David Olasunkanmi .(Bsc. Agric. Econs.PGDE ) HOD Science
Snail meat is considered a delicacy by most people that love to eat it. Although some avoid eating snails for cultural or religious reasons, it is safe to say that this meat is loved by most people that taste it. Nevertheless, snails are a highly nutritious food that is rich in protein, calcium, and iron, contains zero fat, and is low in cholesterol. Their meat contains vitamins, minerals, and two essential amino acids: lysine and arginine. Though lysine is beneficial to the body, we are not able to naturally produce it—so we need to obtain
it through dietary sources. Snail meat is one of the best sources of this amino acid.
Business That Requires Little Capital and Yields Quick Returns Snail rearing has become a huge money earner and highly lucrative venture, particularly since you can start with considerably low capital. You can easily make money on a small scale within a short time. you can
increase their numbers as needed. The
recommended density is 1–1.5 kilograms per square metre or about 15–25 snails per square metre. And when you compare it to other types of livestock farming like piggery, poultry, and cattle rearing, its technical, labour, and financial inputs are relatively low.
Techniques of Homestead Snail Rearing
If you have a garden, you can set up a snail house in a corner of it. If you don’t have that much space, it is best to go for
the tire-stacking option. And if you live off the ground floor, perhaps in an apartment on the seventh floor, you can choose either the clay pot or basket housing options.. After you have determined the rearing structure that will work best for you, start with the steps listed below.
How to Set Up an Outdoor Snailery
Soil is the most important part of a snail's
habitat. To sustain their growth and development, the soil must be moist and have a high amount of organic matter, the kind that supports the cultivating of leafy greens, tomatoes, and carrots.
'You must first clear the ground of weeds, shrubbery, and twigs, and its texture must be loose enough to allow mature snails to dig easily into the soil to lay their eggs and hibernate during the dry season.Hand-till (plough) the soil to loosen its grains and make its texture snail friendly.Create a paddock for vegetables and leguminous plants.Build a fine-mesh or netting enclosure all around the paddock.
Remember that snails can crawl away unnoticed.Grow leafy greens, legumes, cocoyams, bananas, and dwarf pawpaw plants in the paddock and wait for them to grow.Introduce your breeders into the enclosure and ensure you water the paddock regularly. It will provide both shelter and food for the snails.The greatest threat to snails are pests such as crawling insects and other predators, especially in the tropical regions that typically rear snails. To prevent them from getting into the enclosure, build a gutter around the housing and fill it with water and some pesticide.
Different Methods of Creating an Indoor Snailery As mentioned earlier, to rear snails in an indoor environment like a patio or veranda requires items like old tires, drums, hutch boxes, clay pots, and baskets. They must contain humus soil or compost that is soft enough for the breeders to burrow in and lay and bury their eggs.
After the eggs have been laid, you can harvest and place them in smaller containers filled with moist, loamy soil. These incubation boxes will help the hatchlings grow without hindrance.
Recommended foods and nutritional supplements include:
Leaves from cocoyam, papaya, okra, eggplant, loofa, cabbage, lettuce, and cassava plants. Fruits like papayas, bananas, strawberries, pears, mangos, oil palm, figs, eggplants, watermelons, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Tubers like sweet potatoes, cocoyams, yams, carrots, and other kinds of potatoes. Household peels from bananas, pawpaws, yams, plantains, carrots, and pineapples. Salt-free food leftovers like cooked rice, beans, and peas. Powdered calcium (for good shell development) from eggshells, wood ash, ground limestone, crushed oyster shells, or bone meal should also be added to the snail feed. Supplementary vitamins and minerals that contain small amounts of vitamins D, E, and K. Sources include sunflower, copra cake, wheat germ, lettuce, cabbage, and spinach. Mineral sources can be provided by placing licking stones containing the essential minerals into the pen. Feeding must be done twice daily, generally in the morning between the hours of 7–9 am and in the evening between 5–7 pm.
Gestation Process
When you get or purchase breeders, they are probably all filled with fertile eggs. The gestation period between fertilisation and the laying of eggs is between one to two weeks. In the breeding pen, they burrow into the soil and lay eggs in clusters: an average of eight eggs in each cluster. Any eggs found on top of the loam must be buried in the soil immediately. After the eggs have been laid, mature snails must be removed from this pen and transferred to another, leaving the eggs to gestate. The incubation period varies and depends on environmental factors, but it usually takes between 25–35 days.
When Should You Harvest Your Snails?
For a small-scale, home-based business like snail farming, the age and size at which snails should be ready for harvesting depends on the main objective of the farm: whether it is for rearing food for personal consumption or for selling. If you are breeding snails for your personal use, you can choose when to harvest. The timing will depend on how you like your snails: small and tender or large and meaty.
With snail breeding for sale, buyers’ preferences dictate the age and size of harvesting. These preferences vary from one region of the world to another. The average time it takes for snails to reach a proper size and weight that is suitable for eating, however, is about 12 months. You can harvest snails when they are between the ages of 12–18 months because, after that time, the growth rate will decline.
Harvesting is best carried out at night, because this is the time they crawl out from the nooks and crannies of the pen. Night time is their activity period and is the best time to find and pick them.
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