Snails that have retracted into shells - cure :D

[sumi]

I'm having a few problems with my snails in that they have gone into their shells but they environment is fine - lots of space, food, good temperature. They were coming out for food then going back into their shells. :s

So today I tried something new and I wanted to share it with everyone who has the same problem as me. Haven't tried it on all my retracted snails yet but hopefully it'll work for them too I think the problem was some food that I brought off a buyer on ebay for snails - it spread white spores abotu my cage

Anyway this is what I did and it's working so far

* Got a dish and placed a piece of lettuce in it, and heated some water to a nice temperature and put a tiny bit in the base of the dish.
*Put tissue paper in the water so it soaked up a lot of the water
*Put retracted snails on tissue near lettuce
*Placed dish near warm radiator and sprayed snails with water
*Snails started to come out Not working with all yet but quite a few
*Placed lukewarm hot water bottle under dish
*Made a new tank in case old one had problems. Transferred snails that have recovered (eyestalks out and happy) into new tank on food. They are all munching

[AlienSnail]

Thanks for sharing that tip and the very best of luck with the snails. I hope they've not been badly affected by by the fungus, though most fungul growths on food don't appear to affect snails. What sort of food was it?

[sumi]

It was a home mix by the people I brought it from. I'll have to check the packet but I think it was stuff like hemp seeds, something just labelled as "flakes", sunflower seeds. Have you got any ideas of what I could do to help the ones that aren't coming out/any ideas of why the are like that?
How can you tell if one is dead or just retracted?

[sumi]

!!!!! two have started mating since they've come out of their shells they didn't leave it long! least i think they're mating - they're doing what they did last time, and are all entwined. am i wrong to think they are mating? ~is a bit overexcited~

[AlienSnail]

Are they joined at the neck?

[sumi]

yes they are at the moment they've been in quite a lot of posistions guess they are giving the a-ok for the tank set up let's just hope my other retracted snails will come out soon and join in the fun

[crossless]

Oh my, now my biggest ones are waking. I changed tubes lid for moment to metal net so heat lamps won't warm lid but warms air.

I was drift into a hypnotic trance while looking one to wake up. Kind of cool snail twisting it's way out of shell. Litterally.

My first real challenge with snail. I'm really happy snail keeper when they wake.