My Giant African Land Snail care sheet!

[_jake_]

Introduction:

Giant African Land Snails (or GALS) are a Giant snail Native to Africa. These are seen as a great delicacy in some countries for their meat and flavour; not that i'd personally eat a Snail. They are also an 'invasive' species in other parts of the world, Such as Europe, North America - Florida, Asia, Australlia and even a few spots in the UK!. Apart from all this, they make great, intresting, pets for experienced Herp keepers and Novices!.

Housing:

GALS can be very easily housed. Great housing as following:

RUB's - Really useful boxes/ plastic storage boxes
Faunariums - Tommy, Exo-terra
Vivariums - Wooden
Aquariums.

I personally would recommend at leat 18" long for a pair (dependant on species).

Substrate:

GALS need humidity (70% - 90%) so a good humidity holding sub is required. Such as Eco-earth, Bed a beast, compacted soil. Or potting soil. Aslong you microwave, so kills any parasites/mites.

Decor:

GALS don't require any decor, but, is a pleasent sight to the owner. You can add Rocks, branches, drift wood and fake plants (or non toxic live, prepare to replace). You need a small water bowl, to keep humidity up. Can just put food on substrate.

Feeding:

GALS will eat anything. the majority of their diet should contain Vedgetables and Fruit. They will also eat:

Dog Bisctuits
brown & white bread
Pasta
Cooked Meats
& Beer - not too much as we don't want Alcholic Snails.

Heating:

Most species of GALS can live at Room temperature. Although in winter, a heat mat connected to a thermostat can be added.

Common Species:

Achatina Fulica -

White Jade -

Achatina Achatina -

*too be continued*

Other Uses in the Pet Trade:

GALS are also used for live food for Reptiles and Fish.

[chris_greg]

Cheers for this, much appreciated!!

[_jake_]

That's fine!, what it's here for!

[redrobin1905]

thanks could you tell me what reptiles eat gals.

[GlitterSnail]

GALS do NOT eat pasta. It bloats and kills them!!!

[Brett]

very good gave me the advice i needed cheers

[heather5]

Hi, my snail has just given birth, but has lost the end of its shell, is this normal? will it grow back??

[JohnStanhope]

Ive heard they do NOT eat pasta too, how long untill these are fully grown ? and when do they start breeding ?

[FeralWild]

Originally Posted by JohnStanhope

Ive heard they do NOT eat pasta too, how long untill these are fully grown ? and when do they start breeding ?

I personally would never feed my snails on pasta or bread, as there would be no need to. I feed mine on a leafy based diet. Sort of the same diet as you would for an iguana I guess. 90% leafy greans and 10% fruit.

They get shredded spinach, mixed lettuces, cabbage, turnip tops, etc, with half a royal gala apple per snail once a week as a treat. An adult can consume one over night. They also like strawberries, and banana, plus a half cucumber sliced horizontally for variety ever month.

They also get a large cuttlefish bone which is in the rub at all times and replaced as soon as the powder side has completely gone.

Strictly speaking all measurements I have seen for big giant snails have been in centimetres which for some reason is to make them seem bigger. (This is in books on the subject mostly) My biggest snail has an 8 inch shell and is two years old. When out of the rub he can stretch his foot out to about 16 inches from eyes to tail tip. I have seen a snail in a shop called Samson who has a 9inch shell but never seems to be out of it when I'm in the shop.

To breed, the snails need to be approximately the same size as the mating and courtship display requires the snails to raise themselves up, one third of the face and foot pressed together to align both male and female organs which are present in both snails as they are hermaphradites. If the snails were of different sizes this would be impossible so having a big and a small would prevent breeding.

They need to be at least 3 centimetres to breed but they are usually bigger than this when the lay fertile eggs as size can influence the fertility of the eggs. I had a pair who were laying thousands of eggs from march of last year to september which were all infertile whilst they were four inch, but when they grew on a bit, and laid again in december, I got a batch of 45 eggs from which 35 snails hatched. This year they have laid a batch every other week and I have unearthed clutches of hundreds. I have ten rubs on the go with anything from hatchling snails at 0.5 inch diameter to 1 inch babies, ready to go to the petshop.

I prefer to leave the eggs where they are under the substrate and then gently remove the hatchlings as they climb up the plastic sides to another small rub with saturated kitchen towling as a substrate as its easier to keep them clean and also see them better when changing the bedding.