How to Care for a Pet Snail

If you love to keep pets like turtles and hermit crabs, you might also enjoy owning pet snails. You don't have to walk them, they don't keep you up at night barking and you never have to worry about them shedding all over your furniture. However, pet snails do require certain care. Here are some tips to keep a pet snail healthy and happy.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Plastic or glass aquarium tank
• Garden soil or peat
• Rocks
• Bark
• Leaves
• Pieces of broken clay pot
• Spray bottle
• Shallow water dish

1. Keep your pet snail in a moist environment. Use an old plastic or glass aquarium and cover the top with a wire mesh. Make sure the environment is moist but not wet.
2. Use simple garden soil or peat for the bottom of the tank. Bake it first to remove all bacteria.
3. Place rocks, bark, leaves or pieces of a broken clay pot around the snail's tank. Snails like to hide under something during the day. These items can give them a place to do so.
4. Spray the sides of the tank with water daily or place a shallow dish of water inside the tank. Make sure the water dish is not too deep.
5. Feed your pet snail a variety of greens: lettuce, garden plant leafs and cabbage are best. Also, make sure to include plenty of calcium in a snail's diet for their shells. Sources of calcium include egg shells, cuttle bone or pieces of old snail shells.
6. Handle your pet snail with great care. Slide your finger under their bodies to pick them up. Don't grasp the shell and pick them up that way. Always wash your hands before and after handling your pet snail.

Tips & Warnings

• Place some earthworms into the soil to eat snail droppings and also to keep the soil loose.
• Don't use clay or sandy soil to fill the snail's tank.
• Don't place the snail's tank in direct sunlight. This dries out the moist environment and may roast the snail.
• Snails lacking calcium may eat their own shell to make up for what they are missing in their diet.