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Atlas / Library / Achatinidae / Giant African Land Snail
BeginnerNocturnal · sleeping now
Achatinidae

Giant African Land Snail

Lissachatina fulicaหอยทากยักษ์แอฟริกา

Narrower than the page we cite. The source we cite, read on 10 Aug 2026, gives a wider range than the one above. The narrowing is ours and nobody here has written down why. en.wikipedia.org

Photograph: Sue Carnahan · CC BY

Photographed by an observer on iNaturalist and published under a Creative Commons licence; the photographer and the licence are named under the image. It is not an animal of ours, and no animal was handled by us to produce it.

14:00
Day

Drag the sun. Giant African Land Snail is nocturnal, so what it is doing changes with the light.

Burrowing · temperate · humidFrom the sheet: 24–28°C, humidity 70–90%

The way of life is written in this sheet, word for word. The climate words summarise the two figures above them, they do not add to them.

National law is not global, and we hold no national wildlife law for any country, Thailand included. Check your own authority before buying or selling.

Back to the globe My keep

https://keepr.pet/husbandry/en/lissachatina-fulica

‹ All husbandry guides
Temperature24–28 °C
Humidity70–90 %
Diet1 days

The numbers

Temperature

152025303540 °C
24–28°Ambient

One ambient band, 24–28°C. This sheet states no warm side, no cool side and no night figure, so none are shown. Same scale on every sheet here, so two species compare by eye.

The sheet states24-28°C

Humidity

70–90%Target RH

The sheet states70-90%

Enclosure
20 L+ ventilated tub with locking lid (escape/quarantine control)

Identity

Adult size

1.75 m10–20 cm
1520100400 cm
10–20 cmNose to tail, adult

The size the sheet states for a grown animal.

Why

Two drawings, because they answer two questions. The silhouette is at true scale against a 1.75 m person: it says how big this animal actually is, which no number does for someone who has never seen one. The bar under it is logarithmic and shared by every sheet here, so a 2 cm isopod and a 4 m python both stay readable on the same axis and two species can be compared at a glance.

Order / Family
Stylommatophora
IUCN / CITES
IUCN Least Concern globally BUT major INVASIVE PEST: banned/illegal to keep in the USA & many countries; carries rat lungworm
Difficulty
Beginner
Commonality
Ubiquitous/free in Thailand (agricultural pest)
Adult size
Shell up to ~10–20 cm
Lifespan
5–7 yrs (up to 10)
Growth rate
Fast
Activity & niche
Nocturnal terrestrial herbivore
Temperament
Docile, slow
Venom / defense
Harmless; can carry rat lungworm parasite: wash hands after handling

Enclosure and conditions

Temperature
24–28°C
Humidity
70–90%
Min. enclosure
20 L+ ventilated tub with locking lid (escape/quarantine control)
Substrate
8–10 cm damp coco/soil for burrowing & egg-laying
Hides / decor / water
Cork bark, leaf litter, moss; shallow water dish

What your climate adds

This sheet states a range to hold. Your local climate decides how much work holding it is. Pick the nearest city: nothing is sent anywhere, the choice stays in this browser.

Diet

Feeding rhythm

every 1 dAs the sheet states
28Meals in 28 days

Twenty-eight days, one row. Each band is a meal window.

Why

The windows widen as they go because the interval is a range: four meals after a 10–14 day cycle land anywhere between day 40 and day 56.

The sheet statesLeafy greens, veg, fruit, cuttlebone · Fresh food daily

Staple food
Leafy greens, veg, fruit, cuttlebone
Feeding frequency
Fresh food daily
Supplements
Cuttlebone / calcium always available (shell growth)

Behaviour and handling

HandlingGentle; ALWAYS wash hands after (rat lungworm risk); never release
CommunalYes – tolerant communal
Defense / stress signsRetracting into shell, sealing with epiphragm, inactivity

Reproduction

Life course

Day 0Hatch
5–7 yrLifespan in care
5 yrMinimum commitment
Sexual maturityNot in our data

Read from the lifespan and maturity the sheet states, for animals in care and not in the wild.

Why

The minimum commitment is the low end of that lifespan, and the reproductive window is what is left after maturity: both are subtractions on stated figures, not figures of their own. The sheet also reports a record of about 10 years; that is a reported maximum, not the range to plan for.

Reproduction
Hermaphrodite; lays 100–400 eggs per clutch every 2–3 months: extremely prolific

Common health problems

Common health issues
SignsShell rot/cracks, low-calcium thin shell, dehydration
Red flags / quarantine
SignsNEVER release (invasive); dispose of eggs responsibly; illegal in many countries

Good to know

  • Eats 500+ plant species and was eradicated from Florida twice: hence the bans.
  • Eats 500+ plant species and was eradicated from Florida twice — hence the bans.

What it needs

A thermometerbecause temp24-28°C
A hygrometerbecause humidity70–90%
Not stated: The size of the enclosurethis sheet describes the enclosure without a figure: « 20 L+ ventilated tub with locking lid (escape/quarantine control) »

Every line above is deduced from a value this sheet states, and names which one. Nothing here is a general recommendation. What the sheet does not state is listed too, rather than left out: a kit that looks complete is worse than one that names its gap.

Sources

Others in this group

What this sheet states

100%
TemperatureHumidityEnclosure sizeActivityOriginDietSourcesUVB

Every field this product runs on is stated here. That is not a claim that the values are right: it says what the sheet states, not whether it is true. Whether a human has read it is the badge at the top of this page.

UVB is measured but does not count: it is absent from 421 of 678 sheets, and on most of them that is not a gap, since a nocturnal snake's sheet has no reason to state a UV index. Counting it would call the library incomplete without cause.