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The 5 Ultimate Guides to Successful Snail Farming

Discover cage setups, essential feeding rules, predator control, and how to choose the right giant African snail species.

 

The Ultimate Guide to Successful Snail Farming

Introduction and Housing Systems (The 5 Ultimate Guides to Successful Snail Farming)

So, um, the first thing you need to know is please be sure you have a secured place for your snails. Snails are escapists and can lift six times their weight; they can lift a load six times their weight. So what you actually need to do is ensure you have an enclosed system. It can be a cage like this. Now this cage has four compartments: 1, 2, 3, and 4. Okay, so if you are having this kind of cage, ensure that you are able to, um, build something that, when it is sunny, is not too hot inside. So, like, you have—we have wire gage, you know, for ventilation, and there are different types of farming. We have soil farming and soilless farming. Okay, this type is soil farming, okay, and the kind of soil you’re going to use must be a good nutritious soil, so basically we advise you use a sandy loam soil. All right

 

My name is Timoy AB, and I’m the director of Upward Ventures, but now it’s changed to Upward Snails and Agro Services. I’m the business guy behind the farm, and everything is okay for me. If you ask me what year I started snail farming, apparently you should be close to around 15 or 17 years now, but if you ask me when I actually started it as a business, this is the sixth year, so I started basically as a business structure in 2018. So after you have your, um, soil in your pen, they must be at a particular level before you supply your snails inside the pen

Managing Soil Moisture and Feeding Stations (The 5 Ultimate Guides to Successful Snail Farming)

 

The moment you have your soil, if your soil is wet, you don’t need to add more water to the soil, but if your soil is as dry as this, then you probably can see how dusty it is, so you probably need to add more water. Okay, so for instance, we have here plastic. In this plastic, this is where we put in their water. Sometimes if we don’t put their water in, we get to put in their feed. We have two of these plastics on the normal ground; we have two of these plastics inside. And if you don’t have this kind of plastic and get a tree, you know, this chicken feeding trough or feeding chicken tray, you can actually make use of that and then introduce it into your pen and then ensure you position it at a particular point wherein the snails have even feeding and even drinking. I don’t know if you get that point

Then after you wet, please ensure you are wet enough. This is just the demo of what you need to do the moment you are wet enough because it is dry season. That is why you see me pouring water this way now. Before I proceed, please, whenever you are starting your snail farm, don’t start in the afternoon. In the afternoon period, start in the cool hour of the day. Don’t introduce your snails in a very hot season. Let it be in the cool of either early in the morning or late, or somehow around 5, 6, or 7 p.m. in the evening this are the period when SS actually are feeling more relaxed and are becoming proactive; why they are nocturnal animals

Another thing you should know is that um don’t stress your snails in the afternoon too much you don’t need to come and check them in the afternoon period leave them alone let them enjoy their life let them sleep let them rest okay so um just this part I’m only going to wet this part so as to avoid too much of wo 100 like ,000 to 1,00 to 1,005 yes 002 005 it was massive we looking for space looking for um pain that’s what we call it in snail farming looking for a breeding Point like my God I really want to pack the snail but you know the most amazing aspect of it is because at that point buyers were coming in so there was a need for us to sell and then restock sell so and this is something most beautiful thing about snails they are highly prolific once they hit that level of prolific cas h h now you go because you’ll be looking for space and more space if you are not really prepared to raise snail farming you must just be prepared for enough space for them to thrive so we that everything is settled now

Understanding Snail Species (The Keg System: The 5 Ultimate Guides to Successful Snail Farming)

This is another system called the keg system. The other one is a cage system, so this is a cage system. In this cage, there are snails. I have species of snails in here. I have different species of snails in here now, okay? I would love to show you their species, so I have three species of snails here. As you can see, this is AA, this is Achatina achatina, this is Achatina marinata, and this is AF, Achatina F. Okay?

This one is commonly seen around; let me get to show you the smaller version of this because it can be confusing. Like, this thing is big; it can be confusing, so this is it:

• AF (Achatina Fulica): This one you get to see is a garden snail you see around your compound. This is AF, okay? Do you see the point? See it all around
• AM (Achatina Marginata): This is a m am am now this is marinata marinata see the BL blunted Point compared to the a a which has the sharpen point
• AA (Achatina Achatina): Then look at it; it has like a tiger skin shell, and this doesn’t have a tiger skin shell. Can you see the difference? Okay, one is darker than the other. If you look close enough, you understand that one is darker than the other. Okay, so this, this

