Snails' Basic Diet ...
A snail’s main organs of perception is touch and smell, so some vegetables and fruits may seem quite harsh to it.
Due to the flavor, saturated peculiar taste, acidity, astringency, etc. a pet may refuse to have them or eat once in a while.
Suitable are only fresh, ripe vegetables and fruits, not sour, but sweet varieties. Vegetables and fruits that require special
attention are listed in „Additional vegetables and fruits" and it is strongly recommended to offer them to a pet coupled
with more neutral vegetables available on the „Neutral Vegetables" list.
All your pet needs:
Snails' Basic Diet ...
A snail’s main organs of perception is touch and smell, so some vegetables and fruits may seem quite harsh to it.
Due to the flavor, saturated peculiar taste, acidity, astringency, etc. a pet may refuse to have them or eat once in a while.
Suitable are only fresh, ripe vegetables and fruits, not sour, but sweet varieties. Vegetables and fruits that require special
attention are listed in „Additional vegetables and fruits" and it is strongly recommended to offer them to a pet coupled
with more neutral vegetables available on the „Neutral Vegetables" list.
All your pet needs:
- Natural vegetables
(daily access)
Nutrient supplement of fruits and vegetables
(recommended to be offered to the pet along
with neutral vegetables)
- Calcium
(anytime access in the pet’s terrarium)
Protein supplements
(rarely and few)
- Drinking water
(just spray a terrarium every other day)
... and a pet you gonna have:
For a lot of years our team has been successfully growing popular and rare species of snails (subspecies and all their colour variations):
Natural vegetables:
Daily snail diet should include at least one item with soft flesh,
no saturated or peculiar flavor. In case one fails with the food,
a pet will be full by this extra.
Varieties of zucchini, ripe varieties of pumpkin with tender flesh.
Less cucumbers (try for bitterness first), highly depends on variety.
Nutrient supplement of fruits and vegetables:
The vegetables and fruits are recommended to be offered to the pet along with
neutral vegetables. Try alternate products from the list. A tidbit that a pet ate
with appetite yesterday may not be touched today and a couple other feedings.
Mushrooms, bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower,
asparagus, banana, apple (rarely), pear, mango, avocado,
grapes and some berries (rarely), apricot, peaches, cherries,
papaya, watermelon, melon, lettuce.
Neutral vegetables:
Zucchini and its varieties does not have
sourness, has a slightly perceptibly
sweet taste, almost neutral, with easily
assimilated nutritious soft flesh.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Peel all vegetables and fruits,
and water them well before feeding.
As the peel of some vegetables
and fruits can be sprayed with some
chemicals and harm the snail.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Mushrooms are a good source of vegetable
albumen. Usual mushroom champignon
is mostly used in feeding. Remove a top
skin from the mushroom's cap, and
the black plates under the cap, which
often go with sand and crumbs of ground.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Remember some vegetables and fruits
can go bad quickly, especially in humid
and warm terrarium conditions, such
as bananas, and they need to be removed
the next day. Neutral vegetables do not
oxidize and do not ferment quickly.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Always taste even well-known vegetables
or fruits, as one of them may turn out
to be unripe even if it looks ripe.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Carrot is a solid crispy vegetable,
it is offered to pets chopped, ground
or grated. Both early and old carrots
are suitable for feeding, but if you have
a choice, then give preference to early
carrots, juicier, sweeter and healthier.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Red-ripe mango is peeled, the flesh is cut
in slices from a large seed, placed along
the entire fruit.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
A melon is cut, cleaned of seeds, washed
well and cut into thin slices.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
When choosing a plum, pay attention
to its variety and ripeness, peel and clean
of the seed. Fruits quickly go bad and begin
to ferment due to the acid content; when
serving fruit find your sense of proportion
and make a greater emphasis on healthy,
neutral foods.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
When choosing a cherries, pay attention
to its ripeness and clean of the seeds.
Neutral vegetables:
Pumpkin usually does not go bad quickly
like other items of neutral vegetables
and does not lose its nutritional value
the next day, such vegetables can be left
in a pet's terrarium for one (two days).
Additional vegetables and fruits:
There are varieties of vegetables
and fruits that gives a strong acidity
and are not suitable for feeding a pet.
