What do snails eat? To find out I recommend you do not skip any part of this article because we are bringing you the exclusive list of what to feed your snail so they grow bigger in a short period of time.
Snail eats many varieties of food, especially the ones they can easily consume due to their nature, they mostly eat soft grains and soft animal skin that can be easily dissolved with their inborn digesting liquid.
Snail food and how to feed them is the most confusing thing to do in the field of agriculture because the nature of snails is the one we cant fully understand.
But paying attention to how they react to certain things and their environment will give us a better clue to understanding what snail eats.
First of all, snails are carnivorous animals, many have documented snails eating other snails, I have seen a case where some group of snails eats up a dead snake that was killed and abandoned.
First, before we conclude on the specific food snail eats, we should note that their different species of snail, though they look, act and react the same way. Their food may not be the same.
Before choosing a specific food for your snail understand that your species of snail may be different from the specified species so your job is to figure out so you would know the kind of snail you have then from there know the kind of food that best suits them.
The snail food specified here is consumed by mostly land snails especially those that are meant for consumption purposes. Meanwhile, you can learn everything you need to know on how to start a snail farming business here.
What Do Snails Eat
Yes, snails eat but depending on the weather, they do not eat every day. As a matter of fact, scientists have discovered that snails can actually go for as long as 3 years without eating or drinking anything which is the longest that has been found in any animal.
So a snail going a day or two without food is will not kill it but is actually how their system is built.
You may be asking why it is so, well the snail digesting system is a very slow one so causing the snail to slowly digest the ones they have consumed.
A system built like that of snails does not need lots of food to survive. I don’t think you would want that for a snail you are breading knowing fully that you want it to grow as big as possible so as to eat enough meat while consuming it.
Firstly there are foods snail consider eating that help sustains them and give them all the things they need in growing and sustaining themselves. They consume foods that are rich in carbohydrates that help enrich them with energy than protein that helps them grow.
Snails require more calcium that helps them repair and straighten their shells, and build their strength so they can easily and slowly move around.
You can provide your snail with a good amount of calcium powder, a shell from dead snails, born meal, natural limestone
1. Vegetables and Leaves
Snail may eat many things that you feed them with but their favourite is leaves and vegetables, you can feed them with any kind of leaves and vegetables as far as they are not toxic but their favourites are broccoli, pumpkin leaf, cocoyam, spinach, kola, cassava, onion greens, okra, eggplant, celery, parsley, loofah, turnip, mushroom, carrot, barley, chamomile, beans, cabbage, and paw-paw.
These leaves have some favourite nutrients it especially provides the snail with, you may subsequently provide them with it so they can consume in order to me well breed.
2. Fruits
Snails like eating fruits but not all kinds of fruits provided will be consumed by them, they have a few selected they prefer eating than the others.
Their favourites are apple, apricot, pears, peach, cherries, ripe plum, Strawberry, and other good fruits that provide one nutrient all the other.
3. Tuber Crops
Tubers are a good source of carbohydrates that snails loves so much, so if you can provide it with Cocoyam, cassava, yam, sweet potato, and plantain, you have gone a long way to providing your snail with a beneficial diet that will help them grow bigger.
4. Flowers
There are some species of flowers that the snail loves eating, you can provide them with rose flowers, cauliflower, hibiscus, paw-paw, and sunflower.
5. Fleshy Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits are part parts of the snail diet in the love consuming. Fruits are one of the best nutritious substances on the planet and not only humans know that snail knows that too and that’s the main reason why they prefer eating them.
Snail love eating fruits such as Paw-paw, Aubergine, Green beans, artichoke, mango, banana, eggplant, apricot, pear, oil palm, fig, tomato, peach, orange, pumpkins, ripe cherries, watermelon, and cucumbers.
6. Formulated Feeds
Apart from eating fruits, vegetables, and other foods, you can feed them with formulated feeds that you can get from the market.
This feed contain the nutrient found in both vegetables and plants that they eat in their natural habitat. You can make it yourself by combining all the things eat together with some preserver
- Formulated foods help gives the snail a stress-free nutrient.
- Formulated foods a good and can be cheaper than combining all the fruits, leaves, and vegetable
- Formulated feeds can be the way out when you are in need of a better option.
How To Properly Apply Snail Feed
To feed and care for your snail properly, you need to follow the following details listed below.
- Follow all the precautions listed above and never miss anyone.
- Feed your snail with spring water.
- Pamper your snails as carefully as possible to avoid damaging their shell.
- Avoid starchy foods and salty food.
- Avoid chlorinated and salty water.
- Keep their living place clean and parasite-free.
- Make sure their food contains all the nutrients needed for them to survive and grow.
- Make sure the processed foods are well prepared soft and clean.
