Ruminant and Pseudo- ruminant

By Rachel Footit and Rebecca Groves

What is a Ruminant animal? It is an animal that has 4 compartments in

their stomach. It contains a rumen, reticulum, omasum,

Abomasum. These are found in cattle, sheep, goats,

and chickens. These help brake down lots of food when

the animals eat.

The Rumen

It’s about 60% of the stomachs. It is also has bacteria and other microbes

that promote fermentation. Food will leave the rumen and get

regurgitated for about 15 minutes and swallowed to the reticulum, then it will be a repeating process for about 2-3 hours.

The Reticulum The 2nd stomach in the system. It looks like a honeycomb. It helps keep the food in the Rumen

mixed with water and saliva. When that is done the mixture can

move on to the other parts of the system.

The Omasum It looks like pages to a book. It absorbs many of the nutrients broken

down in the reticulum and rumen. It removes excess water from food. It reduces the size of food particles

before passing them to the Abomasum for digestion by enzymes

Abomasum It’s last compartment of the stomach

system. It breakdowns the majority of the

chemicals in the food. It also mixes in digestive enzymes The only one having glands that discharge

acids and enzymes for digestion.

What is a Pseudo- Ruminant animal?

They contain 3 compartments in their stomachs.

These animals do not regurgitate or ‘chew the cud’

These animal are still similar to ruminant animals but don’t get the most nutrients out of leafy materials.

Pigs, rabbits , llama, horses, and alpaca are the most known animals to be pseudo-ruminant.

How are the two different? Pseudo- Ruminant animals just have a

large cecum and doesn’t regurgitate their food.

Ruminant animals have a rumen and do regurgitate all their food they intake.

Parts of a Pseudo-Ruminant

There is several parts of the stomach. There is a large Cecum, and a large

intestine.

What is a Cecum?

Helps digest plants in the body. It absorbs water and salts from

undigested food. Has a muscular wall that kneads the

contents to speed up the absorption. This show that the feeds nutrients is

not absorbed as much as an animal with a rumen.

The Large Intestine

It is made up of mostly colons: ascending colon, transverse colon, sigmoid colon.

It actively transport sodium, and absorbs water by osmosis.

It holds an environment where bacteria can grow and reproduce.

It will eliminate all waste, undigested, and unabsorbed material to leave the body.

Work Cited

•http://www.umass.edu/cdl/BMPs/Basics%20for%20Livestock%20and%20Equine%20Nutrition.pdf

•www.afhsffa.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Digestion.com

•http://microbezoo.commtechlab.msu.edu/zoo/zacmain.html

•http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_function_of_the_cecum

•http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006052431266

•http://sci.waikato.ac.nz/farm/content/animalstructure.html