Snail facts

Major Reasons For Snail Farming

noreply@blogger.com (Lanre Shotunde) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:26:00 +0000

Snail Farming is being encourage by some major things such as:

Deforestation:
Snail has disappeared from the dinning table because of deforestation. Snails don't have where to stay because of the disappearance of forest trees and bushes.

High local and export demand:
The demand for snail in Nigeria and other countries of the world is very high. Exporters as well as consumers demand for it like gold. Presently, we cannot meet the local and export for snail but with time we shall solve this problem, at least to an extent.
The value of hard currency makes it possible for exporters to source it at all cost, thus making the few available in the market to be quite expensive for an average family to afford. The demand for snail abroad is more than the demand in Nigeria. These countries must have known the value of snail better than the others.

Non-selective picking:
Raining season is the most suitable period for snail breeding. Though snails can breed anytime of the year if properly cared for. The picker of this animal do not spare any one,because they are only out to make money and if nothing is done to ensure continuous reproduction, sooner or later they will disappear from creation. Then the generation urban will blame us.

The benefits of snail farming
• Snail farming does not constitute nuisance to the environment; the droppings are generally firm and odourless.
• Snail is noiseless and easy to handle.
• Snail meat is recommended for patients with hypertension and heart attack due to its low level of cholesterol and fat.
• Snail blood is used during male circumcision, making tribal marks by native doctors.
• Snail blood and palm kernel oil in equal parts could be used to treat stroke and headache.
• The shell could be used for ornamental purposes.
• The shell is a source of calcium and phosphorus replacing bone meal and oyster shell in mixing rations for animals.
• Snail farming require little land or space.
• Feed for snails are cheap and could be source locally.
• Snail farming is not capital intensive when compared with other livestock farming.
• Snail meat contain anti tuberculosis qualities.
• Mucous of Helix Promatia favours action of penicillin.
Slugs (snails) in coconut milk has curative properties for Asthma.
• Ortho calcium phosphate is a curative substance extracted from snails and used in medicine by Japanese for Kidney disease, anaemia, diabetes and circulatory disorder.
• Snail meat is cooked along with other local herbs, for pregnant women to ease labour.
• Snail farming can be done as a part time business.
• Snail farming is less stressful compared to other livestock farming.
• Snail farming can be easily incorporated in other livestock farming like grasscutter farming.

Snail Species

noreply@blogger.com (Lanre Shotunde) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:05:00 +0000

There are different types of snail
1. Archatina Marginata. This snail grows up to 312mm long. It is also refers to as the big black snail, abundant in southern part of Nigeria. It lays a small numbers of large eggs.
2. Archatina Archatina. This inhabits the bush and forest of West Africa with distinctive black stripes on a brown background. It produces a large numbers of small eggs.
3. Archatina Fulica. This is the one of the several Giant African Land Snails, which grows up to 1ft long. It is a native of south of the Sahara in East Africa. This particular species has been introduced to India, Japan and Nigeria. It multiplies and grows fast and is presently sold in the export market as the Giant African Snail.
4. Helix Aspersa. This is also known as the French “petit gris” “small grey snail”. The shell of a mature adult has four to five whorls and measures 30 to 45mm across. It is a native to the shores of the Mediterranean and up the coast of Spain and France. The snails are common through out US, South Africa, New Zealand, Mexico, Ghana, Argentina and Australia. Helix aspersa has a life span of 2 to 5 years. This species is more adaptable to different climates and conditions than many snails. This adaptability not only increases Helix aspersa’s range but it also make farming Helix aspersa easier and less risky.
5. Helix Promatia. This measures about 45mm across the shell. It is also called the “Roman Snail”, “apple snail”, “Burgundy snail” or “gross blanc”. Native over a large part of Europe, it lives in wooded mountains and valleys up to 2,000m altitude and in vineyards and gardens. The Helix aspersa and Helix promatia are grown on large scale in Italy and some other part of Europe.

The number 1-3 are generally refer to Giant African Land Snails (GALS) and are abundant in the Eastern and Western part of Nigeria.

