CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Does anyone have experience in breeding snails? Can you teach me some tips? Can I contact you?

Snails are tender and delicious with a unique flavor. They are rich in protein, fat, phosphorus, calcium, iron and vitamins. Farmers can use small water surfaces or rice fields to breed snails. The following are the relevant technologies for breeding snails:

1. Living habits of snails. Snails are gastropod molluscs that like to live in waters that are warm in winter and cool in summer, with soft bottom, abundant bait, and fresh water. They especially like to gather in places with slight currents. Snails have a varied diet, mainly eating tender stems and leaves of aquatic plants, organic debris, etc., and they like to move and eat at night. The most suitable temperature for growth is 20-27℃.

2. Breeding habits of snails. When the water temperature rises to 15℃ in late spring and early summer, snails crawl out of their hibernating holes and feed and grow on the bottom of the water. They start to breed in April, and July to August is the peak breeding season for snails. Female snails aged 1 to 2 years can produce 20 to 30 offspring, and female snails aged 4 years and above can produce 40 to 50 offspring. The offspring grow rapidly after birth and can develop into sexual maturity in one year. The breeding season is from April to September every year.

3. Selection of a snail breeding site. The snail breeding site should be selected in a place with sufficient water source, good water quality, humus soil and convenient transportation, preferably with running water. The snail pond is generally 1.5 to 1.6 meters wide and 10 to 15 meters long, and can also be based on the terrain. The pond is surrounded by ridges, which are about 50 cm high. Inlets and outlets are opened at both ends of the pond, and anti-escape nets are installed. At the same time, aquatic plants such as wild rice stems are sparsely planted in the middle of the breeding pond, which can not only increase the land output rate, but also create a good ecological environment for the growth of snails.

4. Stocking of snails. Generally, the stocking of snails can be started in late March. Ten days before the stocking of snails, 50-100 kg of quicklime per mu should be sprinkled throughout the pond to remove wild fish, shrimp and other miscellaneous snails. Three to four days later, organic fertilizers and breeding bait organisms should be piled in the pond for the snails to eat. Snails can be purchased from the market or caught by yourself. 100-120 snails can be placed per square meter, and 4 bighead carps can also be raised in the pond. Before the stocking of snails, apply an appropriate amount of manure in the pond to cultivate bait organisms. The stocking of snails is best completed in the early stage of snail breeding. The snails should be fresh and live with a light brown color, a thin and complete shell, and a domed body. Farmed snails can be stocked alone, or some silver carp and bighead carp species can be raised, or snails and loaches can be mixed.

5. Water quality regulation. The quality of water in the breeding pond is one of the keys to the success of breeding field snails. First of all, the water quality must be excellent. Water containing a large amount of iron and sulfur must not be used. Because water with too high iron content has a high mortality rate after stocking seedlings, red rust is attached to the shells of surviving snails, and even the snail meat is reddish-brown. Sulfur water also makes field snails have a sulfur smell and are inedible. The best breeding water is slightly turbid natural water from rivers or ponds. It should not be too clear and transparent. The water should contain rich natural bait and sufficient oxygen. New water should be frequently injected into the snail pond to regulate the water quality, especially during the breeding season. It is best to keep the water flowing. In the hot season, it is better to adopt flowing water breeding. In spring and autumn, it is better to use micro-flowing water for breeding. The water depth of the snail pond needs to be kept at about 30 cm.

6. Feeding and management. In the extensive breeding method in natural waters, it is only necessary to maintain the fertility of the water body and apply an appropriate amount of manure, chicken manure, cow manure, pig manure or organic fertilizers such as straw and Mingsi every once in a while to meet the growth needs of field snails. You can also feed them with vegetable leaves, rice bran, bean cakes, vegetable cakes and animal offal. Cakes are fed after being soaked and softened, and other feeds are chopped and mixed and fed. Field snails do not have high nutritional requirements. Simply use rice bran, wheat bran, and bean cakes in a ratio of 60%, 25% and 15% to make a superior feed for field snails. Within the suitable growth temperature (20-27℃), field snails have a strong appetite and can be fed once every 2 days, with each feeding amount of 2% to 3% of body weight. When the water temperature is 15-20℃ or 28-30℃, feed twice a week, about 1% each time. When the temperature is below 15℃ or above 30℃, feed less or not. In natural conditions, river snails can grow to 6 to 8 grams per individual, while artificially cultivated individuals can weigh up to 12 to 15 grams.

7. Winter management. When the water temperature drops to 8-9℃, the snails begin to hibernate. The hibernating snails use their shells to push the clay, leaving only a small round hole on the soil surface, from which bubbles emerge from time to time. The snails do not eat during the winter, but the breeding pond still needs to maintain a water depth of 10-15 cm. Generally, the water is changed every 3-4 days to maintain the appropriate oxygen content.

8. Harvest and transport. After a year of careful feeding, the young snails can reach 10 to 20 grams, and the hatched snails can reach a size of more than 5 grams. When harvesting snails, the method of catching the big ones and leaving the small ones and marketing them in batches is adopted. The adult snails are selectively caught, the young snails are kept, and some female snails are carefully selected to achieve natural replanting, so that there is no need to release seedlings in the future. According to their living habits, in the hot summer and autumn seasons, they are picked up on bamboo branches or grass handles placed on the shore or in the water in the early morning and at night, and in winter and spring, they are picked up at noon on sunny days. In addition, snails can also be harvested by catching them in the pond or picking them up after draining the pond.

It is very easy to transport snails. They can be put in ordinary bamboo baskets, wooden barrels, etc., or packed in woven bags. During transportation, just keep the snails moist and prevent them from being exposed to the sun.