Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth - Diet

Diet

Though two-toed sloths also eat fruits and flowers, most of their diet consists of tree leaves. They use their lips to tear off their food and chew with their peg-like teeth which have no enamel and are always growing. Although they are not true ruminants, sloths have a three-chambered stomach. The first two chambers hold symbiotic bacteria to help them digest the cellulose in their fibre-rich diet, while only the third chamber contains digestive glands typical of the stomachs of most other mammals. It may take a sloth up to a month to completely digest a meal, and up to two thirds of a sloth's weight may be due to the leaves in its digestive system.

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