If your choice is apples, then make sure
that this variety is sweet and suitable,
wash, peel the apple and remove
the middle with seeds from apple slices.
Do not offer apples to your pet often.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Ones with thin and soft skins,
like peppers, can be washed with clean
water and then scald. Choose only sweet
pepper varieties that must be cleaned
of seeds first.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Sometimes not only a vegetable/fruit
variety can be sour, but also some part
of it. Tomato should be cleaned from sour
contents (namely, the seed part with
the liquid) and include in a pet's diet
only the non-acidic fleshy part.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Blueberries and huckleberries
are apparently similar berries,
blueberries are with strong and rich
taste, and huckleberries are more
often watery and sour. Do not clean
the seeds if are enough soft.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Broccoli divide into inflorescences
and soaked for a while (about an hour),
then the inflorescences are washed
and offered to a pet. Snails usually
nibble the deep green tops.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Serve only red-ripe and sweet peaches
and nectarines. A feature of a peach is
a rough and fluffy surface, be sure
to peel the fruits.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Avocado get dark and go bad quickly.
Two varieties of avocado are more common
and both are suitable: ordinary green
and hass (dark). It is worth choosing
not too hard or too soft fruit. A hard fruit will
be unripe, and a too soft fruit will be rotten.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Asparagus, its tops may be bitter,
so cut it off as well as the rough lower
part of the stem. When feeding a pet,
use only a middle of the stem, which
was cut along.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
If you want to include herbs in your pet's diet,
avoid spicy, flavory and bitter herbs.
Neutral vegetables:
Among cucumbers and its varieties,
may come across bitter or harsh fruits,
as well as fruits with an acidic seed
middle. For sure taste a vegetable
and cut off the seed if it is acidic.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Some varieties of vegetables and fruits
may turn out to be quite harsh, it is not
as harmful as sour, but most likely snails
will not eat such fruit. Often harsh taste
is found in some varieties of pears.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
A watermelon before feeding a snail
is peeled, cleaned of seeds and must
be cut into thin plates (especially for
a baby snail) to avoid a pet's choking
during feeding, due to the watery
structure of the flesh.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
If you want to offer to a snail berries,
such as grapes, remove the berries
from the bunch and rinse them well
under the stream water. Each grape
berry must be cut (for a pet reaches
to reach flesh) and remove the seeds
(offer seedless varieties).
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Dewberry has very hard seeds, so you
should offer your pet only the whitening
flesh that is hidden inside the berry.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
There is no way to get rid of raspberry
seeds, but they are much softer than
blackberry's seeds. Among the ripe
and sweet raspberries, there are berries
with sourness. Do not offer raspberries
to your pet often and taste a piece of exact
the berry that you are going to serve.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Lettuce is included in the basic die
of some rare decorative species.
Before serving, each lettuce leaf
is separated and washed well
in cold water.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Avocado get dark and go bad quickly.
Two varieties of avocado are more common
and both are suitable: ordinary green
and hass (dark). It is worth choosing
not too hard or too soft fruit. A hard fruit will
be unripe, and a too soft fruit will be rotten.
Additional vegetables and fruits:
Offer a snail a ripe and sweet apricot.
The described list of vegetables and fruits is offered to the snails as the basic diet throughout the world and is not a matter of dispute.
If a product is not listed, it means its effect on a pet’s health has not been studied much or may harm a snail.
Correct calcium supplements (anytime access in the pet’s terrarium):
Calcium should always be included into the Basic diet for the snail’s shell growing.
sepia (cuttlefish shell), sepia in pieces, ground sepia, chicken and quail ground eggshell.
Protein supplements (rarely and few):
Snail needs protein for proper development and weight gaining. But serve it to a pet in very limited quantities and not often.
High protein food is not the main food and is only used as an dietary supplement. Gammarus and cereal mixtures are safe source of protein against other available foods.
Calcium supplement - chicken and quail ground eggshell:
To build its shell there must be anytime access to calcium in the terrarium where the snail lives (obligatory in the terrarium, optional
for a transportation box). It is better to place calcium of various shapes and types: best solution is sepia in pieces and eggshell ground powder.
The snail’s „teeth" grind food like a rubbing board. But it does not mean that the pet is able to grind everything. Only a high-quality mixer can
grind a hard shell of chicken eggs into powder.