So if I’m introducing them, let me assume I’m introducing these snails into the pen now. So what I need to do is I will need to bait these snails in fresh water, okay? But because they are actually in their pen, I need to move them in. You need to know the species of snail you want to rear; there are different species. We have different species, and they have their own qualities. What differentiates them from each other is the size, how big they can grow, the production, the breed, and everything. So you have to decide mainly but one of the easiest, or how would I put it, to real for farming for business is the Arenda marinata; they grow big and they produce well

Space, Predators, and Helpful Organisms

Another thing is you have to look for space, the housing where you will keep them, although you might not start big. You can start with a container; I remember back then you could start with TI. You just put TI, and you can start small then keep growing from there

You see, um, snails and some other, uh, what’s it called, another pest? They require the same atmosphere to drive, um, some other predators, or let me call them “pests” that hunt, like cockroaches. Uh, Atwm Ator is not a predator. Ator is not against snails thriving in the pen; in fact, earthworms are very encouraged in your pen. If you see earthworms in your pen, that means your soil is fertile. It means snails can actually thrive in it, so the earthworms in your snail pen actually will help you clean. They are like cleaning services; they are cleaning agents. They help you clean up dirt in the snail pen so that you probably may not get to do junk of work when you come to check on them, all right

So what you then need to do is ensure you run away from pests like ants anytime you start seeing, like, red ants, okay? I have a video on my YouTube channel. It’s BR; it’s a broadcast and video. You can go ahead and check it out on YouTube and check the upward ventures; check for some of the videos. They are very encouraging and very educational videos. Please check it. I get to show you how to deal with red ants, especially when you have an invasion of ants in your snail pen, okay? There was a video I needed to do, and oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, it’s starting to move. It’s time to leave me alone. He’s trying to move. Can you see? Can you see the high? That’s the antenna, and the other one is the high. The antenna will definitely get to see vibrations. The other one is the high, okay?

Important Dietary Guidelines and Mistakes to Avoid (The 5 Ultimate Guides to Successful Snail Farming)

You see, when I started this, um, this business, I went to the internet and did a lot of research, and on the internet I got to see what snails eat. They are competitive with human consumption; like, they eat human food aside from pepper and salt, you know, some of those things that should not be given to them. So in my mind, I was like, “Confirm, so I can give my snails anything.” So I started giving my snails yam peels, Cava FL, you know, after pounding yam; any fragment of the pounded yam left, I would give them, you know, and at a point in time I started giving them bread and butter. Wow, I was like, “Confirm, my snails will be very, very…” When I give them bread and butter, they will finish it, and to cut the long story short, I observed that the more I give them yam and yam peels and anything around yam, the more I receive a lot of mortality. Ha.

So in the long process, I discovered that, um, I need to stop giving them yam or anything around yam. Why? Because they really bloom so fast and die untimely. You see a very big snail doing well, eating fine. The moment you introduce yam or anything around yam, whatever, to the pen the following day, you go there, and you see the whole neck bled. Then ensure when you are feeding your snail, you do well to remove the waste and do well to remove leftovers every 24 hours. This is the kind of feed you are giving to your snail that must be enough to feed on within 24 hours. If it’s more than 24 hours, please, you need to do well to go for the training. It is very, very important, okay?

Another thing is, oh, see how big this snail is? Oh, see how big? See how big? See how big? See how big? Come on, open your mouth. Open your teeth. It’s tracking inside. Ooh, come on, this is beautiful. This is beautiful. Okay, so, um, another thing you should get to know is please avoid, like I mentioned the other time, the use of salt, hot water, pepper, and chemicals. Please, fumigation is not a good way of taking care of your snail. Never bait your snail. Never bait the environment. Anything chemical, the odor will ooze out so much that you affect the pain. Please do well not to use it in the snail pen, okay?

Seeking Proper Knowledge and Commercial Value (The 5 Ultimate Guides to Successful Snail Farming)

There are other things you need to do in snail farming that can be helpful, but you need to see the training. You need to go for the training; there are a lot of things you will need to know. You may not get the details of all you need to know about snail farming in this clip, okay? But get knowledge; it is very, very important. Don’t get knowledge from people who just collect your money and run away. Don’t go and buy a book online, and you will not be able to consult the person, the writer of the book. Don’t just double into a Facebook or Instagram handle of someone who is doing it and cannot and does not really have a track record of training. Can’t even be? It’s not even boastful of whatever thing he or she is doing, so I am telling you officially, and I am humbly telling you this: please go for knowledge. There are few people who actually know how this snail farming runs, a very small number of them. If you fall into the company of the wrong, if you fall into the company of wrong people,

The beautiful aspect of snow farming is if you are patient enough, you will eat the fruit of the land. If you are patient enough and if you’re the type of person that is not really patient, you really want to make money out of snow farming, so to say. Uh, yeah, there are strategies for you, like a training is coming up in 2024 wherein everyone gets it. It’s going to be a paid training wherein everyone will get the opportunity to learn how to make money from snow. You really do not have to be a snow farmer before you start making any income from it, okay?

