How to Feed a Pet Snail

For some, snails seem like ideal pets because they require a minimum of maintenance. However, snails are living animals in need of constant care, including feeding. Keep your snail happy and healthy by feeding your snail a variety of natural foods.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Vegetables
• Fruit
• Calcium supplements
• Water

1. Provide your snail with vegetables. Snails appreciate green vegetables like broccoli, cabbage and cucumber, but also like sweeter vegetables like pumpkin, sweet potato and sweet corn. Mix and match different kinds of vegetables to see which combinations your snail likes.

2. Feed your snail fruit. Snails enjoy everything from common fruits like apples, bananas and oranges to slightly more exotic fruits like papayas, dragon fruit and kiwi. Try as many fruits as you’d like.

3. Include calcium in your snail’s diet by placing cuttlefish bone, eggshells or calcium supplements in your snail’s habitat. Snails need calcium for shell growth and rejuvenation; too little or too much calcium in their diet may be detrimental to them.

4. Pour a bit of water out into a weighty, shallow and small receptacle. Your snail will take small drinks from it and bathe in it, but make sure that the receptacle is small enough to prevent your snail from drowning in it.

5. Treat your snail to different types of food. Snails can eat hemp, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and oats, but these need to be soaked and ground or crushed before feeding. Tortoise food and cat and dog treats are also good substitutes and treats for snails if their regular diet of vegetables and fruits are temporarily inaccessible.

Tips & Warnings

• Replenish your snail’s food and water every day. Neglecting to do so will cause mold and fungi to grow in your snail’s habitat and flies and mites will be attracted to the spoiled food.
• Make sure to wash all of your snail’s food before feeding it to them.
• Individual snails have preferences in diet! Feed your snail a variety of the foods listed and make note of what your snail likes and doesn’t like to eat.
• A drop or two of beer can actually be enjoyable for a snail. Its yeast content attracts the snail and helps them thrive in man-made environments.
• Avoid feeding your snail foods that have been chemically treated (as with pesticides), overly salty, starchy and acidic foods, millet, pasta and food that has not been washed properly.
• Different species of snails may require special diets. Double-check that what you are feeding your snail is appropriate for its species to thrive.