Does anyone keep snails? Are any better than others to keep?

[Hoolit]

Dd 9 loves snails and always has done. It was only on an unrelated thread on here that someone mentioned they had pet snails , it had never entered my head you could do this!
So as it's dds birthday soon I thought this might be a good idea, least these ones are meant to be in the house!
I looked up how to keep them but not really getting a lot for people starting out.
can you give me any tips? Anything I might not find on the web?

Giant African land snails are the most popular ones, IIRC. They do get massive so they need a fairly big tank (try freecycle or ebay, it doesn't need to be watertight), and they breed like crazy but you can freeze the eggs if you don't want to be overrun with babies. Any kind of pet shop that sells creepy crawly things should sell them and they are meant to be really easy to look after. I think they need a cuttlefish bone (like the ones you get for budgies) to help strengthen their shell and they need veg that hasn't been sprayed with pesticides. I was going to get some a few years ago but decided on stick insects in the end.

That's about the extent of my knowledge unless you want to know about aquatic snails. Hope you manage to get something for your DD's birthday :)

Super thanks EauRouge I've found somewhere local that sells exotic animals, although I confess to being a bit suprised that snails are classed as exotic!
Thats interesting about the cuttlefish bone I'll look into that.
Good tip on freecycle may look on gumtree too.
Thanks again she'll be over the moon.

awaits EatShitDerek

Oh monkeyface I think it may have been EatShitDerek that mentioned keeping snails on another thread.

I was just about to come on here saying eatshitderek will be along shortly...

We looked after the school's African snail (Barry) for 2 months.
He ate a lot of cucumber. Massive thing he was (and they breed well). Quite delightful. DS1 is 9 and hankering after another.

Pancakeflipper did you find it easy to look after, clean etc did it smell?

Brilliant EatShitDerek sounds like something I could manage.
I take it yours are African Land snails also?
Shes going to be so surprised and happy