Most animals with teeth have upper and lower front teeth. If you've looked in a goat's mouth, you've seen the bottom front teeth but not the top. So do goats have top teeth?

Goats have no upper front teeth. In their place is a tough, toothless dental pad. But goats do have top teeth in the back of the mouth: premolars and molars for chewing.

The upper cheek teeth sit further back, so you don't see them when a goat opens its mouth. The missing front teeth don't slow goats down; they grab and tear plants using the dental pad, lower front teeth, lips and tongue.

Why Do Goats Not Have Upper Teeth?

Goats are ruminants, like cattle and sheep. A prominent feature of ruminant teeth is that they lack upper incisors and have a dental pad instead, as Colorado State University's dental anatomy guide explains.

An ordinary goat diet of browse, hay and plants doesn't need cutting teeth on both jaws. The lower front teeth press against the dental pad to pinch off leaves and stems.

Goats don't eat meat, so they don't need the sharp tearing teeth carnivores have.

Ruminants have a four-chambered stomach. They swallow food quickly, then bring it back up as cud to chew again. The back teeth do this grinding.

How Many Teeth Do Goats Have?

An adult goat has 32 teeth. Here is how they break down:

• Upper jaw: no front teeth, 3 premolars and 3 molars on each side, for 12 teeth.
• Lower jaw: 8 front teeth, plus 3 premolars and 3 molars on each side, for 20 teeth.

That gives 12 + 20 = 32 teeth.

Some references count the lower front teeth as 6 incisors plus 2 canines. Others call all 8 incisors. Either way, the total is the same.

How Do Goats Chew?

When a goat grazes or browses, it chews its food briefly and swallows it. The food goes to the rumen, the first stomach chamber, where microbes break down fiber.

Later, while resting, the goat brings the partly digested food back up as cud. It chews the cud with its back teeth, mixing it with saliva, and swallows it again.

FAQ

Do Some Goats Have Top Teeth?

All goats have upper back teeth (premolars and molars). No normal goat has upper front teeth; they have a dental pad instead.

Do Goats Lose Teeth?

Yes. Kids are born with small, sharp baby teeth that are replaced by larger permanent teeth during the first few year of life, and old goats can lose teeth to wear.

According to Cornell University's goat fact sheet, the middle pair of lower front teeth is replaced at about 12 months. The next pair is replaced at about 24 months.

At about 4 years, a goat has six permanent front teeth and one pair of baby teeth left. After that, all eight front teeth are permanent.

After about 5 years, age has to be estimated from tooth wear. Goats on coarse, abrasive diets wear their teeth down faster, and older goats' teeth may spread, loosen or fall out.

Sources

• Teeth and age of the goat, Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• Dental Anatomy of Ruminants, Colorado State University