{"title":"Snails for Sale","description":"\u003ch1\u003eSnails for Sale\u003c\/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGiant African land snails and smaller pet snails for sale, posted Monday to Thursday to anywhere in Great Britain with the live arrival guarantee. This page brings together every snail I list: the common giant African land snail, its Rodatzi and Albino Rodatzi forms, the Pink-lipped giant African land snail and the little unicorn snail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey are legal to keep in Great Britain with no licence, and straightforward once the basics are in place. Stock of the giant snails comes and goes, and a sold-out listing's Notify me when available button emails you as soon as it is back in stock.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eWhich snail?\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"\/products\/lissachatina-fulica-giant-snails\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGiant African land snail\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e (\u003cem\u003eLissachatina fulica\u003c\/em\u003e, formerly \u003cem\u003eAchatina fulica\u003c\/em\u003e): the classic pet snail. Adults usually carry a shell of 5 to 12 cm, and they commonly live 3 to 6 years.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"\/products\/rodatzi-giant-african-land-snails\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRodatzi\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e: a golden-shelled form of the same species, \u003cem\u003eL. fulica rodatzi\u003c\/em\u003e, with the normal dark body.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"\/products\/albino-rodatzi-snails\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlbino Rodatzi\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e: the same golden shell on a white body. The albino part is the body, not the shell.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"\/products\/pink-lipped-giant-african-land-snails-lissachatina-immaculata-panthera\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePink-lipped giant African land snail\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e (\u003cem\u003eLissachatina immaculata\u003c\/em\u003e): a separate species, told apart by the pink columella, the central column you can see inside the shell opening, and as big as the common giant snail or bigger.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"\/products\/unicorn-snails-subulina-octona\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUnicorn snail\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e (\u003cem\u003eSubulina octona\u003c\/em\u003e): a slender, spiral-shelled snail of around 1.5 cm, kept warm and humid, and prolific.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eKeeping giant African land snails\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/articles-not-isopod-related\/giant-african-land-snail-care\"\u003egiant African land snail care guide\u003c\/a\u003e goes through each of these in full.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eWarmth.\u003c\/strong\u003e They do best at about 21 to 25°C. An English home averages around 19°C through the heating season, so for most of the year that means a heat mat or heat cable on a thermostat, on the side of the tank, never underneath.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHumidity.\u003c\/strong\u003e A damp substrate and humid air; the listings give 75 to 90%.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSubstrate.\u003c\/strong\u003e Enough damp substrate for them to dig into, which is where they lay their eggs. Coco coir, which I would never use as a base for isopods or millipedes, is fine for snails.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCalcium, always.\u003c\/strong\u003e A snail builds its shell from calcium, so keep \u003ca href=\"\/products\/cuttlebone-100g\"\u003ecuttlebone\u003c\/a\u003e or \u003ca href=\"\/products\/crushed-oyster-shell-100g\"\u003ecrushed oyster shell\u003c\/a\u003e in the tank all the time.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFood.\u003c\/strong\u003e Fresh vegetables and leafy greens, with fruit as an occasional extra. Take out whatever they leave before it spoils.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/articles-not-isopod-related\/unicorn-snail-care-subulina-octona\"\u003eunicorn snail care guide\u003c\/a\u003e covers the small species, which lays eggs with the young already well developed inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eEggs, and the law\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGiant African land snails are legal to keep and sell in Great Britain. No licence is needed, and they are not on the list of invasive species you can't keep. The law that matters is the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981: it is an offence to release a non-native animal, or let one escape, into the wild. They lay a lot of eggs, so check the substrate and freeze any eggs you don't want for at least 24 hours before throwing them away. Never put live eggs or snails in a garden, compost heap or outdoor bin, and rehome snails rather than release them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eFrequently asked questions\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere can I buy giant African land snails in the UK?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRight here. They are listed on this page and posted Monday to Thursday to anywhere in Great Britain with the live arrival guarantee. When a listing is sold out, its Notify me when available button emails you when it is back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAre giant African land snails legal in the UK?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYes. They are legal to keep and sell in Great Britain without a licence. Releasing one is an offence, so unwanted eggs are frozen and snails are rehomed, never put outside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow big do giant African land snails get?