How to Keep Snails from Running Away
The editor shares with everyone the experience of raising snails without letting them run away and the correct methods of snail cultivation related to flower planting. Let's take a look together!
Snails can be raised outdoors, indoors, or in air raid shelters. Indoor raising commonly uses wooden boxes, jars, basins, concrete pools, etc. The breeding box is usually 94X45X45 centimeters, and the side of the box should be equipped with a sliding screen door for ventilation, observation, feeding, and watering. Each box generally holds 50-100 adult snails, 1000-3000 medium-sized snails, or 3000-5000 small snails, and should not be too dense. Multiple boxes can be stacked, with mixed soil at the bottom of the boxes to adjust humidity and for adult snails to lay eggs. The mixed soil is a combination of half sand and half garden soil.
Boil the garden soil with boiling water to kill pests, then mix it with sand and spread it at the bottom of the box, about 10 centimeters thick. The soil moisture should generally be maintained at around 40%, and the humidity inside the box should be between 75% and 90%. If the humidity in the air is insufficient, the surface of the snail shell will dry out, and in severe cases, it can lead to death, so water should be sprinkled on the snails regularly to adjust the humidity. The suitable temperature for snail growth is between 20 and 30 degrees. To increase the繁殖 rate, indoor heating should be added to maintain a temperature of 20-25 degrees, but care must be taken to prevent coal gas poisoning. Snails enjoy activity, and碎砖石 or branches can be placed in the breeding box (pool) for snails to climb, rest, and hide from adverse environments.
Snails have a wide diet and will eat almost any kind of vegetable leaves. In spring, they usually eat spinach, lettuce, and tender broad-leaved tree leaves. In summer, they can be fed with sunflower leaves, sweet potato leaves, towel gourd leaves, and the skins of various fruits. In autumn and winter, they can be fed with vegetable leaves, pumpkin, potato slices, radishes, etc. To speed up snail growth, supplements such as bran and soybean meal should be added, as well as mineral feeds like lime powder and shell powder. It is best to use chicken feed as an adjustment, which contains both concentrated feed and mineral powder. Snails have the habit of activity at dusk, and feeding time is generally in the evening, with the amount of food being enough to be eaten cleanly. Leftover food and feces should be cleaned every day.
Daily management includes controlling temperature, humidity, and feed selection, and it is also necessary to regularly remove moldy feed. If a small number of earthworms can be raised in the soil at the bottom of the box, it can loosen the soil and allow earthworms and snails to eat each other's feces. When snails are hungry, there is a phenomenon of large snails preying on young snails, so it is best to keep the snails well-fed. During the peak activity period, for every 10 kilograms of snails, 1 kilogram of green feed and 0.1 kilogram of concentrated feed should be fed daily. Large and small snails can also be raised separately. Additionally, wild snails should not be used for breeding.
(i) Snail Raising and Management Methods at Different Stages
1. Management of Young Snails: Young snails are delicate and are the most difficult stage to care for in a snail's life. They should be carefully fed, paying attention to the following aspects:
(1) The breeding box should be rinsed every 3-5 days, and the feces, debris, and breeding residue should be cleared daily to prevent bacteria and pests.
(2) Young snails do not eat or move for 2-3 days after hatching, and only start to move and eat the eggshell after 3 days. At this time, vegetable leaves can be used to lure them out and transfer them to the breeding box. The feed should be fresh, tender, juicy, easily digestible, and rich in nutrients, such as vegetable leaves, and can be mixed with some rice bran, wheat bran, porridge, and concentrated feed. Boil the feed with boiling water or cook it, and stick it on the spinach for young snails to eat. Food residue should be cleared at regular intervals.
(3) Master the temperature and humidity, with the most suitable temperature for young snails being 28-30 degrees, and the soil or sponge humidity being 35%-40%, otherwise it is not conducive to the growth of young snails and affects their survival rate. In addition, it is important to supplement calcium and control the appropriate stocking density. Generally, 2000-3000 can be raised per square meter, and no more than 4000. Overcrowding can affect activity and feeding, leading to slow growth or even death.
