Malaysian Journal of Sustainable Agriculture (MJSA)

The study was conducted to examine the performance of growing snails (Archachatina marginata) fed with formulated feed supplemented with calcium from four sources (Agricultural Limestone, Bone meal, Egg shell and Snail shell) in the domestication unit of Department of Forest Resources and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City. A total of sixty (60) juvenile snails with average weight of 97.85±2.06g were randomly allotted to five treatment groups (T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5), replicated three times with four snails per replicate in a completely randomized design. The treatment was Agricultural limestone (T1), Bone Meal (T2), Egg shell (T3), Snail shell (T4) and control: natural feed (T5). The feeding trials lasted for 16 weeks. The results showed no significant differences (P>0.05) in weight gain (12.50a ± 3.15), shell length (0.35a ± 0.06) and shell width increment (0.163 ± 0.03) of the snails under the various diet. Increases in body weight, shell length, shell width was recorded in all the treatments with the highest recorded in snails (Archachatina marginata) under feed formulated with the snail shells. The result showed significant differences (P<0.05) in edible tissue weight (112.57a ± 0.91), shell weight (58.5a ± 0.3) and visceral weight (31.90a ± 0.2) of the snails. Snails fed with feed formulated with snail shell, had a significant (P<0.05) higher value than the snail fed with other diets. It was concluded that the snails fed with snail shell meal performed better in terms of growth performances in the snails compared to other snails fed with other sources of calcium. Formulated feed with adequate quality of calcium source should be fed to snails, for growth and development of the snails.