Pleasing 4 Pets

Nikita Beresford recently revealed that she has always been enthralled by snails and couldn’t have been more pleased when she opened an early Christmas present from John Paul her boyfriend to discover a pair of Giant African Land Snails.

Nikita aged 17 from Upper Stratton, said of her slimy pets:-

“They are brilliant pets to have. When I was younger I always loved snails. I used to put them in a pushchair instead of dollies.

I’ve got lots of little ornaments of snails and things. My boyfriend bought me a glass snail for my birthday.

Then I got the two of them. It was a real surprise but I love them.
Snails can’t hear, but if you tap on the tank and shout their names they come up to the side and look at you.”

The oversized snails are hermaphrodites, which means that they possess both male and female reproductive organs

Nikita’s largest snail, which is named Jimmy, has recently had a litter of baby gastropods, and his buddy Bella is due to have some gastropods of her own very soon.

So the search has begun to find caring homes for the baby snails. Nikita said of the search:-

“The babies are about as big as your fingernails at the moment, but they grow quite big.

They are quite easy to look after. They just need a tank with some soil in it and a cuttlefish.

They eat cucumber and can also have banana, but I don’t like to give them too much because it goes mushy.

You have to bath them to give them a clean. They have got their own container to be bathed. I don’t do it in the bath, because that would be disgusting.

The Giant African Land Snail can develop a shell of up to an amazing 11inches wide whilst their ductile bodies are able to stretch to around 15 inches.

Many caring pet owner pay a great deal of money towards the upkeep of a beloved family pet and would regard it as money well spent. However it would appear that increasing numbers of pet owners are not as compassionate as others when it comes to their animal companions.

The cost of looking after a pet can swell surprisingly in a number of ways. The most apparent costs include food, veterinary bills and standard care. In addition to this you can slot in luxuries such as playthings and treats.

Disappointingly, when things become financially challenging, some pet owners take for granted that their pet should be the first expense that they curtail. Suddenly, a pet’s basic needs can seem too costly. It’s distressing to think that in these circumstances people will abandon their pets but regrettably this can and does transpire all too often and is conceivably more frequent than you might think.

Recently the North Wales Reptile and Raptor Sanctuary in Denbighshire revealed that they have experienced a sharp rise of late in the numbers of abandoned snakes and other exotic pets.

The reptile sanctuary recently received into their care two separate African serrated-hinged turtles which had been abandoned locally.

Janice Dickinson the operational manager of the sanctuary said:-

“When times get hard, pets are often the first things to go. We’ve noticed a real increase in the number of reptiles we’ve had to take on and are very concerned that this is a symptom of the credit crisis.

As a sanctuary we are not immune to the effects of the current economic down turn. We rely very heavily on electricity and there has also been a marked increase in the price of the animal feeds.”