2. Management of Growing Snails: Snails one month old are called growing snails. At this stage, feed should be increased, with feeding twice a day. The fastest growth occurs within a temperature range of 24-34 degrees. Pay attention to humidity and ventilation, and if the humidity is insufficient, a spray bottle should be used to spray water, with hot water in low temperatures and cold water in high temperatures. The stocking density is generally 1000-2000 per square meter for two-month-olds, 700-800 for three-month-olds, and 250-300 for four-month-olds.
3. Management of Adult Snails: Adult snails have reproductive capacity. To promote early and multiple laying of good-quality eggs, they should be fed with fresh, juicy vegetable leaves, pumpkin, watermelon, sweet potato, fruit peelings, and more concentrated feed. The breeding temperature is 23-30 degrees, humidity 70%-80%, and 100-150 per square meter.
How to Keep Snails from Running Away
4. Management of Breeding Snails: Select strong, white-fleshed, plump, mucilage-rich, healthy, smooth and transparent-shelled snails weighing at least 60 grams as breeding snails. Feed them with juicy feeds like spinach and fruit peels twice a day. The feed temperature is 26-30 degrees, and the humidity is 80%. During the activity period, water should be sprinkled once a day, or they can be washed in water (the water temperature should not be lower than the air temperature). Also pay attention to cleanliness and ventilation.
5. Management of Commercial Snails: Snails weighing over 40 grams can be transferred to commercial snails. During this period, fattening should be promoted, with more green feed and some concentrated feed to speed up the fattening of commercial snails. The feeding of snails should be cleared of residue before feeding, with feeding every 2-3 days in low temperatures and daily during June to September. The amount of feed varies by stage, based on the amount consumed by the snails each time. Various vegetables, fruits, and tree leaves should be soaked and washed clean before feeding to eliminate the harm of pesticides and other pollutants to the snails.
(ii) Snail Overwintering Techniques
Snails enter complete hibernation and stop growing when the temperature drops to 12 degrees, and are highly susceptible to death when the temperature drops below 0 degrees. If suitable temperature and humidity conditions are created for snails, they will maintain vigorous growth and thus accelerate maturity.
1. Electric heating and insulation in breeding rooms: Electric heaters, electric fans, heaters, etc., can be used for insulation. For boxes and cabinets, an electric blanket can be fixed around the inside walls, or one or several light bulbs can be used for heating (avoiding light). It is important to maintain the appropriate humidity inside the box or cabinet, in addition to regular watering, a basin of water can be placed at the bottom. Electric heating is suitable for places with normal power supply.
2. Coal briquette stove insulation: This method is suitable for areas without electricity or with unstable power supply. Build a coal briquette stove outside the breeding area and pass a white iron skin chimney through the breeding room (note that coal gas should not be directly passed into the breeding room to avoid harming the snails). A pressure cooker filled with water can also be placed on the stove, with the exhaust port connected to a pipe leading into the breeding room, using the steam heat for insulation while also maintaining humidity.
(iii) Artificial Breeding of Snails
Snails are hermaphroditic mollusks that reproduce through cross-fertilization and lay offspring. Snails weighing 50 grams or more at 5-6 months of age are sexually mature and will mate with each other when two snails in heat meet. There are two mating methods: double mating, where both male and female glands are mature, and both snails are fertilized and lay eggs simultaneously; and heterosexual single mating, where one party's female gland is immature and acts as a male to fertilize the other party to lay eggs. After mating, egg-laying begins 10-15 days later, and feeding stops during egg-laying. The eggs are elliptical, milky white, and the size of mung beans. After 7-15 days of incubation, they hatch into young snails. The number of eggs laid by snails varies with the size of the snail. For example, in the first laying, a snail weighing 50 grams can lay up to 180 eggs; in the second laying, a snail weighing 85 grams can lay over 300 eggs. The larger the snail, the more eggs it lays.