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMost adults of the common species have a shell of about 5 to 12 cm, and around 20 cm is the ceiling. The Pink-lipped species grows at least as big.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow long do giant African land snails live?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUsually 3 to 6 years, and some reach 10 with good care.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDo giant African land snails need a heat mat?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn most homes, yes, for most of the year. They do best at about 21 to 25°C, which is warmer than an English home usually runs, so fit a heat mat or heat cable to the side of the tank and run it on a thermostat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAre giant African land snails safe to handle?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYes, with ordinary hygiene: wash your hands after handling them, as you would with any pet. Wild snails in the tropics can carry a parasite called rat lungworm, but it is not known to be present in captive-bred UK stock.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor calcium and food, see \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/foods-and-supplements\"\u003einvertebrate food and supplements\u003c\/a\u003e, and for the other unusual animals I keep, \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/other-inverts-for-sale\"\u003eother invertebrates\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"rodatzi-giant-african-land-snails","title":"Rodatzi Giant African Land Snails (Lissachatina Fulica)","description":"\u003cp\u003eTake the standard giant African land snail, remove the dark banding from the shell, and what is left is a clean golden yellow. That is Rodatzi. Same species as \u003ca href=\"\/products\/lissachatina-fulica-giant-snails\"\u003ethe ordinary one\u003c\/a\u003e, same size, same care sheet, one visible difference, and it is a difference that carries right through the animal's life rather than fading with age the way the wild-type banding does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhere the name comes from\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRodatzi is not a shop invention, which is unusual for a colour form. It was described by Dunker in 1852 and sits in the databases as \u003cem\u003eLissachatina fulica rodatzi\u003c\/em\u003e, a named subspecies of the species formerly called \u003cem\u003eAchatina fulica\u003c\/em\u003e. Not every authority accepts it at that rank, and some lists leave it out entirely, so treat it as a formally named form rather than a settled taxonomic fact. Either way it is a good deal more grounded than most trade labels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe body underneath the shell stays the normal dark grey. This matters, because the trade separates three things and the names run together. Plain Rodatzi is a golden shell on a dark-bodied snail. What sellers call an albino Rodatzi is the same golden shell on a white, unpigmented body, and the shell itself is not albino at all. A full albino is white in both. We keep \u003ca href=\"\/products\/albino-rodatzi-snails\"\u003ethe white-bodied form\u003c\/a\u003e as a separate listing for exactly that reason. If you are buying elsewhere, ask which of the three you are getting, because they are not valued the same and they are not the same animal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eCare, which is the easy part\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEverything here is the same as the wild-type. A large adult shell falls somewhere between 5 and 12cm with roughly 20cm the ceiling for the species, they carry seven to nine whorls, and most live three to six years, with roughly ten as the outer limit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThey want warmth and damp. Active from around 9°C up to 29°C, they are at their best in the low twenties, so a heat mat fixed to one side of the tank earns its place in a British home for most of the year. Push past 30°C and the snail seals its shell and shuts down until conditions improve. Give a substrate deep enough to bury in completely, coir or loam, kept damp without being sodden.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCalcium is not optional and it is not a supplement. The shell grows all its life, so cuttlebone lives in the tank permanently and gets replaced when it goes. Food is leafy greens, cucumber, courgette, peppers, carrot and most fruit, varied and cleared out before it spoils. Nothing salted, ever.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eBefore you buy\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTwo things to have straight. First, they are hermaphrodites and they lay in quantity, so decide now what you will do with eggs. Under section 14 of the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act it is an offence to release a non-native animal, or to let one escape, which means unwanted clutches get frozen rather than put outside, and the lid gets closed every time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSecond, this is a species you cannot take everywhere. The United States bans the entire group federally as a plant pest and destroys any it finds, and Australia prohibits them. In Britain they are perfectly legal and need no licence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOurs are UK captive-bred. The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/pink-lipped-giant-african-land-snails-lissachatina-immaculata-panthera\"\u003ePink Lipped\u003c\/a\u003e is the other one we keep and it is a separate species, told apart by the pink column inside the shell mouth where this one is white. Everything else sits in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/other-inverts-for-sale\"\u003eour other invertebrates\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOur \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/articles-not-isopod-related\/giant-african-land-snail-care\"\u003egiant African land snail care guide\u003c\/a\u003e carries the full routine for this form, including why cuttlebone lives in the tank permanently and what the law asks of you over eggs and escapes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach snail leaves here bedded in moist moss, inside a vented tub, cushioned within an outer carton of doubled card. We post Mondays through Thursdays and no later, so nothing of ours meets the weekend backlog. The service is next-day and tracked, delivered ahead of 1pm, and we stand behind live arrival.