NYers Embrace The New 'Pandemic Pet': A Garden Snail

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — When Mira Moore — a restaurant server at the time — decided to take home a small garden snail found in the arugula shipment at work in December, she wasn't thinking of finding a long-term companion.

She just didn't want the little guy to be chucked in the trash.

"I didn’t even know if he would survive, I just didn’t want them to throw him away," Moore told Patch.

But as the coronavirus pandemic descended on New York City a few months later, Moore's new pet — named Rocket for the leafy greens he was found in — became a comforting quarantine hobby. And she wasn't alone.

Snails, it would turn out, were quickly becoming the go-to "pandemic pet" as people across the country looked for new hobbies and low-maintenance companionship – a trend recently highlighted by New York Magazine.

In New York City, Moore said the trend spread in her own orbit when she posted a picture of Rocket on her Instagram.

Soon, her friend who'd found hundreds of the creatures in her backyard in Queens decided to keep one, too, and started offering the rest to others via contactless pick-up.

"She ended up keeping a few and other friends adopted from her," Moore said. "We have a snail mom group chat, now."

The new snail moms shared research about how to care for and what to feed the crawlers. Many, who had taken multiple snails, soon found themselves with hundreds of babies.

"I purposely never got another snail because I didn’t want hundreds of babies," Moore said.

Moore said one of the big surprises was that snails' diet needs to include egg shells, cuttlefish bone, or some other source of calcium so they can maintain their shells.

Rocket — whose favorite foods include cucumber and, of course, arugula — has doubled in size since Moore first took him home.

He even traveled with Moore when she took the 18-hour drive to Iowa to quarantine with her parents in April.

Set up in a terrarium typically meant for a tarantula, watching Rocket move around became a fun quarantine hobby, especially when he, shockingly, had babies of his own. It was then Moore discovered snails are hermaphroditic and can self-fertilize.

"My parents became very invested," Moore said. "I noticed tiny baby snails everywhere...and called them both in and was like, 'Look at this!' He was destined to become a parent, I guess."

Luckily, Moore has seen only eight or so babies at a time, though she says they're hard to count since they're so tiny.

Rocket now lives back at Moore's home in Bed-Stuy. Recently, she and her friends were among a host of snail owners featured in a New York Magazine article about the "pandemic pets."

"It’s been a really special thing during quarantine when people are spending more time at home," Moore said about the trend. "It’s kind of fun to watch them crawl around."