Goats along with cattle, sheep, deer, camels, llamas, antelopes and giraffes are all known as RUMINANTS. This means they have a four chambered stomach. While they don't have four separate stomachs, they have a single stomach with four separate compartments. These compartments are as follows:
The RUMEN, the RETICULUM, the OMASUM and the ABOMASUM. We will explore each chamber and its function.
This journey starts with food. Be it hay, grass, weeds, vines or grains...the goat will eat large amounts and very quickly. Only minimal chewing is done. The goat will then go lay down to continue the digestion process. The RUMEN is the largest chamber of the four. It's a fermentation vat where microbes (bacteria & fungi) break down cellulose and other plant fibers. Churning like a washing machine the sides of this chamber are lines with tiny finger like growths called PAPILLAE, which keep everything moving around until the goat brings up soft wads of material called CUD.
After the cud is chewed and small enough, it passes into the RETICULUM (or the second chamber). Often called the Hardware Store or honeycomb, it traps heavy objects like rocks, metals or large food particles. The goat coughs these larger pieces back up to chew as cud again and kind of like a pump...it pushes the fermented particles over to the next chamber...the OMASUM.
The matter pumped over from the Reticulum is dumped into the next chamber called the OMASUM. This compartment of the stomach is lined with folds of tissue similar to the pages in a book. The purpose of the OBASUM is to absorb water and nutrients from the feed or cud. These nutrients are called volatile fatty acids which supply the goat with energy.
The particles in the Omasum are forced into the ABOMASUM which is the true stomach. The particles are then broken down or digested by the stomach acid, hydrochloric acid (HC1). This is the same form of digestion that occurs in our stomachs.