Feeding Process

noreply@blogger.com (Lanre Shotunde) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:51:00 +0000

Mostly feeding season occur in April through October, (depending on the climate), with a "rest period" during the dry season. Do not place food in one small clump so that there is not enough room for all the snails to get to it. Snails eat solid food by rasping it away with their tongues. Feeding activity depends on the weather, and snails may not necessarily feed every day. Evening irrigation in dry weather may encourage feeding since the moisture makes it easier for the snails to move about.
Put the breeding snails in the breeding pens in April or early May. Feed until mid June when mating begins and the snails stop feeding. Snails resume eating after they lay eggs. Once snails have laid their eggs, you can remove the adult snails. This leaves more food and less crowding for the hatchlings.
Snails of the same species collected from different regions may have different food preferences. Some foods that snails eat are: Alyssum, fruit and leaves of apple, apricot, artichoke (a favorite), aster, barley, beans, bindweed, California boxwood, almost any cabbage variety, camomile, carnation, carrot, cauliflower, celeriac (root celery), celery, ripe cherries, chive, citrus, clover, cress, cucumbers (a favorite snail food), dandelion, elder, henbane, hibiscus, hollyhock, kale, larkspur, leek, lettuce (liked, and makes good snails), lily, magnolia, mountain ash, mulberry, mums, nasturtium, nettle, nightshade berries, oats, onion greens, pansy, parsley, peach, ripe pears, peas, petunia, phlox, plum, potatoes (raw or cooked), pumpkins, radish, rape, rose, sorrel, spinach, sweet pea, thistle, thornapple, tomatoes (well liked), turnip,wheat, yarrow, zinnia. They will eat sweet lupines, but will reject bitter lupines and other plants with high quinolizidine alkaloids. Snails also avoid plants that produce other defensive chemicals, defensive stem hairs, etc.
Snails usually prefer juicy leaves and vegetables over dry ones. If you feed snails vegetable trimmings, damaged fruit, and cooked potatoes, promptly remove uneaten food as it will quickly spoil. You may supply bran that is wet or sprinkle dry bran over leafy vegetables. The diet may consist of 20% wheat bran while 80% is fruit and vegetable material. Some growers use oats, corn meal, soybean meal, or chicken mash. Laying mash provides calcium, as does crushed oyster shells. Snails also may eat materials such as cardboard (but do not purposely feed it to them); they can eat through shipping cartons and escape. Snails may sometimes eat, within a 24-hour period, food equal to 10%, and occasionally as much as 20%, of their body weight. Active snails deprived of food will lose more than one-third of their weight before they starve to death--a process that takes 8 to 12 weeks. Estivating snails can survive much longer.
Supply calcium at least once a week if it is not available in the soil. It should not contain harmful salts or be so alkaline as to burn the snails. Mix calcium with wet bran or mashed potatoes and serve on a pan; this will keep any leftover food from rotting on the ground.
Some researchers use chicken mash for feed. You can cut a plastic pipe in half lengthwise to make two troughs which can be used as feeders for mash. Mix laying mash (used for egg-producing hens) into the feed to provide calcium for the snails' shells. Commercial chicken feeding mash is around 16% to 17% protein, from fish meal and meat meal, making it good for growing snails. Supplying mash to hatchlings might reduce cannibalism. Two feeds that snails like and that promote good growth are: (A) broiler finisher mash consisting of 7% broiler concentrate, 58% corn, 16% soya, 18% sorghum, 7 % limestone flour (40% Ca); and (B) chicken feed (pellets) for layers consisting of 5% layer concentrate, 10%, corn, 15% soya, 20% sorghum, 44% barley, 6% limestone flour (40%Ca).
Pellets are fine for larger snails, but mash is better for younger ones. Partially crush pellets if you feed them to young snails. Snails do not grow well if rabbit pellets are their primary diet. Snails show a distinct preference for moist feed. Ensure easy access to enough water if you feed snails dry mash.
Be sure to frequently clean the feed and water dishes. The amount of feed a snail eats depends very much on air humidity and on the availability of drinking water. You can serve clean drinking water in a shallow container to reduce the risk of the snail drowning. Some types of chicken waterers may be suitable. Other factors (e.g., temperature, light intensity, food preferences versus food supplied, etc.) also affect feeding. A compromise, until you find the optimum feed, is to feed half green vegetable material and half chicken feed/grain/animal protein.
Young H. aspersa readily eats milk powder. Its rapid rate of assimilation promotes rapid growth.

