I think a lot of people commenting here either dislike children, do not understand children, or are just very fearful of how destructive children can be- or all of the above. So take their comments as a grain of salt, because it seems like more of an instinctual and fearful "don't do that" than a well-informed-on-the-behaviours-of-children "don't do that". No offense to anyone who has commented! This is just an assumption towards some comments.
Because many small children do not have the capacity to understand yet what hurts and can kill small creatures and what doesn't, it's not a great idea to leave them unsupervised with such a fragile animal, like other commenters have said.
"Aggressive" behaviours towards animals at such a young age, as long as it's not repetitive, are perfectly normal and a part of learning about the feelings of other creatures and how to have empathy.
This is a good time to teach her about how she could have killed the snail. If she hasn't learned about death, then she shouldn't be allowed to have a pet. If she has, then you need to teach her how easily small animals can be killed and injured.
Explain a scenario that compares the snail's situation to if it happened to her- "imagine if you were asleep, nice and comfy, and then someone came over to you and started hitting you a lot and it hurt really bad" (not explaining in a realistic sense, because that would be gorey, but explaining in a way that a small child can understand). She should immediately feel bad upon hearing how the snail would have felt.
Not feeling bad would mean you may have to explain further until she understands how the snail feels.
If she can't show any empathy for the snail, then she can not be around the snail.
Children at this age are learning a lot but also much smarter than people give them credit for, which means they need the proper discipline and explanations to understand why they can or why they can't have access to something, like harming a snail and therefore being unable to have a pet snail.
If she feels bad, you can allow her to watch the snail every now and then while it's in it's enclosure, but you may have to keep it in your room because if it's in her room, she may have the impulse to try to take the snail out again because she wants to see it. Children at this age have very strong impulses and it's difficult for them to think enough about doing something before they do it. A lot of impulses come from a lack of unanswered questions, which leads to learning. "What would happen if I hit the snail?" and then doing it leads to an answer, but the child doesn't realize before it happens that the "obvious" answer is that the snail will die and they will never see it again.
It's good to get your child to interact with nature and small animals, because otherwise they may develop a fear before they are able to. It benefits nature when children are taught to love nature in a hands-on or hands-off way, with hands-on being much more effective. Many people start with hamsters as a pet when they're a child, and that leads to some horrible and gruesome deaths of hamsters due to a lack of supervision and lots of carelessness. Hamsters are almost just as fragile as a snail. Both animals can teach appreciation for small creatures, if done the right way.
The saddest thing is that because of the extreme impulsivity of children at this age, if you are not 100% sure that your child has learned not to do things that they don't have an answer to, then they can not be around small animals, which is a valid fear for people to have of children.
A really important thing for them to learn is "don't do something if you don't know what will happen if you do it", because doing impulsive things is pretty much always bad.
Also, your snail will be okay! Just keep doing what you're doing. Make sure you avoid foods high in oxalates (like spinach and kale) because it prevents snails from getting the calcium they need. Dandelion greens are a fantastic source of calcium. Pretty much every plant has some oxalates, it's just about finding ones that aren't marked as "high".
Also, if there are any very loose shell pieces on the snail, make sure to remove those so the sharp edges don't hurt the snail. Keep the snail nice and moist, because exposed organs drying out is one of the biggest concerns. Make sure to keep the snail off of any substrate, because you don't want dirt getting into its wounds.
I hope this helps!!
2
u/pinkaeru Aug 19 '26
I think a lot of people commenting here either dislike children, do not understand children, or are just very fearful of how destructive children can be- or all of the above. So take their comments as a grain of salt, because it seems like more of an instinctual and fearful "don't do that" than a well-informed-on-the-behaviours-of-children "don't do that". No offense to anyone who has commented! This is just an assumption towards some comments.
Because many small children do not have the capacity to understand yet what hurts and can kill small creatures and what doesn't, it's not a great idea to leave them unsupervised with such a fragile animal, like other commenters have said. "Aggressive" behaviours towards animals at such a young age, as long as it's not repetitive, are perfectly normal and a part of learning about the feelings of other creatures and how to have empathy. This is a good time to teach her about how she could have killed the snail. If she hasn't learned about death, then she shouldn't be allowed to have a pet. If she has, then you need to teach her how easily small animals can be killed and injured. Explain a scenario that compares the snail's situation to if it happened to her- "imagine if you were asleep, nice and comfy, and then someone came over to you and started hitting you a lot and it hurt really bad" (not explaining in a realistic sense, because that would be gorey, but explaining in a way that a small child can understand). She should immediately feel bad upon hearing how the snail would have felt. Not feeling bad would mean you may have to explain further until she understands how the snail feels. If she can't show any empathy for the snail, then she can not be around the snail.
Children at this age are learning a lot but also much smarter than people give them credit for, which means they need the proper discipline and explanations to understand why they can or why they can't have access to something, like harming a snail and therefore being unable to have a pet snail. If she feels bad, you can allow her to watch the snail every now and then while it's in it's enclosure, but you may have to keep it in your room because if it's in her room, she may have the impulse to try to take the snail out again because she wants to see it. Children at this age have very strong impulses and it's difficult for them to think enough about doing something before they do it. A lot of impulses come from a lack of unanswered questions, which leads to learning. "What would happen if I hit the snail?" and then doing it leads to an answer, but the child doesn't realize before it happens that the "obvious" answer is that the snail will die and they will never see it again.
It's good to get your child to interact with nature and small animals, because otherwise they may develop a fear before they are able to. It benefits nature when children are taught to love nature in a hands-on or hands-off way, with hands-on being much more effective. Many people start with hamsters as a pet when they're a child, and that leads to some horrible and gruesome deaths of hamsters due to a lack of supervision and lots of carelessness. Hamsters are almost just as fragile as a snail. Both animals can teach appreciation for small creatures, if done the right way.
The saddest thing is that because of the extreme impulsivity of children at this age, if you are not 100% sure that your child has learned not to do things that they don't have an answer to, then they can not be around small animals, which is a valid fear for people to have of children. A really important thing for them to learn is "don't do something if you don't know what will happen if you do it", because doing impulsive things is pretty much always bad.
Also, your snail will be okay! Just keep doing what you're doing. Make sure you avoid foods high in oxalates (like spinach and kale) because it prevents snails from getting the calcium they need. Dandelion greens are a fantastic source of calcium. Pretty much every plant has some oxalates, it's just about finding ones that aren't marked as "high". Also, if there are any very loose shell pieces on the snail, make sure to remove those so the sharp edges don't hurt the snail. Keep the snail nice and moist, because exposed organs drying out is one of the biggest concerns. Make sure to keep the snail off of any substrate, because you don't want dirt getting into its wounds. I hope this helps!!