in their tank and leave it in there at all times. Once a day I take it and put it into a bowl and rinse it off just to freshen it up a bit. I keep it in a small saucer the rest of the time. However, I find that in the 2-3 day span that I like the leave food in there for, they definitely do not eat it all. This might be because they just don't like all the kinds of food?
-Is variety good?
.I put in a large mix of food, I make them a little salad with lots of different fruits and veg. Right now I don't have very much nutrient rich food so I've constructed a small salad of the greenest leaves on iceburg lettuce, a small slice of cucumber copped into 4ths. a 4th of a small tomato chopped into thirds. A few pieces of carrot, a bit of potato (are red potatoes okay?) And the other day I even gave them a bit of banana. They definitely don't eat it all. Just nibble at little bits of, what seems to me, everything (I haven't had them long enough to notice their favorites and I haven't paid enough attention to see what they're eating and what they're not)
-In conclusion, would less food and less variety be better? Force them to try new things ever few days?
.What if I left in one type of food for a few days, then after that switched the food and left it in for a few days, and did that until they have at least tried everything. And THEN started making them salads again?
Any and all advice is helpful. Once I get the sand out of my camera (I went to the beach a few weeks ago) I'll definitely be taking pictures <3 Thank you!

[kristensaurr]

UPDATE: Yeah they're definitely going at it. They have been for at least an hour. They're so in loooove When should I expect eggs? <3

[red608]

While I can't answer all your questions, I can answer a few. The eggs will be just in a clump together. They should be kept in basically the same conditions as the tank itself, make sure they stay buried. I personally removed my eggs from the adults tank since I accidentally disturbed them and seperated a few anyways. All but one of my eggs hatched, I think so long as eggs are indeed fertilized if you kept them at the right conditions they should have a very food hatch rate. Any unwanted eggs should be either crushed or put in the freezer for a day or two.

[red608]

In regards to food, try putting 2 things in at once and only feeding them those for a few days then once they've tried it switch to two other things and so on and so forth. Iceburg lettuce has no real nutritional value, try kale or romaine lettuce or any of the darker green leafy stuff. Cuttle obviously should be offered at all times. Once they've tried things you can figure out better what they like, just remember not to always offer favorites. Variety is very good so you could come up with a schedule if you like, offering certain foods on certain days of the week. Hope that made sense, in a rush as im at work

[red608]

As far as making them salads you should know that snails will always eat favorites before anything else so to give them a more varied diet its best probably to not offer everything at once. Are you using a peeler to get thinner slices of like carrot and potato? Ive noticed my snails like their food like that versus chunks. Its also much easier to see if they have eaten with the thinner slices imo. Try givinv them various types of seeds like pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds(unsalted obviously), my wild snails loved those and potato lol. Just make sure you soak the seeds first. You can also mash up the seeds after soaking and make a mix of sorts (ive read that some people add milk to this mix). Sweet potato is also very popular among snails as faves (along with cucumber but not much nutrition there, just a nice treat for them).

[kristensaurr]

Thank you so much!
So if I move the eggs very gingerly into something smaller but then bury them....that should be good, yes?

And yes, I am aware that iceburg contains little nutritional value. But at this point I have no other food available to offer them. I put the lettuce at the bottom along with the very small amount of cucumber that I put in. I will definitely have to try to slicing things real thin routine, and I will definitely have to come up with a schedule. As for seeds, should I be cracking the seeds open to get to the real seed or just putting them in as is or? Because I have access to real sunflowers with organic seeds ;D And I will definitely try that.

Thank you so much!

[crossless]

You can always take sharp knife and cut seeds to small crush it's easiest snails to eat.

I do with my snails every winter so that I decide about 3 to 6different vegetables that they like. And use them as "base for diet" that I always offer them. Then sometimes I give them some seasonal vegetables to make snails food more variety when ever there's something nice to offer to snails in local food store.

[coyote]

I recommend removing the hull from seeds before feeding to the snails.

An aspersa can lay up to 80 eggs at a time. They are buried at a depth equal to the length of the snails' head and neck (or shallower than that if you keep the substrate thinner).

An aspersa is fully grown when the shell aperture develops a lip on it, a year or two (possibly sooner).

You can't tell for sure which snail is pregnant until it starts laying eggs. Any snail can get pregnant after mating; possibly both, or just one of the pair, or even neither. No need to move the snail for egg-laying.

To destroy unwanted eggs, you can crush them, let them dry out or put them in the freezer for a day or 2. Snails can reproduce like mad, so being vigilant about eggs is important if you want to maintain a small population.

[kristensaurr]

Should I be moving the eggs into a separate container and then bury them when they are laid? Should I leave them there until they hatch? Can someone just give me a general overview of what to do once a snail lays eggs? Nothing? Everything?

Thank youuu everyone <3

[ness]

Well some people remove the eggs and place them in a tub, some leave them alone. It is often safe to leave them. Do your snails bury often? If the eggs are likely to be accidently disturbed by the adults then it's perhaps best to move them into a tub.
Make sure the eggs are kept moist and warm.
If you choose to hatch them out into a tub then it's easier to keep track of the youngsters, they sometimes grow better in a small tub where they don't have to crawl far to find food.

If you choose to move the eggs it's best to do so as soon as possible after they've been laid. Disturbing eggs later can, in some species, kill off the developing embryos.

[coyote]

I've always left the eggs where they were laid, unless I was removing them to freeze.

[kristensaurr]

No, my snails never dig. I've only seen one of them dig ONCE and it was when I had to carry him with my during school. He was probably just terrified. That one now hides in his little coconut half shell thing as opposed to burrowing.
I just wanted to make sure it was okay to leave them there if and when they are laid if I ever want to keep them, thank you guys so much!

[saki114]

Kristensaurr, my snails are just the OPPOSITE lol... they LUV 2 burrow ;D