The Puffer Forum

So I crushed a half shell clam to get my puffer some crunch time and noticed my puffer swallowed some pieces of clam shell. Is a puffers digestive system built to break down shells?

Yes it is.

I dun think they can break down/digest the shells but they will poop them out. So it's normal and nothing to worry about. It's amazing how they can process the shards through their guts... Mine used to gobble down chunks of them.

The shells will not rip their insides the only time you can run into an issue is if the puffer cannot pass what it has eaten. This is usually a rare occurrence I remember a post about a year back of someone's porky that swallowed a large Astrea snail whole before they went to operate the puffer finally passed it.

Well.. My ex Mbu had got large shards stuck halfway at the an*s many times when it's pooping it out.. It normally pass thru the guts ok. But coming out at the exit point would sometimes be a little more tricky..