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PostPods","offers":[{"title":"1","offer_id":57251941843326,"sku":null,"price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"5","offer_id":57251941876094,"sku":null,"price":45.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"10","offer_id":57251941908862,"sku":null,"price":85.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0759\/0707\/2294\/files\/rodatzi-giant-african-land-snails-achatina-fulica-4513206.jpg?v=1776377594"},{"product_id":"unicorn-snails-subulina-octona","title":"Unicorn Snails (Subulina octona)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis one is not an isopod. \u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/articles-not-isopod-related\/unicorn-snail-care-subulina-octona\"\u003eSubulina octona\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e, the Unicorn Snail, is a small tropical land snail, and I keep it because it does a quiet, useful job that few other animals its size can manage. It is a tiny cleanup animal for bioactive setups and nano tanks, named for its elongated, spiralled shell that tapers to a fine point like a little horn. Where the isopods trundle through the substrate, this snail grazes the surfaces, and the two work happily side by side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a small animal and stays that way, and smaller than this page used to claim. A 2006 Czech record of the species gives 14 to 17mm of shell, and the USDA's terrestrial mollusc key gives the same figure, though it cites that Czech paper among its sources so the two are not quite independent. Either way the 3cm top end we had here, and the \"most settle around 2 cm\", sat above everything published. Expect 14 to 17mm, with eight or nine glossy, semi-translucent, yellowish-brown whorls. The pale body can stretch almost as long as the shell when the snail is exploring, and through that translucent shell you can often see what is going on inside, including eggs developing before they are laid. Compared with the rounded, dome-shaped shells of most familiar snails, or my substantial \u003ca href=\"\/products\/rodatzi-giant-african-land-snails\"\u003eGiant African Land Snails\u003c\/a\u003e, the awl-shaped Unicorn Snail is an entirely different silhouette.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat it offers is quiet, constant work. \u003cem\u003eSubulina octona\u003c\/em\u003e is a detritivore, grazing decaying leaves, fungi, lichens and the biofilms that build up as an enclosure matures. In a planted terrarium or bioactive vivarium it processes waste before it accumulates, filling a slightly different niche from a \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/springtails-for-sale\"\u003espringtail culture\u003c\/a\u003e or a colony of isopods. It is peaceful and safe with most inverts, small enough not to compete with them and unbothered by their company, which is why so many keepers add a few to existing tropical setups. They also make handy feeders for keepers who want a small, self-renewing food source.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCare is simple if you keep it warm and damp. These are tropical animals, comfortable at 20 to 26°C and happiest for activity and breeding towards the warm end of that range, with humidity kept high at 80 to 90 per cent. Give them a few centimetres of moist, organic substrate that always feels damp to the touch. A little \u003ca href=\"\/products\/flake-soil\"\u003eflake soil\u003c\/a\u003e mixed in adds texture and nutrition, and a generous layer of \u003ca href=\"\/products\/large-magnolia-leaves-for-isopods\"\u003emagnolia leaf litter\u003c\/a\u003e gives them both food and grazing surfaces.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFeeding is straightforward. Alongside leaf litter, they take soft vegetables sliced thinly and a pinch of fish flake, and they will graze biofilm on their own as the setup settles. The one thing I would not skip is calcium. Almost all of a snail's shell is calcium carbonate, so a piece of cuttlebone left in permanently, or some crushed eggshell, keeps the shell strong rather than thin and fragile. A small animal with a delicate shell needs that steady supply more than a larger, robust species does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne thing to know before you start. \u003cem\u003eSubulina octona\u003c\/em\u003e is very prolific. Every snail is a hermaphrodite and can reproduce alone through self-fertilisation, so a small group becomes a large one quickly, and a starter handful can turn into dozens within a few months. For feeders and cleanup that is the whole point, but if you would rather hold the numbers steady you will need to remove eggs from time to time. Their tiny size makes all of this easy to house, and a group is content in a nano enclosure of only a few litres.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery order is captive-bred from an established culture, boxed double-walled around a ventilated tub of damp sphagnum and posted Monday to Thursday by tracked next-day Royal Mail, with a live-arrival guarantee and a 20% overcount as standard.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PostPods","offers":[{"title":"1","offer_id":57337524355454,"sku":null,"price":1.