What kind of pets you will not meet today in city apartments! The size of the housing does not really allow you to get such a large animal as a dog or cat. And with constant employment, the owners can not always take a minute to feed, and even more so for long walks. Therefore, they are looking for easier animals to care for. And here an example of such unusual pets can be ordinary snails. It turns out that they are very cute and bring a lot of joy. You just need to know in what conditions to contain and how to feed domestic snails.
Snails at home
These pets do not make noise at all, do not interfere with the owners to sleep or go about their business. They are absolutely unpretentious. There will be no dust from them, allergies will not develop. The most popular species among breeders today is Achatina. They are large: in natural conditions, some specimens can reach a length of 30 centimeters and a weight of almost half a kilogram. These mollusks come from hot Africa. There they freely crawl along the trunks of trees and eat foliage. In captivity, various species of these snails are kept, such as lemon, net, and brown. Living conditions in nature must be considered when deciding how to feed a snail. You can also often find houses and a grape snail. She is a convinced vegetarian, and reaches a size quite significant.
Snail content
To make the mollusk feel at home, you need to know not only how to feed it, but also how to contain it. In order for the mollusk to be comfortable, a relatively small aquarium will be sufficient. It must be filled with soil (sand or sawdust) so that the pet can dig into it if necessary. But do not forget that the aquarium should be closed with a lid and have openings for air access.
Snail Care
There are several important points in caring for these exotic pets besides knowing how to feed the snail. Firstly, the soil needs to be moistened, but so that it does not become wet (otherwise the mollusk may decide that the rainy season has come around). Secondly, the snail needs to arrange swimming about once a week. Just hold it under a small stream of warm water. The pet will like this process, he will funny move his horns. It is only necessary to ensure that it does not choke, snails still breathe oxygen. From time to time, it is advised to mix crushed shells to the ground so that the pet eats it.
Feeding
If the house contains Achatina snails, than to feed them - this is not such a serious problem. They eat various plant foods, such as carrots, flakes of oatmeal, slices of watermelon or pumpkin, leaves of cabbage or lettuce. They are also given a variety of dry food for fish, as well as soft vegetables (cucumbers, zucchini). When deciding how to feed a snail, it is important to remember that animal feed is contraindicated, as well as everything salty, fried, smoked. The larger the pet, the more food it can absorb. In this case, you can feed them even every other day.
Breeding
Achatina breeding is also very interesting. The fact is that they are natural hermaphrodites, so offspring appear in any pair. That person who decides to be a female lays eggs, from which babies are hatched in large numbers. It is interesting that a mollusk can lay viable eggs even if it lives completely alone, making an original unexpected gift to its owners.
Achatina are funny, pleasant, sociable mollusks. They can easily be kept at home without much effort. There are also no problems with how to feed the snail. Paying her very little attention, you will get a lot of pleasant minutes.