Mate and Egg lay

noreply@blogger.com (Lanre Shotunde) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:48:00 +0000

Snails are hermaphrodite animal. Though they have both male and female reproductive organs, they must mate with a new snail of the same species before they lay eggs. Some snails may act as males one season and as females the next. Other snails play both roles at once and fertilize each other simultaneously. When the snail is large enough and mature enough, which may take several years, mating occurs in the late spring or early summer after several hours of courtship. Sometimes there is a second mating in summer. (In tropical climates, mating may occur several times a year. In some climates, snails mate around October and may mate a second time 2 weeks later on.) After mate, the snail can store sperm received for up to a year, but it usually lays eggs within a few weeks. Snails are sometimes uninterested in mating with another snail of the same species that originated from a considerable distance away. For example, a H. aspersa from southern France may reject a H. aspersa from northern France.
Snails may be provided with a soil dept of at least 2 inches in which their eggs will be layed. For H. pomatia, the soil ought to be at least 3 inches deep. Pests such as ants, earwigs, millipedes, etc must be kept out. Dry soil is not suitable for the preparation of a nest, nor is soil that is too heavy. In clay soil that becomes hard, reproduction rates may decrease because the snails are unable to bury their eggs and the hatchlings have difficulty emerging from the nest therefore it is not suitable for use. Eggs hatching depends on soil temperature, soil humidity, soil composition, etc. Soil consisting of 20% to 40% organic material is good. Keep the soil 65 F to 80 F, best around 70. Maintain soil humidity of 80%. Once eggs are laid, remove them immediately , counts them, then keeps them on damp fiber until the eggs hatch and the young start to eat. Weight lose occurred when eggs are been laid. Some do not pick up. About one-third of the snails will pass on after the reproduction period.
H. pomatia eggs measure about 3mm in diameter and have a calcareous shell and high yolk content. H. pomatia lays the eggs in July or August, 2 to 8 weeks after mating, in holes dug out in the ground. (Data varies widely on how long after mating snails lay eggs.) The snail puts its head into the hole or may crawl in until only the top of the shell is visible; then it deposits eggs from the genital opening just behind the head.The snail can lay 30 to 50eggs between 1 to 2 dayseggs. Sporadically, the snail will lay about a dozen more some few weeks later on. The snail covers the hole with a mixture of the slime it excretes and dirt. This slime, which the snail excretes to help it crawl and to help preserve the moisture in its soft body, is glycoprotein similar to egg white.
Fully-developed baby H. pomatia snails hatch about 3 to 4 weeks after the eggs are laid, depending on temperature and humidity. Birds, insects, mice, toads and other predators take a heavy toll on the young snails. The snails eat and grow until the weather turns cold. They then dig a deep hole, sometimes as deep as 1 foot, and seal themselves inside their shell and take cover for the winter. This is a response to both decreasing temperature and shorter hours of daylight. When the ground warms up in spring, the snail emerges and goes on a binge of replacing lost moisture and eating.
H. aspersa eggs are white, spherical, about 3mm in diameter and are laid 5 days to 3 weeks once mating. Helix aspersa lays an average of 85 eggs in a nest that is 1- to 1 1/2-inches deep. Data varies from 30 to over 120 eggs, but high figures may be from when more than one snail lays eggs in the same nest.
In warm, damp climates, Helix aspersa can lay eggs as often as once a month from February all the way through October, depending on the weather and region. Mating and egg-laying begin when there are at least 8 hours of daylight and continue until days begin to get shorter. In the United States, longer hours of sunlight that occur when temperatures are still too cold will affect this schedule, but increasing hours of daylight still stimulate egg laying. If adequately warm, the eggs hatch in about 2 weeks, or in 4 weeks if cooler. It takes the baby snails several more days to break out of the sealed nest and climb to the surface. In a climate similar to southern California's, H. aspersa matures in about 2 years. In central Italy, Helix aspersa hatches and emerges from the soil almost exclusively in the autumn. If well fed and not overcrowded, those snails that hatch at the start of the season will reach adult size and form a lip at the edge of their shell by the following June. If you manipulate the environment to get more early hatchlings, the size and number of snails that mature the following year will increase. In South Africa, some H. aspersa mature in 10 months, and under ideal conditions in a laboratory, some have matured in 6 to 8 months. Most of Helix aspersa's reproductive activity takes place in the following year of its life.
By disparity, one giant African snail, Achatina fulica, lays 100 to 400 oval eggs that each measure about 5mm long. Each snail may lay several batches of eggs each year, usually in the wet period. They may lay eggs in holes in the ground like Helix pomatia, or lay eggs on the surface of a rocky soil, in organic matter, or at the base of plants. In 10 to 30 days, the eggs hatch releasing snails about 4mm long. These snails grow up to 10mm per month. After 6 months, the Achatina fulica is about 35mm long and may already be sexually mature. Sexual maturity takes 6 to 16 months, depending on weather and the availability of calcium. This snail lives 5 or 6 years, sometimes as many as 9 years as their live span.

