Snails

Snails are very low maintenance pets that are a lot of fun to watch and handle. They don't require to be walked or trained to use a litter box, they won't chew on your new shoes or knock your coffee off the table, and they don't make noise or smell bad.

Great for children and adults, they won't bite or scratch, they can be watched for hours while they go about their snail business, and they don't mind being handled gently.

After the initial setup of your enclosure, snail upkeep is very inexpensive and takes no time at all!

Snail houses can be glass aquariums or plastic totes, though we prefer the aquariums for easy viewing.

The lid needs to be able to retain moisture and humidity, so if you're using a mesh lid like you'd get with a reptile tank, throw a towel over the top.

Snails don't require heat lamps or special lights, and will be fine with indirect lighting that comes from the room they're placed in, just be sure not to place the tank in direct sunlight! If you would like to add lighting, LEDs are great and don't produce heat.

Substrate

The substrate is important, it's where they'll spend most of their time, and they will even snack on it.

80% of health or behavioral issues are caused by improper substrate!

Avoid using unnatural materials as the substrate, this includes coco coir or anything with coco in it as a mix, while marketed as pet friendly, snails cannot digest this, and it has high water retention and doesn't drain well. Don't use foam tank backgrounds or false turf, anything that isn't organic they'll likely try to munch on and this can cause issues.

If making your own substrate, you can use commercial top soil or organic compost with no fertilizers or pesticides, but read the ingredients! "Organic" does NOT mean pesticide free. You can also use the dirt from your yard, just place on a foiled cookie sheet, spray with a bit of mist and bake it in the oven at 200° F for 30 minutes first, this will remove harmful hitchhikers and fungi.

There are many things you can add to the dirt to increase several important properties, some basic ones are shredded, rotting wood, worm castings, bits of sphagnum moss (either stringy or peat versions) a sprinkle of dolomite lime or oyster shell for calcium, and crunched up dead leaves. Peat moss from your local garden center will have a high acidity, you can use this in a mixture of other things, but be sure to add the lime to reduce acidity. If you do source any ingredients from the wild, make sure the area is not treated with pesticides, places like public city parks are usually a no go, and always bake before using to remove harmful critters, even if you don't see any, mites and fungi hide on the insides of materials.

You want the substrate to be moist, but not soaking wet, you should be able to clump it up with your hands without being able to squeeze water out of it. Make sure to use spring water and avoid using tap water, as this will have trace components in it that can hurt snails over time.

Fill the enclosure with enough substrate that would allow the snails to completely cover themselves, usually 3-4 inches is enough.

Moss is a great addition in sheets or clumps to retain moisture, and also great padding for hard objects.

Temp and humidity

You want the inside of the tank to be around room temperature (60-80° F) and humidity to be 60-90%.

This is most easily obtained by using a spray bottle with a mist setting and misting the inside of the tank with spring water when humidity falls too low, the snails will enjoy a good direct misting every now and then, they love water! You can also pour water onto moss to keep it wet. How often you need to do this will depend on how much ventilation is in the tank, and is easily monitored with a hydrometer.

Snails are very forgiving about this, and going a bit too low or too high on these numbers won't cause the death of your snails, in fact they are very hardy creatures and can withstand incredible variables in their environment by going into a state called aestivation, which we'll cover below in behavior.

Hides and perches

Snails like to feel safe from predators, even if there aren't any, by hiding themselves under, over or on the sides of logs, rocks, leaves and walls.

They're quite the climbers, and can be seen often crawling upside down on the the ceiling of your tank!

You can place things for them to hide in such as caves, wooden tubes, rocks covered with moss or substrate, logs and even vines and branches. Just make sure anything hard like rock, ceramic or plastic is covered with a sheet of moss or some substrate, as while they are climbing all over, they may fall and land shell first on something hard, and crack or even break open their shells. Avoid metal objects altogether.

Snails eat organic matter.

That's pretty much it, though while they'll eat just about anything, including meat and bones, we'll go over the best foods and ways to provide it.

Never feed snails processed or canned fruit or vegetables, avoid salt and added sugars, acidic fruits like citrus, as well as rice, millet, pasta or bread.

Timing

Feed your snails twice a week, have a calcium source always available via cuttlebone, calcium carbonate powder or powdered eggshell, and provide protein once a week.

Snails are nocturnal, so place the food in the enclosure in the evening, and remove any extra the next morning to prevent gnats and fruit flies.

Variety is key

Snails need fiber, calcium and protein, and good food variety is the best way to make sure they get everything they need.

For fiber, they'll snack on rotting wood, leaves and soil that's in their tank, but they need more to thrive.

You can give them fiber with almost any fruit or vegetable you'd get at a grocery store and this will make up most of their diet, leafy greens, squash, carrots, celery, apples, pumpkins, plums... anything you'd like to eat, they'll eat it too, even the stems and seeds you'd probably throw away!

