If you have even been a child, you have probably held a snail in your hand as you tried to figure out if there was some way to smuggle the snail into your house without your mom finding out. I know I did and I loved the designs that I could find on the shells but I also knew that my mom would have a fit if she found one in the house so I would leave them outside.

My kids, on the other hand, only need to ask and suddenly I am rushing for a container, a mister and everything else that I need to set the snails up into the lap of luxury. They eat well when they visit and many because so used to being handled, that they stretch out each time we pick them up.

So the first time I brought snails into the house, I had to figure out how to make the snails visit enjoyable not only for us but for them. One of these was figuring out what they eat and is a question often asked by many impromptu snail owners.

So what do you feed a snail?

One of the first things that I would like to mention is Cuttle Bones. You can find these in the bird section of any pet store and are very cheap. Without a cuttle bone, snails will not receive the proper nutrients and their shells will harden. This isn’t really what they eat but it is essential to their diet.

When it comes to food, you can feed snails a variety of things including plants, vegetables and fruit. They tend to eat everything and anything that is plant matter and this also includes decaying vegetation. They aren’t very picky and I have had snails that love apples. As soon as an apple plopped down in the terrarium, even with other food, the snails would be all over the apple.

If you are keeping snails in a terrarium, it is better to plant a small houseplant into the terrarium. The snails will curl up onto the plant and come down when food is out. If there is an abundance of vegetables and fruit, you will find that the snails will leave the plant alone – well, for the most part that is.

Lastly, snails need water to survive. They should be misted with a spray bottle several times a day but don’t worry too much if you miss a spritzing. In times of drought, snails will seal up the entrance to their shell with a thick mucus and go into hibernation. To revive your snail, simply mist it a few times and the snail will be back out and being its usual snailish self.

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Tags: caring for a snail, cuttle bones, feeding snails, fruit, plants, snail, snail food, snails, vegetables, vegetation, what do snails eat

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