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"5","offer_id":57337524388222,"sku":null,"price":5.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"10","offer_id":57337524420990,"sku":null,"price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0759\/0707\/2294\/files\/unicorn-snails-subulina-octona-9973879.jpg?v=1777548435"},{"product_id":"pink-lipped-giant-african-land-snails-lissachatina-immaculata-panthera","title":"Pink Lipped Giant African Land Snails (Lissachatina immaculata panthera)","description":"\u003cp\u003eLook inside the mouth of the shell. In this animal the columella, the twisted pillar you can see down the opening, is pink. In the ordinary giant African land snail it is white or faintly blue. That one character is how a keeper separates the two, and it beats shell colour, banding and shape, all of which vary too much to rely on.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eA different species, not a colour form\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is \u003cem\u003eLissachatina immaculata\u003c\/em\u003e, described by Lamarck in 1822, and it stands as its own species rather than a variant of the common giant African land snail. Pink-lipped Agate Snail is a formal common name rather than a shop invention, and you will also meet it as the Giant Blonde Snail, or as an Immac among keepers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe 'Panthera' has a history worth knowing. \u003cem\u003eAchatina panthera\u003c\/em\u003e was described by Férussac in 1832 as a species in its own right and has since been sunk as a junior synonym of \u003cem\u003eimmaculata\u003c\/em\u003e. It is therefore not a subspecies and not a recognised variety, but a defunct nineteenth-century name the hobby carried on using as a line label, which is why we set it in quotes. Where sellers apply it consistently is to animals with a somewhat more slender shell, though nobody publishes a description precise enough to hold anyone to.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTwo more things separate it by eye once you know to look. The shell surface is coarser than \u003cem\u003efulica\u003c\/em\u003e, carrying fine axial threads interrupted by shallow spiral grooves, and the whole shell sits proportionally broader and rounder for its length. Adults commonly reach 12 to 15cm, with about 16cm recorded, and juveniles usually change hands at around 3cm. This page used to say 8 to 12cm, which undersold the animal and made it sound smaller than \u003cem\u003efulica\u003c\/em\u003e; every source that carries both puts it level or ahead.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLike its better-known relative it is an East African animal by origin, and both species have been carried far beyond that range by human traffic, which is the reason they turn up on invasive species registers in warm countries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eCare\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIdentical to the more familiar species, and rather than repeat it here, \u003ca href=\"\/products\/lissachatina-fulica-giant-snails\"\u003ethe page for the common species\u003c\/a\u003e carries the full account: temperature, heating in a British home, substrate depth, diet, the calcium requirement, and where you stand legally on eggs and escapes. All of it applies unchanged to this species.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe one point worth restating, because it is the one that costs people a good animal, is calcium. Shell is laid down for the whole of a snail's life, so cuttlebone belongs in the tank permanently rather than as an occasional treat, and a shortage during growth leaves thin, pitted shell that cannot be repaired afterwards.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIf you are buying this alongside \u003cem\u003efulica\u003c\/em\u003e, house them separately. They will not harm one another, but juveniles of the two are easily muddled and the pink columella only becomes obvious with a bit of size, so keeping them apart saves an argument with yourself later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWho it suits\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnyone who wants a giant land snail with something to distinguish it. Care is no harder than the common species, the pink lip is attractive at adult size, and it is uncommon enough in Britain that most keepers have never handled one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBred here in the UK. Our other options are the golden-shelled \u003ca href=\"\/products\/rodatzi-giant-african-land-snails\"\u003eRodatzi\u003c\/a\u003e form and the far smaller \u003ca href=\"\/products\/unicorn-snails-subulina-octona\"\u003eUnicorn Snail\u003c\/a\u003e, and everything beyond those sits with \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/other-inverts-for-sale\"\u003ethe other invertebrates\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOur \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/articles-not-isopod-related\/giant-african-land-snail-care\"\u003egiant African land snail care guide\u003c\/a\u003e sets this species beside the fulica forms, using the same columella check to tell them apart, and covers the shared care and legal duties in full.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach snail travels bedded in moistened moss, closed into a vented tub, packed inside an outer carton with doubled walls. We send between Monday and Thursday only, which keeps orders away from a weekend in the network. Delivery is tracked next-day before 1pm and live arrival is guaranteed.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PostPods","offers":[{"title":"1","offer_id":57337607651710,"sku":null,"price":9.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"5","offer_id":57337607684478,"sku":null,"price":40.