Dear Fabrizio and Others!
I found a very sweet Helix Aperta last January on an imported Italian cauliflower, and I decided to carry her in my flat. She was so-so small (max. 0,5 cm) and very sweet and kind and she eated a lot of plants happily, we LOVED her very-very much!!
In the summer we could figure out that Hami is a Helix Aperta, and could not survive in Hungary, so we decided not to let go in nature, and not let to hybernate either, since we couldn't be sure we do it right and it is so risky. We had fallen in love with Hami, and we was too caucios in this regard. She lived in a nice 20x30x20cm terrarium filled with dried sphagnum, which she liked and a coconut house. We sparyed the wall of terrarium every morning and evening with tap filtered water. She was very fine until the beginning of this year. I noticed that the mucus/slime of her sometimes changed a bit white, but not always. And 1 or 2 times I noticed that her "end product" is also white, but I thought it is because of the sepia. But in the last 1-2 weeks she started to eat less and less, sometimes eated a bit, but weakened and slowly lost weight and 3 days ago she passed away.
My first question, what is the least risky way for a home sheltered Helix Aperta, (in the colder Hungarian climate), force the hybernation even in a not perfect enviroment?
Or let her sleep for few days and wake up regularly?
What is the usual lifespan of Helix Apertas? In nature and in captivity?
How much did it shorthen her life, that she couldn't hibernate last summer and this winter either? Was it too tiresome, too much burden to live without the long slepps?
Could she suffer anything during the otherwise "hybernated seasons", if seemingly she was perfectly healthy and lively with good appetite?
We gave her every single day bio lettuce, that was the base, and carrott, apple, spinach, cucumber, one or other every day. All bio, except sometimes the cucumber and the carrott. In summer some fruits also, and also always had a cattlefish bone / sepia in the terrarium. Was it enough for her health? Or could needed something else or more?
How could we save her life in the last month?
What could be the reason, that in the last cca 4 weeks the mucus has changed, it became white colored just as her excerment - but only for a few days.. She got cuttlefish bone all the way through her life, and we never saw this white color.
What could be the reason that for a few ocassions she made some clicking-puffing sound/noise, without being disturbed?
Beside our try to give her food, even from our hands, what else we could do to inspire her to eat and safe her life?
Why did she turned away her head from the food? Do they used to do this?
I know it is quite a few questions, but I want to thank you in favor your help! Just we would like to know why it happened this way, because it makes us very sad.
Thank you all very much!
Alexandra & András
from Hungary
A gallery for Hami:
plus.google.com/photos/104161902035434471397/albums/6125772464765583345
Edited by WhiteLotus - 13/3/2015, 22:42
Mi č piaciuto molto il piccolo lumaca 
Voglio sapere cosa č andato storto. Ungheria nessuno sa Helix aperta. Non posso chiedere a nessuno. Spiacenti, se c'č un errore in forma scritta, tradotta da Google. La ringrazio molto, se si risponde alle domande. Ciao, Alexandra da Ungheria