I know this isn’t quite your speciality but do you happen to know why cows have 4 stomachs to digest their food when

Question: I know this isn't quite your speciality but do you happen to know why cows have 4 stomachs to digest their food when all they eat is GRASS?! If we eat loads of different and hard-on-your-stomach-food, shouldn't we have like 60 stomachs?
- Keywords:
  anatomy,
  animal,
  cow,
  digestion,
  food,
  stomach
Asked by piwikiwi3 to Steve on 21 Jun 2013.
- Steven Gardner answered on 21 Jun 2013:
  
  The thing about grass is that it’s actually really hard to digest! This is because plant cells have a cell wall made from a substance called cellulose. This stuff is extremely difficult to break down, if we tried to live off raw grass we would probably starve because we don’t have digestive systems that are capable of breaking it down. I guess it takes cows having four stomaches to break down the plant cells.

piwikiwi3 commented on 22 Jun 2013:

Thanks! That makes way more sense now- and I guess if that is all they eat, their bodies can afford to be equipped with everything they need to digest their staple food.

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- Steve commented on 22 Jun 2013:
  
  No problem! Keep the questions coming 🙂
  
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Question: I know this isn't quite your speciality but do you happen to know why cows have 4 stomachs to digest their food when all they eat is GRASS?! If we eat loads of different and hard-on-your-stomach-food, shouldn't we have like 60 stomachs?