Sid, Achatina fulica, got his own balcony in his home🐌❤️

An important part of having a healthy snail is creating an enriching and well-adjusted home for it. In this chapter, we will therefore go into more detail about how a good home for the snail can be designed, suitable and less suitable furnishings and other important things to keep in mind when you construct its home.

Initially, we will start by looking at where the snail will live. It is most suitable to build your African giant snail's home in an aquarium or terrarium. Which you choose is a bit of a matter of taste. An aquarium usually costs a little less, but a terrarium is also often easier to clean as it has doors instead of a roof hatch. Snails also appreciate climbing which becomes a form of enrichment where they perform a natural behavior, and the climbing opportunities are often better in a terrarium as these are higher. Read more about enrichment under the tab about it and then think more about what suits you best and what you think your snail species, based on its original habitat, will thrive best in.

Once you've found a suitable aquarium or terrarium, it's time to start decorating, and we'll start with the bottom material. You can use a few different types of substrate such as orchid mix, coconut mulch or unsprayed flower soil, but regardless of what you choose, it is important that the material is soft and natural. The layer you put in the nest should at least be so that the snail can bury itself there, and preferably a little more. During hibernation, it is above all important that the opportunity exists, as many snails burrow during periods of hibernation. However, many individuals also do it otherwise.

 That the bottom substrate is soft is also important if the snail should fall, which will happen. Snails are intelligent and majestic animals, but their ability to hold their grip when climbing is rarely as good. I myself use coconut mulch for my snails as I have chosen not to plant with them for the time being, which happened anyway when I used ordinary planting soil as a bottom substrate. If you want to plant inside the snails home, however, the planting soil can be an excellent alternative, but don't forget that it must be unsprayed! 

Orchid mix is ​​also a good alternative that provides the opportunity for a really enriching substrate, but the recommendation is to wait with this material until the snail has built a stable shell. Baby snails have delicate ones and in unlucky cases the orchid mix with its little hard bits can hurt these little ones. Apart from that, this is also a good option. Some subspecies come from the sandy coastal areas of Africa and can then appreciate an area in the nest with finely ground sand. Lissichatina reticulata is an example of such a species. 

From having found a good bottom substrate, it is time to take a closer look at the most creative part, namely the interior of the snail's home. In creating natural habitats for fish, it's called aqua-scaping, so let's call this gastropodia-scaping. We want to create as natural an environment in the nest as possible, and the best thing to use is natural materials. Moss, leaves (not pine) and branches are usually appreciated furnishings and the branches (not pine there either) offer perfect climbing opportunities. The reason why materials from coniferous trees should not be used is that they contain a substance that risks having a negative effect on the snail. These trees are also not found in the natural home environment of Africa. 

Since we are talking about molluscs, of course they have nothing against water. On the contrary, many individuals love to have a shower under the running water of the faucet sometimes. However, land snails have no gills and cannot breathe underwater. There is an option to insert a small bathtub with the snail, but with regard to the above, the water level should then be relatively low so that the snail does not fall in and drown.

Another thing to be strictly avoided is rocks in all their forms. As previously mentioned, the snails are not as good at holding their grip as they are at climbing, and a fall against a rock can cause life-threatening damage to the shell, among other things. Therefore, avoid this and other furnishings with the same hardness. If you still want nothing, it should be covered with moss from above.

You can also think more creatively and have ideas outside the box. For example, I built a balcony from an unused plastic pot for my achatina fulica. This has since been used extensively and has become the little snail's own vantage point over the world.

Creative joy is therefore just fun and the possibilities are great. See yourself as your snail's self-employed interior designer! In addition to natural materials, the nest should also contain a temperature meter and humidity meter so that you can easily see these values ​​in the nest every day.

Many snail owners grow flowers or other things in their snails' homes, which can be very nice both for the snail and the viewer. The glass walls mean that you almost have a small beautiful greenhouse inside! It requires a little prior knowledge about which plants the snail can tolerate and which at the same time thrive in the same climate as this one, but it can definitely be worth knowing. Your snail will certainly taste the plant, which you should keep in mind and therefore it must not be poisonous either.

Below are some examples of plants that usually work well with an African Giant Snail:

Ampelli lily

Popcorn grass

Calendula

Scented dracaena

Gold banded dracaena

Hoyaranka

Benjamin ficus

Window ficus

Hibiscus 

Common grape vine

The spear breaker

The snail's nest should also have a ceiling light, and above all if the terrarium/aquarium is not exposed to sunlight. This is so that the snail can get light, vitamin D and a well-maintained circadian rhythm. Some aquariums have lights that can be set to a twilight mode. This is a great opportunity to create a natural environment for the snail if your nest has this as you can visualize the sunset for the snail. This is good, but absolutely not a necessity.

With this said, we wish you the best of luck with your gastropodia-scaping and hope to inspire your creativity greatly!