How Many Stomachs Does A Goat Have

How Many Stomachs Does A Goat Have

Goats are domestic ruminants belonging to the Bovidae family. They are one of the earliest and most often domesticated animals and have been an important part of agriculture for centuries.

However, these animals have a reputation for eating almost everything and have even been seen as a nuisance by some because of this.

So while these animals are officially listed as herbivores, many of us wonder how this animal digests the wide variety of food that it eats. Many domesticated animals like goats have multiple stomachs with unique functions to help with food digestion.

This article will cover how many stomachs a goat has, what the stomachs are called and what purpose the stomachs serve for the goat. 

A goat has four stomachs.  In order they are: Rumen, Reticulum, Omasum, and Abomasum. The stomachs progressively digest the goat’s food. Goats also chew their cud like cows, as the food is moved from one stomach to the next.

I was amazed at how big the Goat’s 1st stomach is – Read on to find out!

How Many Stomach Compartments Does A Goat Have?

Like most ruminants, the goat has four (4) stomach compartments and all of them have a clear distinct use to help the goat stay healthy and digest its food as efficiently as possible.

The food a goat consumes goes through each of these stomachs in a particular order and the way it digests food is massively different from humans in how it works. 

The first three stomach compartments of the goat are actually considered ‘forestomachs’, as in preceding the final ‘true’ stomach where the stomachs finish their role.

In order the four stomachs are called; the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum, and finally the abomasum. 

In spite of having four stomachs, each of them has a unique function instead of just having multiple stomachs to repeat the same step. So, to simplify the understanding of the goat’s digestive system, let’s have a look at what each of the goat’s stomach compartments do!

How many stomachs Goat Have

What Does The Goat Rumen Do?

The rumen is the first place the goat’s food goes after traveling through the esophagus. Out of the three first forestomaches, this is the largest and can carry a massive 2 gallons!

This stomach is generally described as an area where the food begins to ferment and break down to make further digestion easier.

The bacteria in this stomach aim to break down the roughage that makes up most of the goat’s diet. After the microorganisms manage to finish this process, the goat will then actually regurgitate the content that has been digested and re-chew it.

Once the contents have been rechewed and further broken down by the goat, the contents can move down into a different stomach as the goat swallows it again.

The other process the rumen carries out is creating methane gas as a byproduct.  The goat uses the heat of this gas to regulate its body temperature.

What Does The Goat Reticulum Do?

The reticulum is the second goat forestomach and its role is to further breakdown and digest the goats food.

The leftover partially digested food from this stomach compartment is called cud and the reticulum returns these cud remnants back to the esophagus to go back to the goat’s mouth to be rechewed again. 

After the goat is finished chewing this cud to further break it down in preparation for further digestion and to prepare it for the next forestomach.

The reticulum is also the forestomach that is responsible for discarding anything the goat has ingested that is indigestible or inedible. 

This Goat Has Four Stomachs

What Does The Goat Omasum Do?

The goat third stomach compartment, and the final forestomach, the omasum further uses enzymes to break down and digest the food that has been digested twice already. The food is broken down with help from the long tissue folds unique to this stomach.

These long tissue folds also get rid of excess fluid that is not needed for digestion and help lower the particle size of the food to make it more digestible for when it reaches the final stomach.

To summarize the roles of the three forestomachs: these three stomachs progressively digest food, breaking it down and making it easier for the next stomach. And any food that needs to be broken down further is sent back up to the mouth where the goat will rechew it. .

Now that we have gotten past the three forestomaches, we can move on to the final ‘true’ stomach and look at what makes it unique to the forestomaches.

What Does The Goat Abomasum Do?

The fourth and final goat stomach is the Abomasum. The goat abomasum receives food that has already been pre-digested.

This stomach is where most of the digestive enzymes are held and utilized to finish breaking down the food. This stomach further digests the food and is the stomach that can be most clearly linked to the functions of a human stomach. 

Note that if a goat ingests milk or grain, it will travel directly to the abomasum for digestion, skipping the forestomaches.  It travels directly to the abomasum because this is the stomach that is best suited for digesting them.

Once food has been digested in the goats’ abomasum, it has officially finished its time in the goats stomachs and will move on to the goats intestines.

What Is A Goat’s Diet?

As previously mentioned, the usage of the goat’s first three stomachs almost entirely revolves around the diet’s reliance on ingesting plant roughage.

And while this is the focus, goats can eat a lot more than this, and as previously mentioned goats can enjoy a famously varied diet. This can include; hay, grass, weeds, bark, fruit, grain, and vegetables.

One of the main reasons they are such a popular farm choice is because they are willing to eat difficult to eat plant life like weeds which are undesirable to keep around. 

Does A Goat Have 1 Stomach?

No, a goat has 4 stomachs.  The goat’s four stomachs are the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and the abomasum. 

Why Do Goats Have 4 Stomachs?

As ruminants, goats have 4 stomachs that progressively break down and digest their high roughage diet. As a ruminant, the goat burps up its partially digested food and rechews it as cud.

After chewing the cud, the goat swallows the cud, sending it on to the next stomach. From the 4th and final stomach, the digested food enters the goat’s intestinal tract. 

Here is a great video that explains the goat’s four stomachs and digestive system

Final Thoughts On How Many Stomachs Does A Goat Have?

Goats have been a mainstay of domestic agriculture for thousands of years.  

Although they sometimes get a bad reputation for being ornery and eating anything (including the flower gardens), domesticated goats are very popular among hobby farmers and homesteaders. 

A goat has four stomachs that progressively digest the goat’s food, which for a healthy goat, consists of lots of high fiber.

So now you know how goats digest the majority of their diet and a bit more about the goat’s four stomachs!

You might be interested in this related post: Can Goats Eat Blueberries?

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