This is how it started. 2 snails. There were 2 garden snails sealed up against the edge of a plant pot in the courtyard at work. How on earth could one pass up the opportunity to acquire free pets on lunch break? They are literally just hanging out like leaves on trees. I put them in a styrofoam cup and then off it was to walmart to get a proper cage. Walmart didnt have a proper cage and i didnt fancy driving 35 miles to get one so i improvised. I bought a box of sharp pointy metal thingies in the auto care section and a plastic storage bin in the home care section, and then of course a spray bottle for misting. At which point i had to table the new project for later and go back to work. They hung out under the desk until it was time to go home. My coworkers tolerate me but out here its really not that weird because sometimes they have goats or ducks or kittens so…what is a bin of snails under the desk you know?
I took them home and collected some limestone out of the yard so they could mine calcium to build their shells. Then i fed them and misted them with filtered well water. all was going well with my two little buddies until it rained while i was at work and more snails appeared. Me being me, i got more styrofoam cups, more tape, poked air holes in the cups, and added the additional snails to the little terrarium i had created for them at home.
One day i found two smaller snails in the courtyard. One was basically newborn and i named him “tiny”. I thought the others would run him over but he pretty much holds his own and he is still in there. Every time i take spent food out of the enclosure i have to make sure i locate him and he doesnt go with it because he’s so tiny.
Many of the snails came with paper thin shells. And i do mean paper thin. This is a bigger tragedy than it sounds. The snail needs constant moisture to survive. When the conditions are hot and dry the snail will seal itself inside its shell with the moisture it has so that it can wait for wet conditions again and in this way survive. When the shell is broken the seal cannot be achieved. Simply touching these snails often resulted in the shell crumbling in my hand in tiny translucent pieces. I was able to rehabilitate all but two. One died early on. He or she was part of the second batch i found. I didnt realize there was a hole in its shell and when i went half a whole day without misting them because i was at work he or she expired. The second one was tragic and wore on me more. It had such a will to live but the part of its shell that was used to make more shell was completely gone. The snail was almost bald. You could see all its organs and its paper thin shell remnants would suck inwards and then expand as it breathed. Unfortunately, i could not just gift the snail a new shell, though i had a few empty ones. They are born with their shells. Unlike slugs, they have a ball of organs on their backs and they would never fit into a shell from the outside. They must be born in it. There was nothing to do but watch him suffer. His shell was so thin it was basically non existent and no matter how much rock i provided him he couldnt make use of it to repair it because the part of his shell responsible for making new shell was gone. He held on as long as i misted but he would hide in the soil or against the vegetation trying to soak up moisture and get slower every time they had a dry spell. Eventually i moved him to his own small box with some vegetation thinking i wojld separate him just in case he was diseased with some kind of shell rot thing. I wasnt sure why he was so worse off compared to the others. I now think it depends on whether snails were born in the courtyard or just passing through how hard their shells are because if they had access to good calcium at one point, just the newest part of their shell is thin while snails spending their lives there present with an overall fragile exterior. Poor dude was born into inevitable demise. As soon as i separated him the smaller container did not have as much vegetation and had no soil and it spelled his end. I thought it might be more merciful even though it wasnt my intention when i separated him. The outcome wasnt to my dissatisfaction simply because there was no way he could live comfortably in that state and perhaps i was being cruel in not letting nature take its course in its own timely manner. So he got a burial outside and so far its been a month of caring for the rest of them. All have made hard shells now and there are no more casualties.
I did have to change my approach. After all that work put in to make sustainable firm shells, they were falling off the lid and cracking their shells on the rocks. two of them did this. They have since repaired the cracks themselves and it has hardened over the area. However, i realized i had to make a cushion in case they fell off the lid. Now there is a layer of cabbage leaves that catches them and stands in between the lid and the rocks. Also they’re tasty for them to eat.
One of the things i find fascinating about snails is that whatever they eat, their poop is exactly that color. They are also very very loud chewers. They can suck their antenna back into their heads, and they turn around backwards to deposit calcium onto the lip of the shell with their mouths.
This is one of the two snails that did a shell repair all by himself after falling and cracking his shell. He is one of the largest snails i have.
This guy was one of the ones with a paper thin shell but he’s getting better.
So, eventually it stormed again. I clocked out for an hour. There were many styrofoam cups. I wanted to save all the calcium deficient specimens i could. I knew i could give them what they needed. The well water is so calcium laden the particles settle in a white dust at the bottom of the spray bottle and swirl when you swish the water around. The rock is limestone. The organic veg i give them also has calcium in it as well depending on what i give them each week.
Long story short, there are now 61 snails.