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acid, flora, or both?

obboi34

Aaron
Hey all. With so many of us feeding our snakes we frequently see unfortunate stories of regurgitation and discuss the methods of remedying the problem. Something has been confusing me.

I often read statements describing snake gut flora regeneration as a major factor for why we wait before trying to feed again. My understanding of digestion is that carnivores depend significantly more on having extremely strong acids in their stomach that dissolve bone and tissue before quickly expelling waste from short digestive tracts. Herbivores tend to have more bacteria and milder acids, taking their time to allow bacteria to break down food and extract nutrients.

What I imagine happens during a regurge is a terrible case of heartburn that damages the esophagus and leaves the stomach empty of a significant supply of a valuable digestive fluid. It seems more likely that a snake will regurge again if it doesn't have the resources from its own body to digest a resource rather than needing new bacterial colonies for proper digestion.

Thoughts? Am I making sense? Does anyone know of good resources detailing populations of bacteria in snake digestive tracts? Or any particular articles that describe the digestive process.
 
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