I've been researching heliciculture a bit. Snails seem easy to raise, but have an FCR of about 4.8 when fed on a special diet (listed in this pic.) That's the lowest FCR I could find on them. All other foods and pasture had a much higher FCR, some even higher than sheep and beef. The up side is that feeding them can be as cheap as growing a patch of lawn out
How to raise snails - Heliciculture,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmdpi7bDsg8>Terrestrial edible snail breeding is an agricultural activity that finds itself at pioneering stage in Romania. One of the species used in snail farming is Helix aspersa Muller. In order to accelerate their growth, farmers feed the snails with pumpkins as well as concentrated forage consisting of mix of flours to which calcium carbonate is added in order to supplement snails need for shell’s development. In a controlled microclimate environment we measured the average growth of six weeks old Helix aspersa Muller snails placed in four different plastic enclosures. The consumption of different type of foods within 24 hours period was measured. The wheat (60%), corn flour (20%) and calcium carbonate (20%) mix had a superior food conversion ratio (FCR) of 4.80, whereas the second FCR registered 6.04 in the case of 53% pumpkin and 47% flour mix served in the same time followed by the pure fresh vegetable mix accounting for a FCR of 8.00 and by 19.02 when only the pumpkin has been administrated as meal. During the experiments the snails did not have access to soil, being known that soil is an integral part of their diethttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/209937781_Studies_on_the_Edible_Terrestrial_Snails_Helix_aspersa_Muller_Food_Conversion_Ratio_in_a_Confined_Microclimate_SystemI checked into eating and farming slugs, seems plausible, if you like snails,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1weAtzZ-0E>>1464054I've been thinking about getting one to better understand what is going on inside the compost piles throughout the year.
