General Care Routine Notes Rescuing Snails that have been stepped on
Behavior Inactivity Sealed In Not Eating Not Eating Calcium Rasping/Eating Shell(s) Deeply Retracted Excessive Mucus		Appearance Slow Growth Bad Shell Growth Split/Cracked Shell Broken/Chipped Shell Wounds Limp Body Broken Radula Swollen Body Swollen Mouth Swollen Tentacles Gut Extrusion Mantle Collapse Mutation		Pests Flies Mites Worms Maggots Mold Other		Miscellaneous Dehydration Asphyxiation Pseudomonas Infection Internal Tumours Sudden Multiple Death

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Cracked/Split Shell

The first thing to do is ascertain whether the break has occurred from an accident such as a fall. If this is the case then see Broken/Chipped Shell for advice on repair.

If the cracks or splits have appeared naturally through growth then it could be due to overfeeding or overly fast growth. This deformity may come under Bad Shell Growth, so check here also.

The pictures below illustrate the phenomenon. In one case (Fig. 1), the snail was kept on its own, free of other snails or objects that could harm the shell. The interesting point is that it was fed a diet particularly high in chicken mash, a mix of wheat and other cereals. It is high in protein and it seems possible that the snail was growing too fast and split the shell slightly. Shells are easy to break from the inside than the outside. If the snail hadn't been kept in these conditions the natural assumption would be an accident, as I have seen similar damage on larger snails, perhaps more severely which seem to have been caused by a previous accident.

Fig. 1