Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

• Desert bighorn sheep are opportunistic herbivores and ruminants.
• Turner (1973) documented 43 species of plants in diet.
• Diet consists of mostly grasses (favorites include: acacia or catclaw, encelia, sweetbush, and krameria)
• Also shrubs, forbs, cacti, grasses (depends on geographic region).
• Low terrain and washes provide high quality forage (productive soils) and water during summer months and reproductive season

• Sheep are ruminants with a 4-chambered stomach that can digest most of the cellulose in vegetation with the aid of bacteria and protozoans.
• Forage quality influences daily and seasonal patterns.
  • When forage digestibility is low, bighorn spends most of its time ruminating ("chewing cud").
• Daily food intake of bighorn sheep in managed care is estimated at 3 lb (1.5 kg) plant material.
• Desert bighorn sheep will be found 3-5 kilometers from water sources during the summer months.
  • Can go without drinking for 5 to 15 days
• Efficient digestive system is able to utilize dry, abrasive forage

Bighorn Institute website (2002)
Hanson (1980)
Turner (1973)
Valdez (1999)