The size of a fist
Its shell can grow to twenty centimetres long.
Minibeasts · A little time each day
Giant African land snail
Mollusc · from East Africa
A very large snail with a tall, pointed shell striped in brown and cream.
- Size
- Shell up to 20cm long
- Lives for
- 5 to 7 years
- Suits
- Beginners: slow, quiet and easy
Glides after you, very slowly indeed. Move your pointer and see.
Good to know
Six things about the giant snail
Thousands of teeth
Its tongue is covered in rows of tiny teeth and works like a file.
It needs chalk
It must eat calcium, from cuttlefish bone or eggshell, to build its shell.
Male and female at once
Every snail is both. Any two can breed, and one can lay hundreds of eggs.
It can seal itself in
If it gets too dry or cold it closes its shell with a skin and sleeps until things improve.
Eyes on stalks
The eyes are at the tips of the long upper tentacles. The short lower pair are for smelling.
The real thing
Photos of the giant snail
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
Looking after one
Keep it in a plastic tank with a lid, damp peat-free compost and a gentle heat mat on one side. Feed vegetables, with cuttlefish bone always available.
Before you get one
A snail is calm and easy to hold with wet hands. Freeze unwanted eggs before disposing of them, and never release a snail.
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