The Digestive System of the Garden Snail (Cornu Aspersum)
A Snails diet usually consists of mainly vegetables, plants, and fruits. Most Snail species are herbivores. Another thing that Snails like to eat is dirt because of how Dirt is very high in calcium. Calcium helps the snails shell become strong. The first step to the digestive system of the Snail is that they intake their food through their mouth (Buccal Mass). Then the snail takes their food and brings it through the Radula. When the snails food goes through the Radula, it tears and grinds the food up into a bunch of little pieces. The Snails jaw holds the food in place while this process is happening. After the food is ground, it goes through the Esophagus and is transported to the crop and Stomach, where the ground food is digested. The crop and stomach use their digestive glands to make the food more liquid like. After the Stomach, the food goes through the intestine. In the Intestine, the foods nutrients are absorbed and the indigestible part of the snails food is opened to the anus by the respiratory opening in the mantle fold.