Just before, I was doing stuff in my back garden and found a snail. It was raining non-stop all day yesterday so no doubt the slugs and snails were moving around on the path behind my house - where people step on them, be it purposely or accidently. Somehow, this little guy has managed to live through whatever happened to his shell (he was probably stepped on on the mentioned path) and made it into my back garden. I have no idea what the hell he was doing out in the sun, with no shell, at 1 in the afternoon, but whatever it was it lead him to me. And me, being the animal lover that I am, can't bring myself to kill him. I have a spark of optimism that he may live, although this is nearly impossible considering that he is without a shell and snails with only minor fractures can die. As far as I can tell, none of his internal organs have been damaged so he may be able to live for a little while longer. I'm hoping his last day(s) (if they are his last days) are good. I really don't know what to do. What do snails even eat? All's I can think of is leaves, and as you can probably tell from the pictures there's loads of food waste in there. It was originally a slug habitat, but my brother didn't put the lid on properly and they all got out. I have two snails, somehow. I don't know where they came from or how they got in. So anybody who knows these things, help would be appreciated. You may be wondering why I have a slug habitat? It was an earthworm habitat, but they all died. I tried several times to make one and they all kept dying. So for my axolotls, I had to make a slug one. Pictures: Small sidenote; if his shell were to regrow back, i'd have to keep him until he dies. The shell will not grow properly.
So, uh. I think the first sign of his passing has come. Its not moved from a tomato its been on the for the past hour or so, its eyes are pointing downward, and it won't move unless poked - in which case, it just moves itself back to the position it was in I read somewhere that if a snail's body begins to shut down, it has a chance of impregnating itself. I really hope that's what's happening here.
I am awestruck that something so neat, can die from salt, yet eat an acidic tomato. Maybe he ate too much and is trying to sleep? Is the place it's in moist? The link I shared said something about moist habitat, spritz water in there like with a spray bottle etc. DON'T DIE REAL LIFE GARY!!!
The salt draws out their water from inside them and dehydrates them, and since they are essentially made of water, they melt Also, since the tomatos are wet and rotting, there's probably less acid in them than usual, plus, they're not as lethal as salt anyway And the soil is soaked through with rainwater, the box is in the shade, and I occasionally mist it up a bit. The slugs seem to have no problem with it, and the snails who were there before don't either Also, just something else I found; one of the snails already in there had a cracked shell, and I picked it up and some of it crumbled to pieces and fell off I patched it up with sticky tape though, so it should be fine. Gawd, what's with the problem snails in my garden? >.>
Um. This was really hard to do, but... yeah... I cut its head off. I'm pretty sure it was dead, and i'm pretty sure if he was still alive he'd be going through a lot of suffering. I'm pretty convinced Snails/Slugs can feel pain. If they don't, it was going through a lot of stress. It was a quick, clean cut, and it came off with a single... um... slash, I guess? I did poke it a couple of times, and it didn't move, even though it was before when I did the same thing. I just wanted to make sure If you gais want, i'll give like, a weekly update on Problem Snail #2 and his sticky tape shell? EDIT: I was also kind of stupid for hoping it would live. Removing the shell of a snail is like removing the bones of a human and expecting them to live.
