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Snakes are long, legless reptiles belonging to both the order Squamata and

the suborder Serpentes. These cold-blooded animals exist on every continent


except Antarctica, placing them in a wide range of ecosystems and
environmental conditions. Because of this, its important for snakes to have
a way of maintaining homeostasis and thermoregulation in any type of
environment.
The Thermoregulation Process
Thermoregulation is the process of regulating body temperature, which is a
major part of homeostasis. Snakes and other ectotherms are cold-blooded
animals that lack the ability to generate body heat internally. Also known as
poikilotherms, these animals must rely entirely on external sources to
regulate their body temperature, both to stay warm and to avoid becoming
overheated.

Frogs are ectotherms, this means they get their heat from external sources.
They are sometimes called 'cold blooded', but in fact they do not have cold
blood, it is just regulated by their environment. In comparison, humans are
endotherms and can maintain their body temperature at about 37C.
Frogs can control their temperature with their bodies, for example by
changing their color to affect how much solar radiation (heat from the sun)
they recieve, or absorbing or evaporating water through their skin.
As the temperature changes at different times of day and night, they move
around in their environment to regulate their body heat. Going into the shade
or water to cool and basking in the sun to warm up.

Temperature affects rate of growth, digestion and most bodily processes,


heat increasing the rate of growth and cold slowing it. Tadpoles and
developing frogs are more susceptable to temperature than adults.

Rabbits possess unique calcium metabolism. Blood calcium levels vary


substantially with the calcium content of the diet. Rabbits absorb nearly all
calcium ingested and excrete the excess by means of the kidneys.
Calcium precipitates in the alkaline urine of the rabbit and is excreted as
insoluble crystalline salts in thick, cloudy, white urine or bladder sludge.
Bladder sludge in rabbits is principally composed of calcium phosphate or
calcium carbonate crystals.
A massive aggregation of crystals may form a concretion or urolith within
the urinary bladder over a matter of weeks.

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