- A lamb is born with eight milk teeth at the front; a pair of milk teeth is replaced each year starting with the pair in the middle
- By the time the sheep is fourth years old, said to be full-mouthed
- The condition of molars- if they become rough, broken and prevent sheep from eating properly, the animal needs to be culled
Mouth-
- Cleft upper lip allows sheep to closely graze
- Their small mouthparts/narrow muzzle allow them to be selective of their plant species
- Grass dominated diet
Digestive Tract-
- Sheep are ruminants, meaning they have a four chambered stomach consisting of rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum
- They eat a large amount of vegetation that is first softened and broken down in the rumen by microbes (mostly consisting of bacteria)
- After, they regurgitate the semi-digested plant matter (also known as chew called "chewing the cud), and they swallow it back again
- Regurgitation and fermentation process extract nutrients (one of which is cellulose), from plant materials
- The photo below depicts the Sheep's digestive tract with arrows pointing out the process: from when it first enters in the Esophagus all the way until the Sheep defecates it out.
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| Diagram of Sheep's Digestive Track |
Works Cited
http://citadel.sjfc.edu/students/naa07113/e-port/Herbivores.html
https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8524.pdf
https://toaaps.weebly.com/ruminant-digestive-system.html
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