АХАТИН.РФ

There is an opinion that  Achatina snails are to be fed only once a week. We can not agree with this. Achatina will survive, grow, and even often  propagate on such strict diet, but will grow  slowly and live less in comparison with normally fed snails. It is better to feed Achatina gradually according to its speed of eating and remove drying and  rotting rests.

Achatina snail eats vegetables, fruits and herbs, but in the nature can eat meat too. Most often at home they are fed with carrot, cabbage and cucumbers, but it's healthier and better to follow  more diverse diet. Above all you should be sure that any time  it could be switched to another kind of  food which is present at home at the moment.

It is an interesting feature that every Achatina snail has certain eating habits, despite many prefer the cucumbers and salad to the other types of products. It is well known fact if the snail was fed only with cucambers in its babyhood later it will refuse to eat anything else except them, that sure will cause some inconvenience. In particular, there are cases when Achatina does not eat anything except bananas and newspapers. Big snails can be given large amount of scraps, they will recycle food waste quickly and efficiently. Remember, please, that juicy food should lie in the cage for a short time only, otherwise it will get smeared on the ground and grow moldy,  contaminating the soil.

It is better not to give young Achatina soft  and juicy food in big pieces. There were examples when the small ones burred themselves into the banana entirely during the meal and suffocated there. Very small Achatina babies hould be given greens, thinly sliced ​​carrot and only a few days later salad and an apple.

Achatina eats almost everything. It will agree with any vegetables and fruits, cereals, mushrooms, mushrock, plantain, dandelion, sometimes you have to give it meat, poultry, fish and egg whites. In addition, Achatina may work for you as a factory for processing food waste, but unfortunately very low-powered one. She will not disagree with neither any eatable stump nor  the rotten parts. It will consume  useless for us cabbage leaves. It won't refuse from melons and watermelons. So, just give it all what the common snails consume. The main rule is: do not pamper it: there are cases when Achatina, tried a banana, for example, refused any other food completely.

If the snail does not like some food or the food does not fit the snail because of pollution or some addtional, the snail  just will not eat, so that it could not get poisoned. You can try to change  the color (to be true, rather the tint) of the  Achatina shell with the special diet. Just give a lot of bright vegetables (red Bulgarian pepper, carrot, tomato) and its shell, too, will be bright and beautiful with the reddish tint. If a snail prefers greens its shall can get greenish tint.

Snails will never overeat. When it finishes eating, food debris must be removed so as not to contaminate the soil, what may cause the appearance of parasites or Drosophila.

You should feed the young animals every day, at least - every other day. But you can give something to eat for the adults no often then 2-3 times a week. The pets will tell about their needs themselves: if a snail refuses to eat or do this sluggishly and reluctantly - you feed it too often.

In addition to food Achatina should be given something containing calcium. This is important because it is vitally necessary for the construction of the Achatina shell. The best products for this are eggshells (better noncoocked), sepia, natural or aft chalk, cottage cheese, mineral stone for parrots (without salt), boiled egg white,  meat. It's better pound chicken egg shells  because it's too hard even for our huge snails but with the quail eggshells even grape or little wood snails can manage with ease. You can also give calcium gluconate, limestone, skeleton of the cuttlefish (sepia) and, in extreme cases, school chalk (but be aware that there is almost no calcium in it).

In nature, these animals receive the required calcium to build their shells just eating the soil. Being kept at home Achatina will get calcium from what you offer to it. Apparently, nature provided them with some sence, what allows them not to load up themselves with the soil  poor of calcium. For this reason, it is better that would be in the diet has always been a pet calcium.

We suppose that the best source of calcium is sepia (cuttlefish shell). It is very rich of calcium and so soft that even the just born snails are able to lick it out. Kids consume  sepia eagerly. Adults do not refuse to treat themselves eating it in large amount too, improving the lack of calcium in the body (especially during and after pregnancy). You can buy sepia in pet stores.

Achatina will drink after any meal, just licking water drops from the walls. That's why it  is so important to spray them regularly. Animals will lick gladly the water droplets formed on the surface.

Typical eatable grass - mushrock, lettuce, dandelion leaves, plantain, germinated grass for cats (you can buy in the petstore).

Wash and dry floral food properly, do not feed the snails with the spoiled parts of fruits.

Food preferences may vary with the age: juveniles (up to 30 mm) prefer alive and very fresh parts of the plants, more adult Achatina - dead decaying plant residues. With age, a number of consumed plants grows enormously.

Do not overfeed it with the "sweeties" - bananas, sweet apples, strawberries. Achatina  becomes quickly the "gourmet"  and may refuse eating other food. Try to vary Achatina preferences.