Snails and Boxies

Does anyone have an sucess maintaining snail colonies to feed to my box turtles - I keep three toe, eastern, ornate and gulf coasts and have access to huge numbers of snails, I just would like to not spend a ton of time searching for snails prior to feeding.

Specifically, I'm looking for ideas on housing.

Thanks,

Ian

wow another box turtle fan! where are you from ? nice collection of boxies , do you breed them all? I only have a pair of florida box turtles, and two babies that I produced from them breeding. They love snails, but in my area of florida we only get the tiny ones, they are all over the sides of the house in the morning. heres what you can do to try and breed snails, I think they take along time to reach adult sizes but you can try any way. get a fish tank, any size you see fit, get a screen lid, get as many snails in their as you think. put leaves from the plants you see the snails on to feed them in the cage, put soil on the bottom as a substrate, and their you have it , dead leaf litter on the floor might be good for them as well. dont snails eat dead leaves? any way I have a book some where on snails, I do pest control as a bussiness so I will check it out and see if it has any information on how they reproduce.

I'm in Southern California. Floridas, cool... they are one of the species that I want to get into next. I also want to get T.o. ornata (adults - mine are hatchlings) and T. o. luteola. My Box Turtle count so far is 1.2.2 T.c. triungularis, 1.1.3 T. c. carolina, 1.1 T. c. major, and 0.0.2 T. o. ornata.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm more interested in containing the snails. The ones we get here are rather large. Any help you can provide would be great!!!

Thanks,

Ian

I have mine in a rigid clear plastic sweater box. The important part is to make sure that they cannot escape. This type of box has a tightly fitting but not airproof lid. I feed mine the same veggies as I do the Cyclura I keep (collard, turnip, kale, etc. greens with carrot, sweet potato, parsnip...). They actually will grow rather rapidly if well fed but have a tendency to cannibalize the eggs if overly crowded. Another important item to have is a source of calcium. I use regular limestone rocks (of which there is no shortage here).

HTH,

Art

Hi you guys i was woundering i live in southern california and im looking for a box turtle like a flordia one something like that. Well i was woundering if anyone knows where i can get one.

Please help me.

dont buy one from someone in florida, you both will be breaking the law

Hi Kyle,

Whereabouts in SoCal are you? You will probably have the most difficulty finding T.c.bauri (Florida Box), they are the most difficult to get ahold of. T.c.triunguis (Three Toe) and T.o.ornata (Ornate) seem to be the most common. Most of what is in the pet stores are 3toe and not very healthy. I would suggest you try joining the local chapter of the CTTC and adopt from them. The great thing about 3 toes is they can winter here just fine. Mine are outdoors year round and I occaisionally find hatchlings which means they are happy with their environment. I might be able to point you in some other directions if you want to email me about where you are and what type of environment you have for them.

Let me know, I'm glad to help...
Ian

Originally Posted by Vince

dont buy one from someone in florida, you both will be breaking the law

True. So will you if you, I think, keep those florida babies and you live there, unfortunately.

zebek im not sure what your trying to say. my female just laid 5 eggs though. I will calling and checking on the laws for selling CB babies