Do Snails Poop? (And What Their Poop Looks Like)


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Were you wondering just like me if snails poop or not? If this is the case then you’ve come to the right article as I’ll be answering this question for you. After I’ve answered the main question of this article then I’ll also give answers to a few more closely related questions, so make sure you keep on reading!

Do snails poop? Just like all the other animals that have to eat and therefore poop to survive, snails will have to poop as well. The process of pooping in snails, however, is a bit more different than how we humans poop. The poop in snails is shed through their breathing pores which also houses the lung.

Generally, you can expect the poop to be the color of the foods that the snail has been eating like, for example, a green string when it has eaten some green colored plants or a brown string when it has been eating brown leaves.

Why do snails poop?

Snails need to poop because they’re an animal that uses food as their fuel to live. After all the essential nutrients have been retrieved from their digested food then the remains will need to leave their bodies which are done through pooping.

So, snails poop for the same reasons we humans need to poop every day. We also retrieve essential nutrients out of our eaten foods and then we poop the remains out that aren’t usable for our bodies.

If you can’t get enough of learning about snails then I encourage you to check out the “Snails Category Page” which consists of various articles that give answers to snail-related questions.

What does snail poop look like?

Generally, you can expect snail poop to look stringy and have either a green or brown color as the color of the poop is based on the color of the food that the snail has been eating. Normally snails love to eat leaves and of course, most leaves will be either green or brown.

You can therefore also expect the poop of snails to be orange if you, for example, only feed your pet snail carrots which they will enjoy a lot as well just like leaves.

Check out the video below if you want to see for yourself what snail poop looks like.

What color does snail poop have?

The color of snail poop can pretty much have all the colors of the rainbow. The color of snail poop will depend on the color of the food that the snail’s been eating. If the snail, for example, has only been eating green leaves then the color of the poop will become green.

It is even possible for the poop to become white which would mean that the snail in question potentially has a calcium deficiency. The best solution would be to give your snail more vegetation for their meals.

Can snail poop be white?

The poop of snails can be white which is often linked to a deficiency in calcium or to ingesting a large quantity of cuttlebone in combination with too little vegetation. The best solution would then be to add more vegetation-based foods to the snail’s meals.

It could even be that you’re using a certain substrate that results in being inappropriate for your snails to live on. Thankfully, though, this can’t be harmful to your snails but it can result in snails eating the substrate and then pooping it out again which could result in a white-colored-looking poop.

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Do snails poop on leaves?

You can expect snails to pretty much poop on everything where they get their bodies on. So, they will even poop on the foods they enjoy eating so much like, for example, leaves. It’s good to know though that their remains will not hurt the receiving leaf or plant in any way.

Snail poop is also very easy to spot as its remains generally look stringy and come in clear colors, like, for example, green, or brown. You can also easily identify snail poop as their poop will most likely have a C-shape.

How often does a snail poop?

The best answer would be that snails poop a lot. I’ve read many opinions of snail owners about this question and at least half of them said that they poop a lot. Some even claim that they poop all day long which wouldn’t be all that surprising as they love to eat.

Generally, you can also expect snails to poop twice every time. The first poop will have the color of the food that the snail’s been eating and the second poop will likely be purely white.

Related questions

Is snail poop bad?

Snail poop isn’t bad at all. The only downside is that you wouldn’t want to have it in your house or on your clothes as it will leave a mess but generally snail poop is a great fertilizer for plants and therefore snail poop is very helpful.

Is snail poop good for plants?

Plants love to eat a lot just like us humans and snail poop is one of their beloved foods. Their poop makes a nitrogen-rich, and mineral-laden fertilizer for plants which enhances plant development and plant health.

Is snail poop a good fertilizer?

Snail poop is a great plant fertilizer. When you, for example, have a tank where you keep your pet snails then it can be very smart to add a lot of plants in the tank as well as the poop of the snails will automatically fertilize the plants without you needing to remove the poop.

Conclusion

Now you know that snails will need to poop every day just like, for example, us humans. They do this because they’ll need to eat to survive and after having extracted all the essential nutrients from their foods they’ll need to get rid of the remains which will leave their bodies by pooping.

Wouter

Wouter is a passionate animal-related blogger who enjoys researching and writing about animal-related topics.

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