What Does the Ord's Kangaroo Rat Eat?
The kangaroo rat is an herbivore. It eats seeds, some underground fungi, and some green vegetation. Its favorite food is seeds. It gets all the water it needs from the water stored inside the seeds it eats. The kangaroo rat gathers seeds and stores them to eat later. It uses its two cheek pouches to carry food to its system of burrows spread out within its home range. One cheek pouch of seeds is all it needs to eat in one day. A kangaroo rat is a larderhoarder which means it stores its food in small batches throughout its burrow system. This method of storing food keeps it dry because the burrows are sandy and dry, and it also keeps the food away from other animals.
Photo of plants by Kale
When the weather is too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, or too bright to risk being caught by a predator, the kangaroo rat can stay inside its burrow and eat the food it has stored.
Chase's drawing of storing food in burrow
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