Snail massages and snake-tickling

By Sarah Jones
BBC Wiltshire

Adam giving his pet snail a massage

For most people faced with a giant African land snail, anaconda or scorpion the last thing on their minds would be to give it a massage.

But for Adam Rogers, a TTouch practitioner in Trowbridge, that's exactly what he's been trained to do.

"People think I'm mad," says Adam, "because it's a really hard thing to describe.

"When you tell people you touch animals in weird ways, it doesn't sound that good."

So what exactly is it? And how exactly do you massage a giant snail? We caught up with Adam to find out more.

Massage with caution - an African pygmy hedgehog

"TTouch is a method of working with animals to try to solve their behavioural problems." says Adam. "It's very odd because it involves moving their bodies in strange and non-habitual ways.

"Although it looks like massage, actually we're only moving the skin and the pressure is very light so it can work on anything from the smallest mouse all the way up to an elephant and even a killer whale."

Massaging snails

And when Adam says anything he means it. Since qualifying, just over 6 years ago on a scholarship, he's managed to get his therapeutic hands on everything from poisonous snakes and meerkats to hedgehogs and chameleons.

But the weirdest 'animal', that has benefitted from his gentle touch, has to be his giant African land snails:

"I've got giant African land snails as pets and I hadn't really thought about doing TTouch on them but I kind of knew that it would work. So, I decided to give it a go and discovered that they absolutely love it.

"It's a little bit tricky to do on a snail. You have to use the end of your fingers and make really small movements and then slide to another place and do another circle."

In fact they loved it so much, it's proving to be one of the best ways of encouraging a shy snail out of its shell:

"When you get it right," says Adam, "they'll come right out of their shells. Their little antennae come out and they look at you.

"They'll move to one side and then they'll move their heads to the other side so you can do each side. They're really expressive and they really enjoy it."

Tickling snakes

But it's working with Tropical Inc., an organisation that rescues animals with behavioural problems from zoos, that Adam's touch is really put to the test.

Using the feather 'hand shake' on a meerkat

A poisonous snake is one thing. But getting to grips with a poisonous snake with a behavioural problem definitely requires some equipment:

"We actually use tools like feathers to initiate contact," says Adam. "It's a bit like giving a handshake to a stranger.

"If you went up and gave a stranger a hug they would think you were a little bit mad but by giving a handshake it gets that kind of contact first of all and it breaks the ice."

But it's not just exotics that are benefiting from a bit of a therapeutic rub down.

Teaching a chicken to walk

A couple of years ago, Adam set up a rescue group rescuing battery chickens from what he describes as 'awful conditions':

"As you can imagine they've never walked," says Adam. "So they come out of their cages and you put them on the ground and they have no idea how to walk.

Using massage to teach a battery chicken to walk

"So I sit them down. Take out a wing and circle it one way and then the other way, move their legs and even move the skin around their face and the ears. It's amazing, in a very short space of time, the brain starts to kick in and realises which part of its body is where and they soon kick into life and off they go."

So is there anything that Adam would refuse to allow on to the massage table?

"Yes, scorpions," says Adam. "This work, as I said, works with everything but the one animal I haven't been able to work with so far is the scorpion.

"I couldn't quite face it."

And if you want to find out more about Adam's work, he's got a book coming out shortly, then click on the link below:

Animals at Ease