They do not scream and do not leave hair around the apartment, they do not have to walk early in the morning. It turns out that home snails are ideal pets! In addition, it is the most unpretentious of all their famous pet: the ground (or large sand) is enough to change only once a week, feed the snails 3 times a week, and clean the aquarium only once every two weeks! Even the most busy or lazy master snail will not die. If it becomes too cool, hungry and dry, it simply falls into a hibernation.
Types of domestic snails
To date, the most popular type of domestic snails are the Akhatins. This species came to us from Africa. As you understand, in our climate, the survival of ahatin in nature is simply impossible, but the content at home is perfectly acceptable. Not so long ago, scientists have been observed that this type of snails has a long-term memory! Akhatina remembers the location of her feeding trough and returns there periodically. There are several species of these snails:
- Akhatin fulika. The shell color can be brown, red and even black. The length in captivity reaches 20 cm. In food absolutely unpretentious and almost all eat. This kind of ahaatin is really very slow, they even prefer to take turns, not wanting to crowd at the feeding trough. Most of the time they spend in a secluded place, resting and distracting only for food.
- Ahatina reticulata. This species is more mobile and even a little curious. These snails grow faster than the rest of this genus. The most common color: brown or blackish color of the head, but the shell is painted with dots or stripes. Perhaps the most popular pets of all, because they grow faster than other snails, love communication and are completely unpretentious in eating.
- Akhatin immakulyata. You can find out this species by the characteristic flat strip running from the head of the cochlea to the shell, and along the pink (sometimes light purple) rim of the shell. They grow and multiply well in captivity.
- Ordinary ahatina. It is also called "tiger". The shell is covered with strips, the background is light yellow or orange. This is the largest of all types of domestic snails, Akhatin. In nature, the size of the shell can reach 30 cm! At home, you can grow a shell up to 22 cm.
How to care for home snails
The content of snails at home does not require you very much time. Let's consider the basic conditions of keeping domestic snails:
- "The Clerk". Keep these pets needed in a conventional aquarium, less often use plastic houses or containers for rodents. If you want to grow a large home snail, you will have to spend an aquarium with a volume of at least 20 liters. To maintain moisture, the aquarium needs to be covered with a sufficiently dense lid, but with small openings for air intake. Try to keep your killer away from direct sunlight. General cleaning is done only once a month.
- Priming. For the maintenance of snails at home, the usual flower soil is quite suitable, the use of sawdust is allowed. Before using, the ground must be baked in the oven or boiled, this is done to destroy the various larvae. The soil must be loose, then the snail can easily dig.
- Temperature and humidity. Home snails Akhatina - lovers of a warm and humid microclimate. The ideal temperature for their content is 25-30 ° C. If the apartment is too cool, your pet will simply go into hibernation. Although the ahatine and land snails, but the humidity for them is vital. Spray the aquarium and its inhabitants several times a day from the spray gun for flowers, but it needs to be done only with warm water.
For large and adult individuals you need to put a container of water, where they can get drunk and take a bath. - Feeding. The most important rule: the deadly danger for a snail is salty food. The most healthy food for domestic snails is vegetable. Apples, zucchini, cabbage or cucumbers, you can offer oat flakes or fish food. Sometimes the quality of feeding depends on how many live snails live. A good growth of the shell requires calcium. You can buy it at a pet store. On average, akhatiny live at home for about 6 years.