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Easy to care for and interesting to watch, Giant African land-snails are ideal low-maintenance pets. They grow quickly and can reach more than 20cm shell length. Enjoy them. The following is taken from personal experience and is given free. Please consult books available written by snail experts if in doubt. Container: You will need a container with a lid that has small air-holes. While the snails are small, this needs only be roughly 15cm wide by 20cm long and 15cm high – or big enough for them to move around comfortably in. Most pet-shops sell small plastic aquariums like this for a couple of pounds. “Bedding”: The snails like to burrow in about 2” or 5cm of peat. Garden soil can be used and if you provide leaves or twigs they will enjoy going underneath them. Smooth stones or bark chippings can be used, but we found that our snails didn’t like these so much and spent a lot of time on the container sides or lid. Obviously, snails would not like anything sharp or prickly. Cleaning out: If you remove old foodstuffs before it goes off, you need only clean out the container every two to three weeks. Obviously, the more snails you have, the more waste they produce. Baths (held running under a cool / lukewarm tap or in shallow water - no soap) makes shells shiny and clean and they come out of their shells so we can only assume they like it! Habit and handling: Giant African land-snails are nocturnal by habit and move around less during much of the day, becoming active in the early evening. They can be woken with a bath and don’t seem to mind. The very outer edge of the shell lip is thin and delicate because it’s where they add new shell to make themselves larger. When handling, avoid touching this part. The snail will repair small breaks on the edge of the shell, but it makes that part more fragile, and leaves a mark.
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Food: Snails have to have cuttlefish bones to provide the calcium they need to make their shells. Lettuce leaves and sliced cucumber are firm favourite foods, but the snails will have a nibble at many vegetables and fruit, e.g. apple, melon, strawberry, cabbage, carrot. Moisture / Drink: The snails need their bedding to be damp / moist but not wet. We found a light spray with a plant mister each / every other evening worked well. They do like a little beer but make sure they don’t get too tipsy and drown. A shallow tray with water in is enjoyed, but not a necessity, they drink the moisture off the tank sides when sprayed. Temperature: Inside a centrally heated house is fine; they like to be between 17-24 degrees on average. Direct sunlight (eg windowsill) is not good; they may overheat and die. Breeding: Snails are hermaphrodites (male and female at the same time) and if adults are in ideal conditions and breed, they can lay 200 eggs each. They can burrow under the peat to lay. From one mating, several clutches of eggs can result because the snails keep a “love dart” of spermatazoa under the skin behind the head. If you don’t want to end up with babies, just freeze the eggs in a plastic bag for a couple of hours and dispose of them. Left, they will hatch in 14-21 days. If keeping them, it’s best to put the eggs in a separate container from the adults to make it easier to clean out the big ones and avoid the babies being disturbed or squashed when they hatch.
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