Edible land snail production under natural climatic conditions in Nova Scotia

One thousand two hundred and fifty land snails were divided randomly among 25, 1.5-m × 0.9-m × 1.5-m cages wrapped in a nylon screen and chicken wire to prevent the snails from escaping and to protect them from predators. The cages were placed in a shaded area on the southeastern edge of a white clover field and randomly divided into five nutritional treatments with each treatment replicated five times. The snails were fed with natural vegetation, lettuce and oyster shells, lettuce alone, oat bran, or white clover in treatments 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively. A digestibility trial on lettuce and white clover was also carried out. The snails gained significantly (P   0.05). It was concluded that edible land snails can be raised outside during the summer under the environmental conditions of Nova Scotia if fed with diets 1, 2, 3, or 5. Key words: Edible land snail, Otala, nutrition, Nova Scotia