Digestive System

of Animals

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Digestion is the process by which animals
transform food into smaller components
to obtain nutrients from it.

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Different types of digestive system

• Monogastric (pigs, dogs, cats)

• Avian (chicken, birds, turkey)

• Ruminant (cattle, sheep, deer)

Pseudo-ruminant (horses, rabbits, hamsters)

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 Monogastric

• Have only one compartment in their stomach

•Digest grains easily

•Does not digest forages and fibers (unless have

enlarged cecum)

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The monogastric digestive
system
 Avian
• Found in poultry animals

•This system differs greatly from any other type. Since

poultry do not have teeth, there is no chewing

•Poultry break their food into pieces small enough to

swallow by pecking with their beaks or scratching with their
feet.

•Feed enters the mouth, travel to the esophagus and

empties directly to the crop.
The Avian Digestive
System

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Specialized organ in avian Digestive
System

The crop is where

the food is stored
and soaked. Food
then moves from
the crop to
proventriculus .

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Specialized organ in avian Digestive System

The proventriculus is
the stomach in a bird,
where gastric enzymes
and hydrochloric acid
are secreted. From the
proventriculus, the food
makes its way to the
gizzard.

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Specialized organ in avian Digestive System

Gizzard is a very
muscular organ ,
which normally
contains grit or stone
that function like
teeth to grind the
food.

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• The food then moves from
the gizzard to the small
intestine and then to the
large intestine. The no
digestible components then
travel to the cloaca.
• Urine is also emptied into
the space
• Digestion in the avian
system is very rapid

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 Ruminant
• Has a large stomach divided into four compartments –
the rumen, reticulum, omasum, abomasum.

• Found in cattle, sheep and deer.

• Ruminant animals eat food ration that are high in

roughages.

• Roughages include hay, straw and grazed forages.

• Ruminants are different from monogastric animals in that

they swallow their food in large quantities with little
chewing.
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The Ruminant Digestive
System

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 Specialized organ in Ruminant
Digestive System

1. Rumen. The first and largest

section of the stomach is the
rumen. It is where fermentation
and where initial process of
digestion occurs. Fermentation is
achieved by the microbial activity
which enables the decomposition
of cellulose and fiber.

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 Specialized organ in Ruminant
Digestive System

2. Reticulum. The reticulum is the

second segment of the stomach. It is
sometimes called “hardware stomach”.
It is a small pouch on the side of the
rumen that traps foreign materials,
such as wire, nails, and so forth. If the
metal doesn’t penetrate the reticulo-
rumen wall, it will stay on the reticulum
and breakdown from gastric juices. If
the animal get ill from these foreign
object, they will puncture the stomach
lining.
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 Specialized organ in Ruminant
Digestive System

3. Omasum. The omasum is the

third compartment of stomach. The
main function of omasum is to
absorb water. It is sometimes
known as the “many piles” since
the skin lining is layered, much like
the pages of a book.

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 Specialized organ in Ruminant
Digestive System

4. Abomasum. The abomasum is

the fourth compartment of the
stomach. It is also referred to as the
true stomach because it is similar to
the stomach in monogastric
animals. It secretes protein and
starch digesting enzyme to further
digest the digesta that wasn’t digest
in the rumen.

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Pseudo-ruminant digestive system

An animal that eats large amount of roughage but

does not have a several compartments in their
stomach.

A pseudo-ruminant digestive system can utilize

large amount of roughage because of the greatly
enlarged cecum and large intestine, which provide
areas for microbial digestion of fiber. They eat
forages as well as grains. An example of this are
horses, rabbits, guinea pigs and hamsters.

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Digestive System
of a Fish

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Digestive System of an
Earthworm
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