why do animals change their skin or body covering?

Answer 1

coz when an animal grows its skin streatches and dies and change into a new one

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Answer 2

Shedding or molting does not just occur in animals with exoskeletons, it occurs in reptiles as well. As other users have said an animal will "shed' its skin because in the animals that do this, their skin does not grow as they grow like our skin does. So new skin will form underneath the existing skin and then the outer, older skin will be shed. (same thing with critters that have an exoskeleton, ie crabs, insects, spiders, etc) It's kind of like how our baby teeth are replaced by our adult teeth...the adult teeth grow underneath the baby teeth and the baby teeth are then shed.

Also as some animals shed their coloration changes from a more camoflauged pattern that would disguise them as vulnerable young to a more distinctive pattern as adults, when cryptic coloration isn't as important.

Hope this is what you were looking for!

Answer 3

it happens only to animals that have an exo-skeleton, an structure on the outside of the body that is hard and serves as support for them, or when they have a hard skin that is highly keratinized (keratin is a protein that makes the skin hard) that doesn't let the body grow. when the skin or exo-skeleton is too hard, the body can't grow inside it, so they have to took it off and grow a bit while the new covering is developed.

Answer 4

Animals shed their skin because as they grow the lenght of their body increases and the size of their skin decreases and start to die,for which they must shed and regrow a new layer of skin.

Answer 5

If you mean moulting then the answer would be that they need to grow and therefore they have to cast off. This is the case in cockroaches, for example.