Deer Digestive Tract - Google Docs

This document takes a look at deer digestive system, their stomach anatomy, cud chewing. We're linking to authoritative sources and supplying pictures with diagrams. You can also find this post with videos on our website https://wondeerful.farm/story/deer-chewing-cud-over

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deer chew ruminate cud digest food deer chew

About Deer Curious

deer chew ruminate cud digest food deer chew

 Do deer chew their cud? 
 »  Deer stories  »  Deer facts  »  Do deer chew their cud? 
 Have you ever wondered why deer seem to chew all the time? You've 
 come to the right place. In this post, we're cover this intriguing question 
 and more. 
 “Chew your food well”, “don't gobble”  - said moms  all over the world.  Most 
 mothers tell children not to “gobble” their food. 
 Well, not deer moms. They must tell their fawns the exact opposite. 
 “Gobble it up!” 
 “Just swallow it, there'll be plenty of time to chew it over!” 
 Because that's what deer do when they find food, especially when there's 
 competition around - they stuff their mouths as full of it as possible, as fast as 
 they can. 
 The funniest thing is that you can actually see it go down their throats. And up 
 again! 
 Did you know - eeew warning - that deer regurgitated and chewed their cud 
 again? Well, now you do. Deer use some parts of their 4-chambered stomach 
 to gather a lot of food at once and then sit down and ruminate it later. 
 In the following 30 seconds video you can easily notice that the doe sits down 
 having nothing in her mouth only to 'send up' some cud and start chewing it. 
 Facts about deer chewing cud 
 Mammals that eat a lot of grass, or other relatively low-quality vegetation, 
 have to process their food thoroughly to extract the maximum amount of 
 nutrition. This is achieved by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to 
 digestion. 
 For this reason, ruminant stomachs have 4 chambers: the rumen, the 
 reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum. 
 image: depositphotos 
 image primary source: unknown 
 Deer, elk and moose all ruminate. Ruminants also include cattle, sheep, 
 goats, buffalo, giraffes and camels. 
 1.  The  rumen , also known as a paunch, is the largest  section that is 
 basically storage, allowing for the deer to gather a lot of food at once to 
 be digested later. The process of chewing cud is called rumination. 
 Hence the name - ruminants. 
 2.  The  reticulum  is the second stomach chamber where  helpful 
 microorganisms cause fermentation. 
 The reticulum will ball up the portion of food sent to it by the rumen, 
 mixing it with some microorganisms, and trigger the regurgitation of the 
 cud. 
 According to  some sources : For deer, the cud is about  the size of a 
 large lemon. A white-tailed deer chews its cud an average of 40 times 
 while mule deer average 56 chews. 
 Digestion in deer's second stomach alone takes roughly 16 hours. 
 3.  When the cud moves to the third chamber ( omasum ) -  water is 
 absorbed. 
 4.  Next, the food enters the  abomasum , the last chamber, also called the 
 true stomach. This is where gastric juices carry on digestion. 
 5.  And finally, in the intestines, the food is absorbed by the animal’s body, 
 providing the needed nutrients. 
 Imagine this. A deer urinates and defecates on average of about 13 times a 
 day. 
 Since digestion also produces heat, rumen acts as a furnace in winter, helping 
 to keep the animals warm. 
 Ruminant Feeding Types 
 Based on the diets they prefer, ruminants can be classified into distinct 
 feeding types: 
 1.  concentrate selectors 
 2.  grass/roughage eaters 
 3.  intermediate types 
 Concentrate selectors prefer to browse trees and shrubs. Deer and giraffes 
 are examples of these. Animals in this group of ruminants prefer plants and 
 plant parts high in easily digestible, nutrient dense substances such as plant 
 starch, protein, and fat. They are limited in their ability to digest the fibers and 
 cellulose in plant cell walls. That's why  deer prefer  legumes over grasses . [ 
 source  ] 
 The relative sizes of various digestive system organs differ by ruminant 
 feeding type. 
 So the way cow's rumen is built is a bit different to the way deer's rumen is. 
 For those interested in learning more about deer digestive system here are 
 some links: 
 www.sas.upenn.edu/ ~mytienne/deerms.pdf 
 Understanding the Ruminant Animal Digestive System (Mississippi 
 State University) 
 Graphic!  Sliced up stomach of a doe 
 Quick fact: About 150 different types of animals have multiple compartments 
 in their stomachs, including cows, sheep, camels, yaks, deer and giraffes. 
 Prepared for you by  Wondeerful Farm