How Do Snails Eat
Snails only eat during the rainy season or wet season since snails’ only way of movement is the moisture they produce which helps them move about.
This season encourages them to feed because it keeps them wet and allows them to move about, snail instinct tells it when it is time to eat.
If you want your snails to be eating all the time in order to keep getting bigger, develop the tactic of keeping their living place wet and moist which in turn sends a signal to them that they are still in the season of feeding.
Snails being a nocturnal animal only gives them the option of being active only at night so you may probably not catch your snails eating in the daytime to really find out what they eat and how they do it.
Snail consumes solid food by using their radula which is a part of their anatomy used to chew up food substances to cut it away before they enter the softer part of the food.
Snails possess some kind of food processing and disgesting organ known as molluscs instead of teeth as many may think.
They eat using a raping tongue-like organ covered with tinny tooths (denticles) known as a radula, when they wrap their food with their tiny tooths, they pick up little particles of the food and then digest it with the help of the slimy substance they produce.
Because of their slow rate of digesting foods, they take a whole lot of time to consume all their foods because snails have to first cut off some particles of their food before proceeding to consume them in their stomach.
How To Make Formulated Feeds For Snail
When making your formulated feeds for your snail, there are some things you need to see are present in that feed.
- Calcium must be present in that formulated feeds because that is one of the primary needs of the snail
- The formulated feed should not contain any harmful substance because snails are soft animals
- You must know the nutrient percentage snails need to survive and you must make it present in their feeds
- You must know the environment you are caring for your snails so you will not make any mistakes.
Percentage Of Nutrient Needs In Formulated Snail Feeds
For a good snail feed, there is some nutrient that needs to be available in them, you should make sure at least you meet 75% of that when preparing yours.
- Avoid damp ingredients.
- Make sure you understand the species of snail you have and the percentage of nutrients needed.
- Make sure you include pure nutrients and not formulated ones.
- The feed must be grounded very well so the snail can easily consume and digest them.
What Do Snail Drink
Many of you may wish to know what snails drink when they are testy, probably your mind would tell you they drink water just as humans do.
The question is what kind of water do they drink, probably the kind you drink. This section of the article will clear our curiosity.
1. Water That Is Chlorinated Free
If you drink chlorinated water, I will advise you to keep that far away from your snails and give them clean spring water.
Spring clean water helps them grow healthy, and stronger and even gives them a strong shell that acts as a house to them, when snails drink water that is not chlorinated free, it will seriously affect their health.
2. Do Not Drink Parasite Infested Drink
Snails are living animals, they are not free from parasite attacks. If you want a healthy snail it is best to filter the water you give them so as to get rid of the parasite that may be inside the water.
Parasites affect snails. when that happens, the snails have little or no chance of survival, because of the shell, as a human you do not have any option of saving it because removing it from the shell means a death sentence to that very snail.
The image above shows a zombie snail, I don’t think you would want your faith for your snail in any way.
Avoid Feeding Your Snails With This Foods
As there are good food for your snail, so are their bad ones. When you feed your snail harmful food it may kill them or even make them grow tiny.
1. Starchy Food
At all costs avoid starchy food when it comes to your snails, it will kill them slowly.
Foods like rice, millet, and pasta are not easily digestible and they end up blocking the internal digestive organ.
2. Salty Foods
Salt is an instant killer of snails, avoid giving them to your snail as it will kill them instantly. If a snail consumes a snail, these are the things that will happen to your snail.
- Salt will make your snail dehydrated quicker.
- Snail needs to be moist so they can survive so, salt will not allow them to have that.
- If you are a snail cooker, you will notice that you will use salt to wash off their slime. If that can wash off that, imagine what it will do to a living snail.
Avoid Giving Your Snail This Water
One enemy of snails is a particular parasite that attacks their brain turning them into zombies, The popular way to avoid this parasite is just by giving your snail the appropriate clean water that is germ free.
1. Chlorinated Water
Chlorinated water will surely kill your snail instantly if they come in contact with that. Always give them spring and clean water all the time.
2. Salt Water
Salty water is not good for your snail, when you give them salt water, it will slowly kill them. Snail is too fragile to survive the harmfulness of salt.
Snails do not need salt to survive, instead of salt, give them other supplements that will greatly benefit them. Give your snails salt-free water so they can flourish and grow strong.
Conclusion
We have detailed a very clean and safe way to care for your snail, there are some details we may have not included in our article today. I think this article will really help you underwent fully what do snails eat
You should follow what we have given you today. As a bonus, you can give your snail almost everything you eat just that you will have to avoid salt when you prepare theirs.
To find out more about what snails eat and drink, you can visit this website where they have giving some more details on what snail eats.
