pregnant snail

[funnykooky]

hi all
how do you tell if a snail is pregnant? are there behaviour or physical signs? thanks for any replies

[AlienSnail]

It's not easy to tell from a snails' behaviour.

Usually the only sign is that you can actually see their eggs when you look inside of their breathing hole. Sometimes when they are sliming their way up the tank wall, and they have their breathing hole wide open, you can see a clutch of eggs within a clear thin membrane just inside of that hole.

other possible sign is burrowing. Many snails will bury themselves to lay the eggs. However some snails like to burrow anyway, so it's not always a sign.

Often a snail will be sleepy for a day or two after laying eggs. if your snail is usually active and spends a couple of days sitting in a corner somewhere it can sometimes be a sign that it has just laid.

it's wise to go through the soil every few days to check for eggs. If you don't wish to keep them you will need to freeze them for a few hours to ensure the eggs are dead.
Fulica eggs often take 10 to 14 days to hatch, but sometimes a snail will keep hold of the eggs and lay them just before they are due to hatch, so sometimes you don't have many days to collect the eggs!

By the way they don't lay the eggs through their breathing hole. They travel down through the body and pop out of a hole just behind their heads! Apologies if you already knew that, but I didn't know until after I started keeping snails

[funnykooky]

thanks for that aliensnail,and i didnt know anything about how snails laid eggs,fascinating stuff!! ;D

[crossless]

Some of my snails spend resting 1 to 3days after laying. Seems like juveniles like to rest more than these organized egg machines.

I use to destroy eggs, but I found some lovely girl who has loads of turtles she is really pleased to get some snail eggs for food to her pets. I will wait till almost everyone has layied eggs of my 8snails so trip to my place will be more worth it, I let snails hatch till we plan when she can get them so snails will be fresh and will be accept as food more likely that old dead smelly ones.

In morning I shall add little bit more peat, so snails will feel more like home and I hope they go really wild and lay more egg 5still haven't laiyed and they usually all lay at the same time of month. Usually I'm not keen them laying but if I make some one too happy from eggs I have no problem them laying like mad.

[evonnetracey]

hi one if my snails have a little tube thing at the bk of its head is it about to lay eggs if it helps i can put up a photo i have never seen it on any of my other snails x

[stixandsnailsyork]

That is normally a sign of sexual maturity. is it on one of the immacs? some of them are about the right age.

[evonnetracey]

oh okay yeah its one of the immacs its just the first time i seen it

[stixandsnailsyork]

As far as I know it is the male part of the snail and I think the female part is under neath the foot that why to mate they coil around each other.

I might be wrong but I'm sure thats how it works.

[crossless]

There's picture of snails sexorgans en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Love_dart_drawing.png and this is picture when they haven't come out yet en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Helix_pomatia_head_mating.jpg

[ade1999]

haha they get very grumpy and demand chocolate - oh sorry thats Lynn

[stixandsnailsyork]

Lol. My hubby would agree ;D