The work involved two species of edible snails (Achatina achatina and Archachatina ventricosa) and consisted in presenting the live weights and lengths of shells of the specimens collected in the Banco National Park, to look for the stages of growth and development and to draw conclusions about the protection of these species in their natural habitat. The results obtained showed that the individuals sampled are generally young and mature, and therefore capable of reproduction. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the poaching of these snails and to think of new production strategies, notably the purchase of achatiniculture.
Two hundred and twenty-five snails Achatina fulica (Bowdich, 1720), of approximately three days old, were subjected to two diets made up of green fodder (R1 and R2) and three concentrated floured diets (R3, R4 and R5) with variable contents of proteins [10,5% (R3);14% (R4) and 17,5% (R5) ], during 50 weeks in breeding.This work aims at studying the effect of the diet and its content of proteins on the growth of this snail, in captivity.The diet R1 consists of Lactuca sativa (Asteraceae), Carica papaya (Caricaceae), Brassica oleracea (Brassicaceae), Cecropia peltata (Moraceae), Laportea aestuans (Urticaceae) and Phaulopsis falcisepala (Acanthaceae).n addition to the sheets used for the diet R1, the diet R2, is added with sheets of Leucena leucocephala (Fabaceae-Mimosoideae), a plant relatively rich in proteins.The growth and the survivals rates of snails subjected to the concentrated floured diet rich in protein were definitely better than those subjected to the diets made up of green fodder relatively low in protein. The weight growth improved with the increase of the content of proteins of concentrated diet. Thus, the best live weight (198,62 g) is presented by snails subjected to R5 follow-up by that obtained with R4 (178,50 g). The vegetable diet R2 containing the sheets of L leucocephala caused the most mortality.The survival rate of A. fulica knew an improvement with the increase in the rate of proteins of the concentrated diets.