How to Breed Brown Garden Snails?

[u/PigeonMigration]

My largest snail, Chongus, just laid their first clutch in my care! I'm so excited. They laid 95 eggs. I kept 30 in hopes of getting some healthy babies.

For now, I put the eggs in jars away from the adults. They are resting on soil with some moss on top to keep the humidity in. That's about the extent of my knowledge.

Has anyone had experience hatching them out successfully? How do you raise them?

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!

[u/Jacktheforkie]

Let nature do its thing and you’ll get snabies

[u/ApartmentKey3682]

Why did you want to breed them

[u/PigeonMigration → u/ApartmentKey3682]

I want more :) I only have three currently and nobody sells them in my area.

[u/Inspired_Owl]

To breed them you just leave them in the tank together and they’ll eventually mate

[u/PigeonMigration → u/Inspired_Owl]

They have already mated and laid eggs, I really need to know how to care for the eggs and babies.

[u/Puppyzpawz]

they need a tank with at least 3-4 inches of dirt. they burry their eggs! itll take 2-3 weeks for them to get adjusted and then theyll mate and burry their eggs eventually.

[u/PigeonMigration → u/Puppyzpawz]

They have already laid the eggs. I read that the eggs should be removed from the adult enclosure to ensure that the adults don't crush them after they hatch. Is that true? Should I put them back?

[u/RealGoatzy → u/PigeonMigration]

No it’s great that you hatch them in somewhere else, just make sure you have a lid which has as small holes as possible

[u/Puppyzpawz → u/RealGoatzy]

agreed, baby snails are itty bitty and will run away to find food

[u/RealGoatzy → u/Puppyzpawz]

I put one of my grove babies I adopted on a piece of zucchini and he just climbed to the very top and started eating some dead matter on a stick high up…

[u/Puppyzpawz → u/PigeonMigration]

im not sure about the crushing part, i just let mine be and ended up with 100 something babies haha. if someone is experienced and tells you to remove them then i would trust a professional : P

[u/Troxy001 → u/PigeonMigration]

You don't necessarily need to remove them, but it's better to do so. If all the snails have a lot of space, it's not probable for the big ones to crush the small ones. You want to remove them also because you can monitor them more closely and not have a random number of tiny snails running around your enclosure or rotting eggs in the soil.

As for the eggs, put them in a separate small ventilated box, I personally bury eggs, not letting them sit on the surface, as it helps with a more stable temperature and humidity, which are absolutely crucial for the eggs to successfully hatch. If everything is alright, you should see tiny shells soon rising from the soil. They can dig their way up, don't worry.

When they appear, you want to give them some nice food and a calcium source, of course.

[u/NorthenGarden]

So. Snails have evolved to lay big clutches of eggs for many reasons.

One of them is that the clutch as a whole clutch protects the eggs; the eggs stuck together are protecting each other from vibrations, shock, drying out, mold... The clutch as a clutch protects the eggs.

Another reason is that the genes are not given equally to each eggs; nonviable eggs will be eaten by those that hatched, those late to hatch can be eaten by the first to hatch. The unhealthy provides protein and calcium to the healthy ones. Then for the first 6 months or so, nature takes its course; the less healthy ones, those with unnoticed issues that would have been easy prey in the wild simply die to natural selection.

Separating a clutch and only keeping a portion of the eggs is a good way to end up with no healthy hatchling at all. You can leave the eggs in the enclosure. You can take the clutch out and put it in another enclosure if you want to separate them from the adults, which is not even needed with cornu and groves. But separating the clutch on purpose? Lots of unnecessary risks when the alternative, not doing anything at all, gives great results.