Methods of Animal Nutrition

Methods of Animal Nutrition

In large animals, every cell of the body requires nutrition, yet most cells cannot leave their position in the body and travel to a food source, so the food must be delivered. The digestive system supplies the body with water, electrolytes, and other nutrients.

To do this, the digestive system is specialized to ingest food; propel it through the gastrointestinal tract; absorb the food, and take in water; electrolytes, and other nutrients from the lumen of the digestion tract. Undigested matter from the food is moved out of the digestion system.

Animals exhibit more range of nutrition as compared to plants. On the basis of nutrition, animals might be classified as:

Detritivores:

The animals which eat sediment or detritus (organic debris from breaking down plants and animals) are called detritivores. The earthworm is a common example of a detritus feeder. It ingests pieces of rotting raw material specifically plants either at the soil surface or throughout the burrowing activity.

Herbivores:

Animals that eat plants are called herbivores. Typical herbivores consist of insects, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Two important groups of herbivorous mammals are rodents and ungulates. The later are hoofed grazing animals, such as horses, livestock, and sheep.

In herbivorous mammals, the premolars and molars have large grinding surfaces. There is a large gap between the incisors and premolars. Canines are missing out on. In grazing and browsing herbivores, i.e., deer and sheep, there are no upper incisors.

Carnivores:

Animals that eat other animals are called carnivores. They have large canine teeth for capturing and tearing the prey. Incisors, premolars, and molars are all adapted for cutting flesh, cracking bones, and decreasing the portions to sizes appropriate for swallowing. Cats, dogs, lions, and tigers are common examples of predators. A predator is an animal, which catches and easily kills a live animal for its food. The animal, which is eaten, is the prey.

The predator-prey interaction assists in preserving the environment’s stability. A species in a location without its natural predator leads to dreadful outcomes. The introduction of rabbits into Australia without the predator increased to a huge number and proved a threat to the farmers.

Omnivores:

These are the animals that eat both plant and animal food. Examples of omnivores are crows, rats, red fox, bears, pigs, and humans. They have the teeth structurally and functionally intermediate in between the extremes of expertise achieved by the teeth of herbivores and carnivores.

Filter feeders:

Lots of water animals filter the water and digest the particles that they extract from it. A typical mussel possesses 2 large gills covered with cilia. The movement of cilia causes a current of water to get into animals by means of an inhalant siphon. The water, which enters, consists of food, such as microscopic algae and protozoa. Secretory cells scattered amongst cilia produce sticky mucous which entangles food particles.

The trapped food particles are then swept towards the mouth by the ciliary motion. Particular species of whales are likewise filter feeders.

Fluid feeders:

When the food is consumed in liquid form the animals are classed as fluid feeders. Aphids and mosquitoes are examples. Aphids draw the phloem juices out of the green stems by placing their delicate styles.

The female mosquito is also a fluid feeder since it draws blood from the skin capillaries by piercing the skin with the help of tubular mouthparts.

Macrophagous feeders:

Animals, which take in food in the form of large pieces, are macrophagous feeders. Tentacular feeding, scraping, and seizing prey are the typical methods of macrophagous feeding. Feeding in Hydra is an example of tentacular feeding. The scraping type of feeding occurs in the garden snail (Helix). It feeds by using a rasping organ, the radula. Leaves are held by the lips of the snail.

The radula returns and forth over the leaves with its teeth scraping the food. In this way, tiny pieces of leaves are gotten which are slowly pressed back towards the pharynx. Seizing and swallowing kind of macrophagous feeding is found in spotted doggish.

Parasitic Nutrition

A parasite is an organism that lives upon or within another organism, called the host, for acquiring its food. A parasite that lives upon the host is an ectoparasite and that which lives within the host is an endoparasite. If an organism lives parasitically at all times, it is stated to be an obligate parasite. Facultative parasites can live individually of their host sometimes.

Flea and lice are ectoparasites that reside in the fur or feathers of mammals and birds and draw blood from their skin. Ticks and mites are common ectoparasites in non-human mammals. In plants, the aphid is a parasite that sucks food from leaves or stems. Leech is another typical example of ectoparasite attacking both aquatic and terrestrial animals.

Endoparasites also occur in both marine and terrestrial animals. These parasites are most typically found in the intestine of vertebrate host, also consisting of man, where they take in the host’s digested food. Entamoeba histolytica, tapeworm, and roundworms prevail as examples of endoparasites. In certain cases, the host may be compromised by the existence of the parasite or its metabolism may be distressed by the excretory products of the parasite.

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FAQs: Methods of Animal Nutrition