Back before I watched my diet better, I could eat large amounts of food (not that I’m not capable now). I only have to look back to my habits at all-you-can-eat buffets during my college years. But I digress… Despite feeling crappy later, I’d repeat the ritual. Knowing what I know now, I wish I had a digestive system like a deer. Whitetail deer have four-chambered stomachs which has many implications to not only their diet, but behavior.
The first chamber, called the rumen, is for storage, allowing deer to take in large quantities of food and digest it later. Ultimately, they bring it back in their mouth and repeat chewing (chewing their cud or ruminating).
The second chamber is the reticulum and is where microorganisms attack the chewed food. Think of it as a fermentation tank. The process creates a gas that deer release often. 
When deer chew their cud again, part of which is microorganisms. This is where a lot of a deer’s nutrition comes from them.
The chewed food from the reticulum goes to the third chamber the omasum . This is where water is absorbed.
Finally, the resulting cud enters the last chamber, the abomasum. It’s here where gastric juices continue the digestion process. These juices work like acids, helping deer to digest food.
Finally, it moves on to the intestines where food is actually absorbed by the deer’s body. Everything not absorbed by this process is dropped in the piles we see in fields and on forest floors.
Ever wonder why mature bucks often eat a little just outside of cover (edge cover) only to retreat back into the heavier brush or even their bedding areas for long stretches? What about those you know are there but rarely see? This detailed process explains a lot. A whitetail’s intricate digestive system and 4 stomach chambers allow them to simply digest the food later.
Just food for thought.
“Hunting Briefs” are bite-sized pieces of hunting information for anyone – but particularly aimed at the new or onset hunter.