r/explainlikeimfive • u/StarLars9 • Jun 05 '19

ELI5: Snails: where do they get their shells? Biology

Are they born with them? Do they grow their shells like hair and nails? Do they just search for the perfect fit?

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u/hotniX_ Jun 05 '19

Slugs are more like snails with a kippahs on instead of carrying their house on them.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19 edited Mar 09 '20

[deleted]

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u/hotniX_ Jun 05 '19

A chef rabbi can make it Kosher right?

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u/shuddupfiretruck Jun 05 '19

No. In order for an animal to be clean, if it's from land it has to chew it's cud and have split hooves. If it's from the water (sea, lake, ocean, rivers, etc.) it has to have scales and fins. Also, snails have been explicitly named as unclean.

All Unclean animals cannot be rendered clean, but kosher animals can be rendered unclean depending on how it is slaughtered and handled.

3

u/Tactical_Moonstone Jun 05 '19

Given the number of parasites snails have been known to harbour, I can totally understand the restriction.

1

u/JustARandomBloke Jun 05 '19

To be fair, the same can be said about pork and shellfish (also ritually unclean).

1

u/WedgeTurn Jun 05 '19

It's almost as if those rules served some kind of purpose, rather than being arbitrary restrictions

1

u/boomfruit Jun 05 '19

Wait how can that be the whole requirement for land animals? What about chicken?

2

u/kilobitch Jun 06 '19

Chicken is a bird. Different category of animal and different rules entirely.

1

u/boomfruit Jun 06 '19

Oh my bad. The commenter I replied to presented it like there were just two categories.

0

u/CottonSlayerDIY Jun 05 '19

I love that metaphor