Often we use the phrase ‘rarer than a chicken’s teeth;’ have you ever wondered why?It is because chickens and other wild birds do not have teeth, whereas humans have 32 permanent teeth. But if chickens do not have even a single tooth, how do they eat what they are fed?Humans and mammals have teeth for chewing and grinding food into partially digested food, and the digestive system then gets to work to completely digest the food. Since chickens don’t have teeth, they rather eat their food using their beaks with gizzard and grit to help them to grind and chew the food. A chicken might not have teeth, but it has a digestive system, a typical avian system including organs such as beak or mouth, digestive tract, gizzard, proventriculus, stomach, intestines like small intestine and large intestine, ceca, and cloaca that assist the bird during digestion of food and nutrients.Have you ever wondered why living beings need food? Nothing is free! Everything in life costs something or another, be it life itself. Thus, living costs you energy. Energy is produced when you eat and digest food. Similarly, chickens also eat food from which nutrients are absorbed to get energy. You have hands to pick what you eat and teeth to chew and grind pieces that you put into your mouth. But unlike us, chickens instead have gizzard and grit. While grit assists the digestive system to run efficiently, making the process of digestion easier and simpler, the gizzard grinds the food before it enters the small intestine for absorption of nutrients. Do not confuse grit with an organ; unlike the gizzard, grit is not an organ and is an essential component of the chicken’s diet. Grit is basically dirt, sand, small stones, shells, and pebbles found scratching the ground. You may not find teeth in a human baby, but a baby chick has an egg tooth to break out of its shell. The sole egg tooth falls off within a few days of hatching as chickens do not have teeth, and instead, they are left with a beak.Does loud munching and crunching when chewing irritate you, too? It is often produced when teeth are at work, chewing and grinding food. Luckily, your chickens or hens can’t irritate you with loud crunching noises. Do you wonder why? They do not have teeth like you to chew. Bingo! Surprising, right? How do they eat, then? Continue reading through the rest of the article to get all your questions answered!If you enjoy this article, why not also read about how high can chickens fly, and how long for chicken eggs to hatch here on Kidadl.How do chickens eat without teeth?Teeth are quite important to human beings and mammals, but several creatures like wild birds around us do not have teeth, yet they exist, and they eat too. An infant does not have teeth either, but does that mean it does not eat anything? No, right? Similarly, wild and poultry birds, including chickens, eat too! You must be often asked to either chew your food properly or take smaller bites, as human beings are not adapted to swallow large pieces. Also, chewing and biting are so natural or normal that we don’t need to think before our teeth get to work, but swallowing a large piece of food can be hurtful, as we might choke if we inhale something accidentally. But unlike us, these wild birds can directly swallow the food they eat. Maybe they struggle to swallow in large pieces, but smaller pieces might not take much labor.Either chickens eat by pecking their food, or bashing and breaking it into smaller pieces. You might often find chicken pecking quite common in the flocks found in poultry farms. Although chickens peck the feathers of other birds in the flock, it is not healthy if done excessively. Chickens also peck around the ground, searching for food if they are not provided with a well-balanced diet. Since chickens eat by swallowing food, they grab through their beaks. Often they fail to swallow a complete piece of bread. Chickens might not have brains as smart as yours, but they are smart enough to eat a large piece of bread they break or bash into several small pieces that are quite convenient for the chickens to consume. They initially break food into several small pieces, and finally, they grab those small pieces with their beaks. Your teeth get to work to grind the food you eat; chickens have an organ, or merely a muscle called a gizzard that grinds up the food they eat. Also, they eat dirt, sand, small stones, shells, and pebbles, called grit that assists chickens during the process of digestion. Often, they bash upon bugs to break them into small bite-sized pieces.Do chickens need to eat rocks?Chickens or hens grab food through their beaks, and the food is then transported throughout the digestive tract, carried into the proventriculus and further into a mere muscle-like stomach called a gizzard or ventriculus, wherein the pieces are ground. Further, the process of digestion is carried on by the small intestines, branching into two dead-end organs, the ceca which ends at the cloaca. Since the gizzard is the main functioning organ located between the proventriculus, liver, and small intestine, the grinding and breaking down of food actually takes place in the muscle-like stomach. Like you and other animals, specifically mammals, have teeth to chew, chickens or hens do not have teeth in the gizzard. So, how do they grind or break down the food they eat?They compensate for the lack of teeth or molars by consuming grit, including dirt, sand, small stones, shells, and pebbles that are quite prominent in your chicken’s diet. In the same way that humans consume roughage to complete our balanced diet, grit is chicken’s roughage that assists the gizzard throughout the mechanism of absorption until nutrients are absorbed. Also, the birds often peck and bash upon seeds and bugs.Why do chickens need grit?As water and roughage are necessary for humans and other animals, grit is also a necessary component of a chicken’s diet. Since chickens do not have teeth, consuming dirt, small stones, and pebbles is essential for digestion and does not cause any harm. If a chicken is not fed grit, it is prone to suffer from serious diseases like sour crop or brittle bones. While birds have a beak to grab their food, birds like a chicken or hen do not have teeth to break what they eat. A chick or hatchling has an egg tooth to break the shell of eggs, but the egg tooth falls off soon, within a few days of hatching.Grit is consumed basically to compensate for the absence of teeth. As soon as it settles down in the gizzard, it grinds down into a paste. The gizzard is the storage area wherein grit is stored and nutrients and water are absorbed. Without it, the food will not be digested and so will be of no use for the chicken. Thus, the process of digestion in a hen comes to a halt if the hen is not fed grit.Can chickens grow teeth?Can you develop wings to fly or start laying eggs to reproduce? Sounds ridiculous, right? Like you cannot develop wings or lay eggs, chickens cannot grow teeth. Although scientists succeeded in inducing teeth in chickens, chickens fail to naturally induce teeth.The research found protuberances and tiny bumps along the edge of a snubbed beak that appeared quite similar to alligator teeth. Also, another research study speculated that chickens had the ability to induce teeth, but the ability was lost long ago.Why do chickens not have teeth?A chicken does have an egg tooth when it is born, but it is temporary. As it is natural for us to have teeth to bite and chew, the absence of teeth is quite natural and normal for a chicken.Do you question your existence or why you have specific organs, or why you do not have other organs? Similarly, chickens do not have teeth because they have a gizzard, whereas you have teeth but do not have a gizzard. Chickens are adapted to swallow food while you chew and bite your food. You have lips to grab food, and on the other hand, chickens have beaks. With several differences and different organs, both species are adapted to live a livelihood by eating and digesting their favorite food.What do chickens have instead of teeth?A gizzard! Also, grit is an essential part of the chicken’s diet that grinds food consumed into a nutritious paste.Chickens instead have a beak to grab food, and esophagus that carries food into the stomach or proventriculus, and a gizzard or ventriculus to bash down the food using grit. The food undergoes digestion until the leftovers have exited from the cloaca.Feeding Your ChickenJust as you require healthy food for a healthy lifestyle, feed your chickens with a well-balanced diet, too.Water, fruits, vegetables, grains, rocks, or stones are essential to be fed to your chicken. You may not know, but chickens are omnivorous. They feed on a variety of things, animals, and flora. Feed your chicken with a variety of insects, vegetation, and seeds, and that is their treat!Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for do chickens have teeth, then why not take a look at how long does a chicken live, or Leghorn chicken facts?
Often we use the phrase ‘rarer than a chicken’s teeth;’ have you ever wondered why?
