ELi5: How do some animals get enough nutrients out of eating hay or grass or a single variety of leaf for their entire lives?
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To add to the answers about ruminant digestion, hay is not just cellulose. Even leafy plants a fair amount of complete protein. Hay is 8-14%. Softer stuff like spinach is lower because it has more water.
Pretty much all essential nutrients either come from the plants or microbes, and ruminants have a lot of both.
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