I am having the best morning!

Today felt like any other day.? We woke up, had a cup of tea and Pete left for work.? Little did I know everything was about to change….. as he was leaving the house he noticed a baby snail had crawled in and was taking refuge in our kitchen.? This has resulted in the best morning ever (this month maybe).

After an hour of letting the baby snail crawl all over me and taking a million photos, I realised that one of my ‘really useful boxes’ (I am sure they include snail housing in that name) was PERFECT for a snail home!? I drilled some holes in the top for air and collected some garden mud with fresh rain all over it.? I popped a bit of garden moss in, a stone, a little plastic plant pot for him to crawl in and out of and finally a nibbling of cucumber (which I hear is one of their favourite foods).

I was going to take some photos of my Valentine Worry too, so my new baby ended up working with me and getting involved.? Turns out it’s not just me that’s fallen completely in love, but Worry too!

So the tiny snail ended up helping me do some photography…

And then we sat watching him in his new home for a while, until we realised he wasn’t going to do anything show stopping and realised we’d spent waaaaaaaay too long playing with the snail and needed to get breakfast quickly before work.

I would love to hear from other snail mothers.? I was going to adopt an African Land Snail, but a few things worried me.? I wanted 2, but they breed so often that you have the constant worry of too many babies and I don’t think I can freeze the eggs to kill them, but I can’t let them go as they are a foreign species.? If I keep garden snails and they had babies, I can set them free when I get too many.

Also the size of them, the African snails grow so BIG!? This little guy will never out grow the tank I am ordering.

I have some snail keeping questions if anyone out there keeps snails succesfully from the garden?

1. If I find another snail, like one of those pretty ones with the black and white swirly shell, can I put them together in the same home?? Or does it need to be another standard brown snail to pair with this guy?
2. What do they eat?? Veg peelings?? Cucumber?? Do they need special soil or cuttlefish/calcium like the big ones?
3. Can I put a dab of nail varnish on it’s shell?? Just a dot so that if I get more, I know which one this is?? I don’t want to be cruel or ruin him in anay way.

If you have kept garden snails (or big snails) and can help me be the best snail mummy ever, please do comment here.? And I will obviously keep you posted about my snail adventures and how they progress.

Just to reiterate, I am having the BEST MORNING EVER!!!!….. but now I really must go to work.