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"10","offer_id":57337607717246,"sku":null,"price":75.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0759\/0707\/2294\/files\/pink-lipped-giant-african-land-snails-4200140.jpg?v=1777548434"},{"product_id":"lissachatina-fulica-giant-snails","title":"Giant African Land Snails - Lissachatina fulica","description":"\u003cp\u003eSort the calcium before the snail arrives. Everything else about keeping a giant African land snail is forgiving, but the animal is building a shell continuously for its whole life, and a snail short of calcium grows a thin, pitted, easily damaged one. Cuttlebone in the tank permanently, from day one, is the single thing that separates a good specimen from a poor one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eThe animal\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is \u003cem\u003eLissachatina fulica\u003c\/em\u003e, described by Bowdich in 1822 and still very widely sold under its former name \u003cem\u003eAchatina fulica\u003c\/em\u003e. Same snail, and both names are worth knowing because the older one is what most of the internet still uses. East African originally, now established across much of the tropics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe shell is conical and pointed, reddish brown with pale yellowish streaks running down it, banded and high-contrast in young snails and smoothing to a glossier brown with age. Adults carry seven to nine whorls. On size, be careful what you read: a large adult shell runs somewhere between 5 and 12cm, and around 20cm is the realistic ceiling for the species. You will see 30cm quoted in places, including on a university factsheet, and it traces back to somebody converting eight inches wrongly. The famous record-holding giant snail was a different species altogether.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMost last three to six years and the occasional one reaches ten. They are hermaphrodites, and a mature pair will produce eggs in numbers that surprise people, which brings us to the part of this page that matters most.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eYour responsibilities, plainly\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eKeeping and selling these is entirely legal in the UK. No licence applies, No schedule of the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act names them, and the register of invasive species of special concern does not name them either. Section 14 of that Act is the part that reaches you: putting a non-native creature out, or letting one get away, is itself the offence. So a secure lid is a legal matter and not merely good practice, and eggs you do not want must be destroyed rather than tipped onto the garden. Freezing the clutch for a day or two is the usual method.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThey are illegal to own in the United States, where the federal agriculture inspection service treats the whole group as a plant pest, issues no pet permits, and confiscates and destroys any it finds. Australia prohibits them outright. If you are reading this from outside the UK, check before you buy anything from anyone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn rat lungworm, the parasite that gets mentioned whenever giant snails come up: it needs an infected rat's droppings to enter a snail in the first place, and a snail bred in a tank in Britain has no route to it. It is not known to be present in UK rats and no case here has ever been traced to a pet snail. Wash your hands after handling, as you would with any animal, and that is the proportionate response.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eSetting up\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWarm and humid. They stay active between roughly 9 and 29°C but do best around 21 to 25°C, which in a British house means running a heat mat against one wall of the tank for a good part of the year. Above 30°C they seal themselves up and wait it out. Give a deep layer of coir or loam they can burrow into completely, keep it damp rather than wet, and mist to hold humidity up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFeeding is easy and endlessly variable: leafy greens, cucumber, courgette, carrot, peppers, and most fruit. Keep it varied, take out what is not eaten, and never offer anything salted. Alongside them we keep the much smaller \u003ca href=\"\/products\/unicorn-snails-subulina-octona\"\u003eUnicorn Snail\u003c\/a\u003e, and the rest of the range is in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/other-inverts-for-sale\"\u003eour other invertebrates\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOur full \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/articles-not-isopod-related\/giant-african-land-snail-care\"\u003egiant African land snail care guide\u003c\/a\u003e pulls all of this together, including how the differently named forms relate to this species and the legal duty that comes with eggs and escapes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSnails are bedded into moist moss, sealed into a vented tub and cushioned inside a carton walled twice over. Dispatch runs Monday through Thursday and stops there, so nothing we send is ever left waiting in a Sunday depot. Next-day tracked delivery lands before 1pm, and we guarantee every snail reaches you alive.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PostPods","offers":[{"title":"1","offer_id":57359089271166,"sku":null,"price":9.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"5","offer_id":57359089303934,"sku":null,"price":40.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"10","offer_id":57359089336702,"sku":null,"price":75.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0759\/0707\/2294\/files\/giant-african-land-snails-lissachatina-fulica-2745706.jpg?v=1778172800"},{"product_id":"albino-rodatzi-snails","title":"Albino Rodatzi Giant African Land Snails ( Lissachatina Fulica)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe albino here is the body, not the shell. That sentence is most of the listing, and getting it wrong is the commonest complaint in this corner of the trade, so it is worth being slow about.