The Naked mole Rat diet is mostly on large plant tubers. A tuber is a large section of the plant‘s stem. They are also known to eat a variety of other plant parts, including leaves, flowers, fruits, bark, roots, and stems.
Naked mole rat diets consist of small, hard-to-digest tuber-based foods, such as beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, corn, squash, potatoes, carrots, turnips, onions, leeks, garlic, parsley, cilantro, chives, dill, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, marjoram, basil, coriander, fennel, celery, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, eggplant, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, melons, mushrooms, okra, peppers, radishes, rutabaga, scallions, spinach, tomatoes, watercress, zucchini, yams, pumpkin seeds, pecans, almonds, pistachios, cashews, walnuts, pine nuts, sunflower seeds and sunflowers.
Table of Contents
Is a naked mole rat a herbivore?
The family Bathyergidae has a species of rodents called Heterocephalus glaber. They are native to Ethiopia. They are solitary and crepuscular. 120 months is how long individuals are known to live.
How do naked mole rats find food?
Plants with large underground roots and tubers are found where Naked mole–rats are found. The front teeth of Naked mole–rats help them tunnel through dirt while looking for food. They don’t need as much water as other rodents because they get enough water from their diet.
Can I have a pet naked mole-rat?
The Naked mole rats should not be kept as pets. Though they are very tough animals, they need a lot of space and need to be kept in an enclosure. They are also very sensitive to heat and cold, so they should never be left out in the sun for long periods of time.
What do naked mole-rats drink?
Naked mole–rats do not drink water. They only consume part of a root or tuber, leaving enough behind for it to be absorbed by the rest of the body. In the wild, naked mole rats live in burrows in the ground, but in captivity, they are often kept in small cages.
The cages are usually made of plastic or cardboard, and the rats are fed a diet consisting mostly of leaves, stems, roots and tubers.
Their diet is also supplemented with a variety of insects and other small animals, such as mice, rats, rabbits, squirrels, birds, frogs, snakes, lizards, fish, insects, worms, spiders, moths, flies, crickets, beetles, grasshoppers, ants, centipedes, termites, cockroaches, fleas, ticks and mites.
In addition, the animals are given a daily dose of vitamins, minerals, vitamins A, C, D, E, K, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and pantothenic acid (vitamin B-6).
How much does a naked mole-rat eat?
The Naked mole–rats feed on very large tubers that grow in the soil, weighing as much as a thousand times the body weight of a typical mole–rat. They also eat a variety of insects and other small invertebrates. Moles can live for up to 20 years in captivity, but they usually die within a few months of being released back into the wild.
How long can a naked mole-rat live?
Naked mole rats have a maximum lifespan of more than 100 years. They are also the only mammals known to hibernate during the winter months.
In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI) in Leipzig, Germany, have found that the naked mole rat‘s hibernation is not a result of a lack of food.
Instead, it appears to be an adaptation that allows the rodents to survive the harsh winter conditions in which they live. The study, which was led by UCSD post-doctoral fellow and study co-author Jürgen Schmidhuber, is the first to examine the role of body temperature in this adaptation.
“We have known for a long time that there are differences in body temperatures between rodents and other mammals, but we didn’t know exactly why,” said lead study author Jüri Pääbo, Ph.D., an assistant professor of anthropology at the UCD College of Arts and Sciences.
Why are naked mole-rats important?
mole rats are extremely hardy. They can live for 30 years, making them the longest living rodents. Naked mole rats could be valuable models for scientists looking to prevent tumors, slow down age-related diseases or protect the brain from damage.
“The naked mole rat is one of the most studied rodents in the world,” said study co-author and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor of biology and biochemistry, Dr. Michael J. O’Brien.
Do naked mole-rats eat each other?
These highly social freaks of nature have a nasty little secret that makes them more supervillain than superhero. Naked mole rats are capable of kidnapping each other’s babies and selling them to the highest bidder.
In a new study published in the journal Animal Behaviour, a team of researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, found that the naked mole rat is the only mammal that kidnaps and sells its own babies.
In fact, the researchers say, this behavior is so common that it has been dubbed the “Naked Mole Rat Hypothesis” (NMPH) — short for “No Naked Mole Rats” — and it’s the first time that scientists have been able to document it in a wild mammal.
[See Photos of Naked Mice and Their Baby-Selling Mascots] “It’s a very unusual behavior,” said study co-author Dr. Daniela Rus, an assistant professor of anthropology at UCSC. “We’ve never seen it before in any other mammal, so we don’t really know what’s going on.
