Question

Ruminants such as cows swallow their food hurriedly and then sit restfully and chew their food. Why...?

Answer 1

The reason for this is that ruminants food like grass include cellulose and other complex forms of glucose that are very hard to digest. Therefore the ruminants swallow their food quickly to get enough food without waiting to digest completly and then keep chewing partially digested food again untill it is completely digested.

For your further reference

The process which takes place in ruminant animals is like this

Cattle are ruminant animals, this mean their stomach contains four compartments:

1. Rumen

2. Reticulum

3. Omasum

4. Abomasum

When a cow first takes food, it chews hurridly just enough to moisten the food. Once swallowed, the food goes the rumen, where it mixes with other acidic digestive liquids and is softened. The softened food is called cud, small balls of food.

Then the rumen muscles send the cud back up to the cow’s mouth, where it is re-chewed and swallowed again, and rechewed cud goes to the Omasum of stomach in order to take out all of the moisture.

Finally, the food enters the Abomasum of the stomach where it mixes with digestive juices and makes its way to the intestine to be completely digested.