If you want to feed snails to grow faster and make more market sales, this article is made for you. This guide will teach you new techniques in further reading.
What do baby snails eat?
On the regular, Snails are nocturnal animals meaning that they are active at night. Snails look for food early in the morning or at night. They do use their powerful sense of smell to find food. Your baby snails can eat about twice as much feed as mature snails, and they prefer shoots and soft leaves.
Snails do not have the set of teeth like mammals do but they do have specialized food processing organs common to all mollusks. They eat solid food by cutting or scraping it away with their radula (a part of snail anatomy used to chew up food) before the food enters the esophagus.
What is the best way to feed snail?
Tips on how to feed snails to grow faster
- Ensure you wash all food before you give them to the snails because some insect larvae may be hiding in the food without your knowledge.
- Remove all leftover snail food from the pens daily as it will decompose rapidly. Keep in mind that decaying food will attract rats, fleas, lice, mice, and diseases.
- To help you keep sanitary measures, always put snail food on a flat dish or a concrete slab constructed within the pen.
- Use heavy dishes to hold their feed and water because snails will tend to tip them up as they move over them.
- Keep their place of abode moist to encourage feeding, since the moisture makes it easier for the snails to move about.
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How do you feed snails to grow faster and bigger?
Let’s look at some of the information you need to have at the back of your mind whilst looking for food to feed your snails.
- Â Snails do need calcium supplements for their shell’s growth, the proper development of eggs and embryos. Bone meal, calcium powder, cuttlebone, shells from dead snails, natural limestone, and wood ash are all good sources of calcium for snails.
- Vegetables and Leaves are snails’ favourite.
- Yes! Snails also eat tuber crops.
- Snails love soft fleshy fruits. Fruits are rich sources of minerals and vitamins but are low in protein.
- There are some edible flowers for snails.
- Â Snails do drink non-chlorinated water.
- Snails can be fed with concentrated or formulated feed containing basic ingredients such as groundnut, soya bean, bean and maize.
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What is snails’ favourite food?
- List of food to feed snails to grow faster
- Apples, Artichoke, Banana, Basil, Beans, Blueberries (do cut in half to expose the juicy insides)
- Cabbage, Carrot (the peelings are good, sometimes preferred), Cauliflower, Celeriac (root celery), Cherry, Clover, Courgette
- Cucumber (a snail favorite but has little nutritional value), Dandelion Leaves.
- Dog Biscuits (some use Boneo brand)
- Fish Food Flakes (e.g. Goldfish Flake)
- Leafy vegetables- darker greens generally equate to better nutrition.
- Lettuce (Romaine is good to try)
- Kale, Kiwi, Mango, Mushrooms, Passion Fruit, Peach, Peas, Pears (ripe), Pepper
- Plantains (when very ripe – totally black and mushy), Plum, Pawpaw leaves, Potato (peelings are good to use)
- Pumpkin seeds, Raisins, Spirulina, Strawberries
- Sweetcorn, Sweet Potato, Tangerine, Tomato
- Turnip, Watermelon.
How to make snail food?
The foods above have their merits and mixing them to feed snails to grow faster is the best, but note that Algae flakes, fish food and sweet potato are especially high in nutrients.
Caution
Below are some features of foods that you should avoid feeding your snails;
- Avoid feeding your snails’ contaminated foods.
- Do not feed snails starchy foods because they expand within the gut, causing a blockage, water retention and bloating in the snails.
- Do not give snails chlorinated water.
- Avoid giving your snails salty foods
Conclusion
Snails can eat up to 4-6% of their body weight within 24 hours. Hence, it is very crucial to feed snails to grow well because it helps in reproduction capacity and increases their size.
Snails love food too, so feed them well!
This article is a guest post from PoultryABC. About, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.