A note on cucumber: Snails LOVE LOVE LOVE cucumber, it's delicious and a great treat. However, it does not contain enough nutrients to keep them alive, and if given cucumber too often, they can become "addicted" to it to the point they will refuse other foods, so treat it like a junk food and only offer it on occasion.

Snail shells are made of calcium, and they need to eat calcium in order to grow and repair their shells, having a mixture of calcium carbonate powder in their substrate provides a boost, or sprinkle in some powdered eggshell around their food.

Cuttlebone - many hobbyists swear by it, and it's been the most popular way to give calcium to snails for years as you can toss in a whole cuttlebone and allow the snails to self regulate, they'll chow down on it when they like. However be warned, the cuttlefish is a cephalopod found in salt water seas, and some cheaper brands of cuttlebone are still full of salt, which is bad news for snails, and they won't mention this on the packaging as it's meant for birds to sharpen their beaks on, not for snails to ingest, be careful with it. The cuttlebones in our shop are guaranteed to be safe for your snails, we use them too.

For protein it's easiest to get from the fish section of pet stores. Fish flakes, blood worms and meal worms are great, just check any ingredients and avoid fish food that has copper, snails don't do well with copper. For a special treat, you can use a freeze dried minnow or even "pinky" mice, but these can get messy and aren't for the squeamish.

Snails need water, but if you're feeding them plenty of foods with high water content they can get it from their food, or drink it from the glass walls when you mist the tank, although if you do place a water source in their tank, they'll use it too, be careful and make sure it's not too deep and they can easily crawl back out as they can drown, stagnating water can also invite bad fungi and even nematodes, so make sure it's kept clean.

After a while, snail poo, food residue and other messes can make the tank look pretty bad, there are many strategies and tools you can use to make cleaning easier, or even automated with bioactivity!

Our #1 suggestion for keeping the enclosure clean is a little critter called the springtail, these are teeny tiny arthropods that also eat organic matter, but won't harm your snails at all. They will remove poo, leftover food, mold, intruder larvae from gnats and fruit flies, and other stuff you don't want in the tank. They don't require anything special either, you can set them and forget them, they will self regulate their population relative to available food sources. Add a springtail culture to your order if you don't already have some!

Another bioactive friend you can place in the tank are isopods, any kind will do, like springtails, these will eat poo and leftover food, just make sure to keep their numbers in check because they are large and prolific enough they'll start competing with your snails for food, and some types are voracious enough they might start snacking on your snails too, and they'll always eat any snail eggs they find, but as long as there's plenty of food to go around a handful of isopods make great tank buddies for snails.

For any waste on the glass or walls, a simple wipe down with water will clear it, never use soap or chemicals in the tank.

Every six months or so, if you do feel like you need to change out the substrate, remove any critters from it you can, then be sure to freeze it for 24 hours before throwing it away to ensure no creatures are still in the substrate.

Snails are nocturnal, and are more active at night or when lighting is dim, but they can still be seen doing stuff during the daytime as well.

Snails move very slowly, it's what snails are known for! While they're not an action packed pet, they can still be very enjoyable to observe.

Most often your snails will be sitting in dirt, maybe close to where the food usually arrives, seemingly doing nothing and their eyestalks will be retracted, while doing this they are either sleeping or just conserving energy, while boring for you, there's nothing wrong with it. They may also be under or partially under the substrate.

Other snails will be slowly crawling around, either in the substrate, on the walls or on the items you may have placed inside, on official snail business that's unknown to us.

Another normal behavior is for the snail to be inside its shell, that is their home inside their home, they may be stuck to a wall or surface while doing this, they are also just sleeping or resting.

Aestivation 

Something to watch for is if the snails climb up high onto something and seal themselves off - this is called aestivation, and is a bit different from just sleeping. You can tell they're doing this when you see what looks like a thin sheet of paper forming across the opening of their shell, or if on a surface you can't see the opening, you'll notice a buildup of calcium around the outside rim of the mantle.

Snails go into aestivation when the weather isn't ideal, or if there's no food available, snails can remain alive in this hibernation state for months, but if your snails are doing this, it may be a sign something in the tank is off. Double check for humidity, dryness or acidity in the substrate or that there aren't any mites or harmful things in there, or if the room temperature has dropped. Once the environment is suitable again, they'll go back to normal.

Sometimes snails just want to aestivate, so if only a small number of your snails are doing this, the tank is probably fine, but if most or all begin showing this behavior, something needs to change.

To bring a snail out of hibernation, spray their shell opening with water and give them a few minutes, if they are completely sealed against glass or another surface water won't penetrate to the opening, so spray them, then grasp their shell as close to the mantle as you can, and give them a wiggle, this is usually enough to knock them free. If they feel like they are super glued to the surface and won't come off with gentle pressure, it's best to leave them be to avoid injuring them.

Puffy mantles

You may notice a snail that looks like it's wearing a scarf, or is swollen around the shell opening. This is completely normal! It can be an indicator of many things, such as it has recently absorbed a large amount of water to help digest some food, or it's growing a new layer of shell, or that it has recently mated. Give the snail a bit of time and they'll go back to normal.