Money in Snail Farming

noreply@blogger.com (Lanre Shotunde) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:18:00 +0000

Snail farming is a business that grows ones stock of wealth and also reduces the poverty by creating employment for people. Snail farming is a money-spinning business that can provide a substantial source of protein in our diet as well, snail farming is a virgin area in livestock farming and also has lower risk compare to other livestock farming due to the fact that it has a low capital requirement.
Their is a great business opportunity in snail because the cost of breeding snails is affordable. Snails can feed on paw-paw, cassava and sweet potato leaves. The peels of mango, plantain, cocoyam and pawpaw have huge nutritive value and can be used in some places as the sole diet of snails. The running cost is very low and their feeds can be prepared locally. Snail business will continue to be a success because the demand for snail is higher than the supply and there are also potentials for export to the international market. "You can keep your present job and do this on part time since it doesn’t require much time,.

There are several land snails that can be farmed and eaten. Examples are helix aspersa and helix pommatia, these are kept in Europe. Snail species that are suitable for tropical areas are the giant African snails, achatina fulica and achatina achatina (bodyweight between 80 and 250g) and the big black snail Archachatina marginata (bodyweight about 350g). Lower stocking rates produce larger snails in a shorter time but over stocking may result in infection and causes decrease in number of eggs produced, low weight gains and deaths due to build-up of slime on the ground.
For Giant African Land Snails (GALS), density stocks of about 100 juveniles or 30 pre-adult snails per square meter are recommended but if you want to breed them yourself, a lower population density of between 6-7 snails per square meter will be required. For the smaller European snails (e.g. Helix Aspersa), stocking densities of 25 snails per square meter for breeding.

For one to do the business right, one needs to learn valuable lessons on how to do the business successfully.

You can visit www.profitinsnail.blogspot.com for how to do that successfully.

Snail Life

noreply@blogger.com (Lanre Shotunde) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:10:00 +0000

Snails are invertebrates with soft bodies that are covered with hard coiled shells. When the word snail is used in a general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails.
Snails are sourced from the wild life bank and are used as food, source of revenue or feed, in any parts of the world. The two main areas of snail consumption in the World are Western Africa and Western Europe.
Snails belong to the phylum of animals known as mollusca which oyster is part of it. Many species of edible land snails are recognized but the popular species of economic interest is the Giant Africa Land Snails (GALS). achatina achatina, achatina fulica and achatina marganita.
All land snails are hermaphrodites, producing both spermatozoa and ova. Some freshwater snails, such as apple snails, and marine species, such as periwinkles, have separate sexes; they are male and female. The age of sexual maturity is variable depending on species of snail, ranging from as little as 6 weeks to 5 years. Adverse environmental conditions may delay the onset of sexual maturity in some snails.
Prior to reproduction, most land snails perform a ritual courtship before mating. This may last anywhere between two and twelve hours. Garden snails bury their eggs in shallow topsoil primarily while the weather is warm and damp, usually 5 to 10 cm down, digging with their foot. Egg sizes differ between species, from a 3 mm diameter in the grove snail to a 6 mm diameter in the Giant African Land Snail. After 2 to 4 weeks of favorable weather, these eggs hatch and the young emerge. Snails may lay eggs as often as once a month.

Snail meat is high in protein compare to other livestock like fish, poultry, swine, cattle and sheep. It has a good iron content, low in fat and contains almost all the amino acids needed for human nutrition. In addition to the nutritional value of snail meat, recent studies indicated that the glandular substances from edible snails cause agglutination of certain bacteria, which could be of value against a variety of ailments including whooping cough. The liquid obtained when the meat has been removed from the shell is believed to be good for infant's development. It is believed in some quarters that snail meat contains pharmacological properties of value in counteracting high blood pressure.
Snails range greatly in size. The largest land snail is the Giant African Snail, which can measure up to 30 cm. Pomacea maculata, or Giant Apple Snail is the largest freshwater snail, with a diameter of up to 15 cm and a mass of over 600 g. The biggest of all snails is Syrinx aruanus, an Australian marine species which can grow up to 77.2 cm (30 inches) in length and 18 kg (40lbs) in weight.
Snails move by crawling, swimming, or floating with currents. Land snails crawl on the ground, creeping along on their large, flat foot; a special gland in the foot secretes mucus (a slimy fluid) that helps the snail move. The common garden snail is the slowest moving animal; it can travel about 0.03 mph (0.05 kph).
Most snails bear one or two pairs of tentacles on their heads. In most land snails the eyes are carried on the first (upper) set of tentacles which are usually roughly 75% of the width of the eyes. The second (lower) set of tentacles act as olfactory organs. Both sets of tentacles are retractable in land snails. The eyes of most marine and freshwater snails are found at the base of the first set of tentacles.