If you have no time for walking a pet, playing with it, visiting exhibitions and a veterinary clinic, and feeding appears to be the case costly and troublesome, you can have as Pets a few large snails of the species Achatina.
Place these lovely creatures need a little bit of noise they create, but watching them is pretty interesting.
Origin and description
The natural habitat of the clam is the hot Africa.
In the wild snails for their rapid growth.
During the year their shell is able to grow in size to 20 centimeters. The snail has a fairly large body, so in an exotic Achatina look unusual and attract the attention of all who come.
All shellfish species reticulata armor looks the same. It is a beige shell with a ribbed surface, painted in brown stripes and spots.
Differences are observed in the body color, there are three types of Achatina reticulata:
- Standard, which has a light body and a brownish head.
- Blackheads – the title speaks for itself. The head of the shellfish is black and the body has white edging.
- Albino is completely devoid of pigment molluscs with head and body white.
In addition reticulata there are other types of snails Achatina:
- Immaculata;
- albopicta;
- balteata;
- have irately;
- Fulica;
- the marginata.
Each of them has slight differences in the body structure, or coloration of the flesh and the shell. Some of the species are relatively new in domelem content, others are cultivated for quite some time. The conditions they required the same.
The contents Achatina
A house for snails, equipped with all the rules, called a terrarium-olitorium. Build it out of normal glass or plastic aquarium with dimensions 60 x 40 cm. Above there should be a cover glass or a mesh, so the snails didn’t. The bottom is lined with moist soil, consisting of peat, pieces of sphagnum moss, vermiculite. It is periodically sprayed from the spray room temperature water so the moisture is preserved.
For Achatina reticulata enough to maintain temperature parameters at +25°C, albino a temperature slightly higher (27°C). If the values are significantly lower or higher, Achatina take it as adverse conditions and can hibernate or reduce activity.
For heating use a lamp with the bulb or special termokimik. It will be enough to heat only half of the cage to another part of the Achatina can crawl, if it gets hot. Inside should always be a bowl of clean water for drinking and bathing.
Caring for snails
Like any other living creature, Achatina regularly defecates, and also leaves traces of mucus on the walls of the terrarium. Therefore, all care is reduced to regular cleaning. Twice a month the soil is completely replaced, and the walls thoroughly washed without the use of chemicals. Daily care is reduced to the cleaning of food residues, excrement, and replacement of the fresh water.
After cleaning the terrarium can redeem snails directly under running tap water, they love this procedure. But remember to submerge them in water completely impossible, Achatina can choke. Once you took the pet in his hands, the skin would remain sticky traces. To get rid of them, it is enough to wash away the slime with water from the tap.
Feeding Achatina
All kinds of Achatina fed alike.
And reticulata, and Immaculata would be happy to eat:
- all kinds of greens (lettuce, parsley, spinach, dill);
- root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, etc.);
- tomatoes, pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers;
- the leaves of plantain, dandelion, yarrow;
- any fruits and berries;
- cereals (buckwheat, rice, barley, oats, corn).
Snails that grow, have to get food every day, adults are fed twice a week, but if necessary they will easily take a week-long hunger. We must not forget that the snails are in need of building materials for its shell. Youngsters give daily powder from the shell of boiled eggs, grind in a coffee grinder, or put on the bottom of the terrarium chalk stone. Ordinary school chalk for these purposes is not suitable, because it includes the cast.
Reproduction
Unpretentious Achatina freely breed in captivity and are quite prolific.
To spawn the little snails at one year of age. For the 1st time Mature individual brings up to 300 eggs.
Some breeders freeze the part of the masonry, and then in milled form to give to parents as feeding to maintain the shell in good condition.
If you plan to breed Achatina, parents need to transplant, they can eat eggs. Therefore, you will need a 2nd cage. By the way, these snails are hermaphrodites. Each individual can play a role of mother and father, and they are able to pregnant. As you can see, nature is very care about their survival.
Babies come from eggs on the 10th –16th day. They continue to contain in a separate terrarium while the size of the shell will be approximately 4 centimeters. Smaller offspring parents can easily eat. Small snails in the type of feed to give mashed vegetables, large pieces they cannot eat.
Behaviors
People tend to assume that snails don’t have brains and they can’t think. Perhaps partly so, but to develop snail reflexes is possible. Those who kept Achatina claim that they are easy to teach there at the same time, if you give a bowl of food at the same hours.
It is believed that Achatina active at night, so feed it is better to give at night. The location of the bowls they are also easy to remember. In addition, the owners speak of them as beings, curious and neat. Achatina person is not afraid and would be happy to crawl on the palm of your hand, if you take it in hand.
In General, this is the perfect pet: no noise, no smell, not boring, interesting to observe. To buy Achatina can be quite cheap the breeders-lovers on the ad on “Craigslist” and other similar sites. Owners will be happy to attach in good hands numerous offspring.
