# Giant African Land Snail dry & brittle shell?



## Reptitat (Nov 28, 2013)

My 5-9 month old GALS has a very brittle shell and looks somewhat dry. He is getting plenty of calcium as he has almost finished his cuttlefish! I give him the occasional shower. What could be the cause of this? I only though brittle shells are caused by lack of calcium, but could it be just because he's growing?

Thank you.


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## Mr Mister (Oct 12, 2011)

Reptitat said:


> My 5-9 month old GALS has a very brittle shell and looks somewhat dry. *He is getting plenty of calcium as he has almost finished his cuttlefish! *I give him the occasional shower. What could be the cause of this? I only though brittle shells are caused by lack of calcium, but could it be just because he's growing?
> 
> Thank you.


 Is that_ the_ source you use for the calcium then, the cuttlefish?


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## Mr Mister (Oct 12, 2011)

As an alternative you can try Powdered Oyster Shells (fine).

And natural chalk.


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## sage999 (Sep 21, 2008)

You may need to up the moisture in the enclosure. You can feed them all the calcium you like but they will still become brittle in a low humidity environment.


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## Reptitat (Nov 28, 2013)

I constantly have my enclosures humid, I never let it dry out. I bought some chalk powder and used that, but he doesn't seem to be eating the food covered in it..


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## tezzabear (Dec 12, 2012)

Hmm can't help with that, but can I ask what you guys feed? Mine used to et lettuce and cucumber ll the while but now one only eats lettuce and the other only eats cucumber, they both have fish food occasionally but I need some variety for them as lettuce is a bit too plain, they are almost a year old


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## Reptitat (Nov 28, 2013)

I feed him on what I have available. Usually cucumber when I have it, other than that, lettuce. I also noticed that he isn't eating either. I prefer to feed him anything with a high water content.


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## TheMetaphysicalNinja (Aug 18, 2009)

sage999 said:


> You may need to up the moisture in the enclosure. You can feed them all the calcium you like but they will still become brittle in a low humidity environment.


this was my first thought.



Reptitat said:


> I feed him on what I have available. Usually cucumber when I have it, other than that, lettuce. I also noticed that he isn't eating either. I prefer to feed him anything with a high water content.


Lettuce and cucumber are terrible foods to be honest with you, both have virtually no nutritional value. a lack of vitamins could easily be the cause. What sp. are they? I've found in the larger reticulata and margies this can happen. Athough a high water content is good, its not essential as they can absorb water from the surroundings so I wouldn't worry about that really 
Good foods like rocket, sweet potato, dandilion, escarole, cress, etcetera are a good bet. If you cant get hold of anything like that romaine lettuce is healthier than iceberg. I like feeding sweet potato personally as it takes a while to go off and i find it dries out first so is easy to clean up.
If you could get a photo ut might be possible to narrow your problem down a bit more  

Petsnails has a very long list of foods that are good/bad - I've often found that a great help. 

I'll see if I can find the page... Back in a moment...

Edit: got it. http://www.petsnails.co.uk/care/feeding.html#f_food


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## Reptitat (Nov 28, 2013)

TheMetaphysicalNinja said:


> this was my first thought.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


This was very helpful, thank you. I'm pretty sure he's a Achatina Fulica.. I'm not sure as they all look the same. :lol2:

He's very fussy when it comes to feeding time, he won't eat strawberry and most of the time he just leaves most of his food.. I have to say he *loves* his cuttlefish, though. 

Thank you for all your help.


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## TheMetaphysicalNinja (Aug 18, 2009)

No worries  

Some of them are pretty fussy... I've had a few that wont touch things that are supposed to be favourites and others that eat the weirdest things...

They dont look all the same to me :blush: 

Roll em over, the inner lip of the shell-foot joint is the give away, plus the direction/shape of the whorls :2thumb:

Good luck with the food and shell, sure it'll be okay! : victory:


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## muddy_dragon (Aug 5, 2009)

sometimes bad shell growth can be a genetic problem from bad breeding (a lot of inbreeding goes on in A. fulica) in which case there will be little you can do. I advise adding as many differnt calcium sources as possible however to see if any can help


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## muddy_dragon (Aug 5, 2009)

Mr Mister said:


> As an alternative you can try Powdered Oyster Shells (fine).


I've been trying to find this for years since duskdreamersnails went out of business. do you know where you can get powdered oystershell in the UK (preferably in bulk - i have a lot of snails  )?


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