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Old 09-07-2017, 04:31 PM   #4
Bruno
 
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Default Re: Flesh Pocket (UT211) Hygiene

I'm really not sure this is an issue.

Marsupials not only have the archetypical flesh pockets, they keep babies in them (notorious germ magnets), and the babies poop in the pockets. They have to clean them out by licking, the poor things.

Despite this, marsupial pouches aren't a hive of scum and villainy. They're not even sweaty smelling, because they don't have sweat glands in the pouch (not really big on sweat glands in general, those marsupials).

The key factor is that they're not wet. A flesh pouch, such as a marsupium (the marsupial pouch) is not a mucus-membrane lined cavity, like the mouth or various other body parts I won't mention. There's no pools of saliva, mucus, food debris, or body waste, just skin. The baby is a bit messy, but the saliva from washing does dry up pretty promptly, after which the pouch can be kept more carefully closed when necessary. I don't know about you, but my various sphincters are pretty darn good at keeping things out of my mouth when I want them to, and letting air into or out of my mouth when I want them to.

Now, if you have someone keeping a sandwich in there, all bets are off.


EDIT: I presume, as a shapeshifter-made pouch for keeping stuff in, they're not optimized for keeping a baby in them, and therefore don't have to be designed to always let enough air in for the baby to breathe. Another comparison is a baboons cheek pouches, which are drier than you think and fairly immunologically active. As long as they aren't keeping human garbage food in them they're generally fine.
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Last edited by Bruno; 09-07-2017 at 04:35 PM.
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