What do camels eat?
Camels are truly unique creatures in the animal kingdom.
They can make themselves at home in habitats ranging from deserts to mountains, and their hooves allow them to walk easily across shifting sands.
But what do camels eat?
Despite their ability to thrive almost anywhere, they still have some preferences when it comes to diet.
Let’s take a look at what camels eat.
What Camels Eat
When it comes to broad categories, camels are herbivores.
This means that they consume vegetation for food.
When camels feed, they take a particular liking to plants that are low to the ground, like grasses and legumes.
They sometimes also eat shrubs or brushwood, but they avoid cacti.
Camels will also eat other parts of plants that humans might not typically consume, like roots and bark.
In addition to plants, camels also drink a lot of water.
This not only keeps them alive in harsh environments but also helps plants grow wherever they roam.
Camels can go without food and water for over a month as long as there is salt available to eat.
They get most of their salt from plants or from licking natural mineral deposits.
Sometimes, they will drink water with high mineral content.
Camels aren’t picky eaters.
They’ll eat almost anything that they can fit into their mouths.
This makes them very hard workers and allows them to flourish in some of the harshest conditions on earth.
How Do Camels Eat?
Camels have a very special way of eating.
They have two rows of thin, long incisors in both the upper and lower jaws which allows them to cut off chunks of plants.
Then, they use their strong teeth to chew up the pieces before swallowing them.
Camels also have special chewing glands in the back of their mouths that produce sticky saliva.
This allows camels to collect food more easily by sticking vegetation into their mouth and then licking it off with their tongues.
Camels can spend four or five hours a day feeding.