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe figure quoted for this snail is shell length rather than body length: an adult shell usually runs 50 to 100mm, exceptional ones reach 200mm, and the animal itself can extend to around 300mm when it is out of the shell.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eThree animals, three names\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEuropean breeders divide the Rodatzi form of the giant African land snail into three products and the names run together badly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePlain \u003ca href=\"\/products\/rodatzi-giant-african-land-snails\"\u003eRodatzi\u003c\/a\u003e has a golden yellow shell with an ordinary dark grey animal inside it. What the trade calls an albino Rodatzi, which is what this page sells, keeps that same pigmented golden shell but the snail itself is white and unpigmented, so what catches your eye is a pale body and foot moving under a warm-coloured shell. A full albino, sold on the continent as a Vollalbino, is white throughout, shell included. Three visibly different animals, and this is the middle one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNone of that has taxonomic standing. No database recognises an albino-bodied Rodatzi as a taxon, and it is a trade convention rather than a classification, though a convention applied consistently enough by independent European sellers to be worth respecting. The colouring is usually assumed to be recessive; nobody has published breeding work confirming it, so treat that as an assumption.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIf you buy one of these anywhere, from us or otherwise, ask which of the three tiers is being sold. That is the question that prevents disappointment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe reason the tiers exist at all is that they are not equally easy to produce. Unpigmented animals turn up less often, so breeders keep the lines apart deliberately rather than letting them mix back into ordinary stock, and a tier that has been maintained separately is worth more than one that has not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eRodatzi itself\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe underlying animal is \u003cem\u003eLissachatina fulica\u003c\/em\u003e, still widely traded under the older name \u003cem\u003eAchatina fulica\u003c\/em\u003e. Rodatzi is better grounded than most colour labels: Dunker described it in 1852, and the molluscan databases carry it as \u003cem\u003eLissachatina fulica rodatzi\u003c\/em\u003e at subspecies rank, although the authorities do not all agree on that and a few registers omit it altogether. Visually it means a shell with the wild type's dark banding absent, leaving clean gold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eLiving with a white-bodied snail\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHusbandry is the same as any \u003cem\u003efulica\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"\/products\/lissachatina-fulica-giant-snails\"\u003ethe standard page\u003c\/a\u003e sets out temperature, heating, substrate, feeding, calcium and what the law requires of you over eggs and escapes. Nothing about the pigmentation changes any of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOne practical difference is worth knowing. An unpigmented body makes the animal easier to inspect, so damage, retraction, mantle condition and general vigour are all more visible than on a dark snail. That is useful for a keeper who pays attention, and it cuts the other way too, since a poor specimen has nowhere to hide. Buy on how the animal looks and moves rather than on the label.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWho it suits\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnyone already keeping giant snails who wants something less ordinary, and anyone starting out who likes the look, since these are no harder than the wild type in any respect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBred here in the UK. The \u003ca href=\"\/products\/pink-lipped-giant-african-land-snails-lissachatina-immaculata-panthera\"\u003ePink Lipped\u003c\/a\u003e is a separate species and the only one we keep whose shell mouth shows a pink pillar. The rest sit in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/other-inverts-for-sale\"\u003eour other invertebrates\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOur \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/articles-not-isopod-related\/giant-african-land-snail-care\"\u003egiant African land snail care guide\u003c\/a\u003e makes the same point, that the albino here is the body rather than the shell, and sets out the care routine all these forms share.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSnails leave bedded in damp moss within a vented tub, that tub inside a carton walled twice, posted Monday to Thursday and never afterwards so nothing is stranded across a weekend. The service runs tracked and next-day, landing before 1pm, and we guarantee your snail gets to you alive.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PostPods","offers":[{"title":"1","offer_id":57376272941438,"sku":null,"price":12.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"5","offer_id":57376272974206,"sku":null,"price":55.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"10","offer_id":57376273006974,"sku":null,"price":100.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0759\/0707\/2294\/files\/albino-rodatzi-giant-african-land-snails-lissachatina-fulica-2005191.jpg?v=1778172797"}],"url":"https:\/\/postpods.co.uk\/collections\/snails-for-sale.oembed","provider":"PostPods","version":"1.0","type":"link"}