Giant African Land Snails: Archachatina Degneri

This species, also called the ‘Giant Gold Coast Snail’ is one of the smaller members of the Archachatina family with a shell length of 8-9cm, compared to the Archachatina Marginata shell length of around 12cm.

Archachatina Degneri has a fairly smooth and shiny shell, with the first three and a half whorls being of a light brownish-yellow colour. This is them followed by the next whorls being the same colour, but with an irregular barring pattern of a purple-reddish colour. The last two whorls the snail has will have a very tight and orderly zigzag pattern on it. They also have a dark stripe which runs around the centre of their body.

In captivity these snails will need a constant temperature of around 20 °C to 25 °C. IF your house is cold you may need a heating pad or an equivalent. If you use this make sure that there is no way the snail can burn themselves.

Like all other giant land snails these snails are hermaphrodites. This means that each snail will carry female and male parts, but you’ll still have to have two snails to start breeding. IF you do breed Archachatina Degneri you should make sure you know what you’ll do with the babies. Snails are quite prolific breeders so you will end up with many from one mating, as both snails will lay the eggs. Please remember that if you have to dispose of the eggs to do it in a humane way. If you decide to hatch them make sure you have adequate space for them all (the youngsters will have to be separated from the adults). It is illegal to release giant land snails or their eggs into the wild due to their invasive nature.