Oreo 2

Oreo's Story Continues
October 06- 26, 2004

Oreohelix strigosa
(Gould, 1846): Rocky Mountain Snail
Synonyms. Helix cooperi W. G. Binney, 1858; O. strigosa canadica Berry, 1922.

Oreo starts off from his upside-down position on his container lid.

He slides down the side of his home

Then stretches across to the rocks

The gap he spans is approximately 1.5 cms.

He then crawls down his rocks (from his home on Mount Pedley) toward the rock-cave I made for him.

He then maneuvers around his rocks. Oreo can actually get himself into very small openings without getting stuck.

October 26th pictures

Oreo seems to be eating the algae that is growing on some of his rocks and on the sides of his terrarium. I stopped cleaning his pen so frequently to allow this algae to grow and he seems to appreciate it.

He continues to sleep for 2-3 days then actively crawls around and feeds for a few hours before attaching himself up-side-down to the roof of his rock cage or the top corner of his plastic terrarium.

He sticks to a spot, slowly pulls in his soft body parts then actually applies a very small amount of mucous to the surface allows it to dry then pulls his entire body completely into his shell. Only this small amount of mucous-glue holds him to the surface.

Oreo's story continued

2004: September, October , December
2005: January, April, August
2006: April
2007: July

Return to the Pet Zone

Oreo's Story Continues October 06- 26, 2004 Oreohelix strigosa (Gould, 1846): Rocky Mountain Snail Synonyms. Helix cooperi W. G. Binney, 1858; O. strigosa canadica Berry, 1922.
Oreo continues to thrive and has actually added a new portion on to the lip of his shell since I have been his care giver (Aug. 23, 2004). He/she is now changing activity levels. This may be because our fall weather has turned quite cold. Even living indoors as he does, we do not have the heat turned up and the house temp. falls into the 60's F at night as compared to the 70's F.of Aug-Sept. Oreo usually resides at the top of his house (a plastic Rubbermaid container) now and is where he sleeps most often. He travels here, then he oozes sort of mucous-glue to secure himself to the lid. Once secure, he pulls all his soft body parts well into his shell. He may remain there for 24- 72 hours at a time. A lot depends on whether or not this mucous-glue fails and he falls off. If this happens, he usually just crawls back up and goes to sleep again. If he is in a feeding mood, he becomes quite active and feeds on his dandelion greens and his all time favorite - oatmeal porridge. He then climbs all over his moss, rocks and plastic container. It appears he takes all his moisture from the condensation collected on his walls. We have never seen him visit the small collection of water that is kept fresh at the bottom of his cage. Today, after he had eaten his fill, he crawled over to his rock area and settle there upside-down in sort of a rock cave. The pictures of this excursion are below.

Oreo starts off from his upside-down position on his container lid.
He slides down the side of his home	Then stretches across to the rocks

The gap he spans is approximately 1.5 cms.

He then crawls down his rocks (from his home on Mount Pedley) toward the rock-cave I made for him.

He then maneuvers around his rocks. Oreo can actually get himself into very small openings without getting stuck.

He then pulls himself into his cave where he is now sleeping upside-down on the roof of this "rock-cave". This trip, a distance of about 25 cms. from his lid to his cave, took about 15 minutes. A speeder he is not.
October 26th pictures
	Oreo seems to be eating the algae that is growing on some of his rocks and on the sides of his terrarium. I stopped cleaning his pen so frequently to allow this algae to grow and he seems to appreciate it.
He continues to sleep for 2-3 days then actively crawls around and feeds for a few hours before attaching himself up-side-down to the roof of his rock cage or the top corner of his plastic terrarium. He sticks to a spot, slowly pulls in his soft body parts then actually applies a very small amount of mucous to the surface allows it to dry then pulls his entire body completely into his shell. Only this small amount of mucous-glue holds him to the surface.
	Oreo has some sort of a mite living with him. I was finally able to get a picture of this pest. It normally hides just inside Oreo's shell. I first noticed this bug about 3 weeks ago so it may have come in with the new moss I put into his terrarium at that time.