Look at the skin again. That’s how you get to spot the difference between AA and AM. This is an A on my right hand, as you can see, and on my left hand, this is an AA, which is Achatina achatina. The AM is called Achatina marinata, so this is AA, Achatina achatina. You know it has a pointed edge. Can you see it compared to that of the AM? Can you see the difference? And one has more meat than the other. You can’t compare. That’s why you hear that they call the AM this. This is what is called an African giant snail because it grows large, okay?

Stocking and Maintaining the Environment

Let’s introduce these guys into the pen normally because I want to show you for now. Now I can introduce the two of them, but I can’t leave the two of them together in the same pen because they feed more than each other; they don’t consume the same thing, okay? So now this space, as you can see, alone can contain nothing less than these sizes. For this, um, kind of size, this is the medium size; this is a medium snail size. Basically, this is what people actually ask for in snail farming, okay? This is the kind of thing that is very, very, very profitable, especially in the market. It is a market size to some extent; this is a medium size. If you see the jumbo size, you reach it.

Then you introduce, once you have your, um, water, they introduce another plate here that is for the feed, then put a quantity of feed. Now, the kind of food they feed on, we talk about fruits, we talk about vegetables, what kind of fruit, every fruit that a human being eats, you can ask me further questions on what, um, can they eat this, can they eat, they eat:

• Banana
• Apple
• Pineapple
• Watermelon
• Orange
• Pawpaw/Papaya

What other things do they eat? Watermelon. They eat watermelon; ask me about any other fruits. What other fruits? Yes, they eat coconut, but be careful not to give them coconut with the water, and make sure you rinse it well because it is salty. Coconut has a level of salt in it

Another thing you should be able to do is not, please, waterlog your snail. Pain is dangerous for them. I’ll show you an example here now. For instance, please come closer. Come and see this. This is a pen for the A. You can see the waterlogged area; you can see the cucumber, sorry, the, um, cabbage, um, leaf, okay? See the water inside now because it is waterlogged. Their activity is actually limited now. Assuming it is not waterlogged, this is waterlogged. I need to take out the water practically and ensure that it is okay for them to actually survive in. Once it is waterlogged, their activity is restricted, okay? So now, this is AA. I have my mom here as well. Now I have my AMM here, as you can see. This is still, this is, this is still B, um, what’s it called? This is still a keg system, so you can have this around you. You can have this around you wherever you may actually be

Market Demand and Profitability

Yeah, snow is very profitable. Why? It’s easy and cheap to run. Let me put it that way: cheap to run. Why? You don’t have to, okay? There are fees, but you don’t have to spend expensive money when you see poetry. Farmers this time complain, “F is taking our money.” “F is taking our money. It’s not like that with snails.” Why? Because you can feed your snails with a lot of vegetables, and once your snails start laying heads and everything, what you started with, like hundreds, you can just discover. You can have 1,000 snails. Yeah, and the funniest part is that the price of snails is going up; like, it’s not coming down, and especially when it gets dry, like this season, that’s when they are ahead of the effect of the market. So you can, let’s imagine, probably start with 150, 250, 350 snails when you are selling 1,000 and above, and what it will cost you is just the normal normal vegetable and everything

Another thing is that a lot of places or a lot of people are buying snails, restaurants, hotels, etc. Trey, they are buying snails, and another thing is that snails are used in the manufacturing of drugs, the slime, and everything. There’s hardly any part of a snail that is a waste. You can see that again; there’s hardly any part of a snail that is a waste. So, like, it’s like you are eating a good mine, like when you are into snails, and when you are buying or when you are starting, if you document the amount you are spending, I can assure you that within a year you will have almost—like, is that profitable? It’s very easy to re—doesn’t cost much, actually. Today, once you know everything you need and you stick to the rules of the game, let me put it that way, so it’s very, very profitable. I can say it’s probably one of the most profitable animals to rear. Some of the stuff we are into, okay? Like, you can see in my hand here, okay? Just open this. Thank you

Now this is a processed snail meat. You know these are snails; these are actual snails. This is one snail. See how big it is? Just one, okay? We have snails. Okay, I open it actually because I’m not wearing a glove now. I probably may not be able to open and show you more, but these are the snails inside. You should get to know how you can market your snails. Who are those eating snails? Where should I sell my snails to? All of these things, one after the other, are well Illustrated in the video so I look forward to see you in the snail Farm training as soon as you can log in