# Are animals that supposedly only eat one plant, really that restricted?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 29, 2026, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158 "2026-01-29T18:42:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/21 "2026-01-30T05:29:56Z")
> [@Reply](#):
>
> typically the fruit of the corn plant (its kernels)
That is a good point. Eating corn husks could well be more damaging to your teeth than eating corn kernals.
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### Author:  [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/22 "2026-01-30T05:47:08Z")
> [@Melbourne](#):
>
> What about corn?
> It is ‘well known’ that archaeological teeth samples show wear, indicating use of sandstone for grinding corn. Do you get similar results just from eating too much of the wrong kind of corn?
There may be silica or other abrasive effects from the food, but its the intentional grittiness of the grinding stones that seems to cause the teeth of many early skulls to be abraded as flat as a board, planing enamel, pulp and dentine, which must have been horrifically painful.
Humans and pigs have notably heterogenous teeth that equip them for eating anything that moves, including koalas. They did, from all reports, taste strongly and unpleasantly eucalyptussy.
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### Author:  [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/23 "2026-01-30T10:35:36Z")
An extreme example of this restricted diet species would be [Dryococelus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus), the **Lord Howe Island stick insect** which was classified as extinct in 1920 until an isolated remnant colony was suspected in 1964 and confirmed in 2001 where the entire population of 24 insects existed on a single shrub of _Melaleuca howeana_.
The conservation program was founded on two breeding pairs with the primary question was whether these critters, isolated for generations in a crevice on [Ball’s Pyramid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball%27s_Pyramid) were capable of surviving on other specimens of _Melaleuca howeana_, or due to some environmental/genetic interaction only this particular shrub.
After initially successfully breeding on near identical habitat on it has been established they can flourish on a much wider range of plants. Now the once rarest insect in the world has insurance populations in several of the world’s zoos. A recolonisation program planned on Lord Howe Island after the extermination of the feral black rat population.
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### Author:  [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/24 "2026-01-30T13:30:16Z")
> [@Reply](#):
>
> There’s been some success in expanding their diets by feeding them poop from less picky koalas: [Poo transplants can alter koalas’ gut microbiome so they can eat different types of leaves - ABC News](https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-08-22/poo-transplants-can-alter-koalas-gut-microbiome/11431884?future=true&)
A vet specializing in koala fecal transplants would be a very niche occupation.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/25 "2026-01-30T14:01:26Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#):
>
> They did, from all reports, taste strongly and unpleasantly eucalyptussy.
When I got to that last word I jumbled a couple of letters which triggered a rogue idea for the title of a new James Bond movie set in Oz: _Eucalytpussy_.
🤪
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### Author:  [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/26 "2026-01-30T14:11:31Z")
James Bond to be played by a trained Koala?
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/27 "2026-01-30T14:20:48Z")
Ref the current Star Wars retrospective thread running in CS:
Maybe an AI-generated critter more like an Ewok. Kinda cute except for the vicious habit of eating humans for the fun of it.
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### Author:  [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/28 "2026-01-30T14:32:33Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#):
>
> isolated for generations in a crevice on [Ball’s Pyramid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball%27s_Pyramid)
Do they even have more than one bush on that thing?
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### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/29 "2026-01-30T15:06:05Z")
Lots of parasitoid insects rely of single-species hosts for egg laying safety & gooey yumyums for baby. Some are known to affect behavior in ultraspecialized ways. I got interested after witnessing cicada killer wasps in my own yard in Chicago.
> **[Parasitoid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitoid)**
>
> In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionary strategies within parasitism, distinguished by the fatal prognosis for the host, which makes the strategy close to predation.
> Among parasitoids, strategies range from living inside the host (endoparasitism), allowing it to continue growing before emerging as an adult, to paralysin...
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### Author:  [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/30 "2026-01-30T15:06:13Z")
Acording to the wikiarticle about **[Dryococelus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus)**, the stick insect:
> In 2014, an unauthorised climbing team sighted live stick insects near the summit of Ball’s Pyramid, in a thicket of sedge plants rooted in very thin soils at an altitude of 500 metres, suggesting that the insect’s range on the island is more widespread than previously thought, and that its food preferences are not limited to _[Melaleuca howeana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melaleuca_howeana)_.
So this stick insect eats a more divere diet than claimed.
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### Author:  [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/31 "2026-01-30T15:16:54Z")
Does gut bacteria add a source of B-12 for animals that are strict herbivores?
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### Author:  [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/32 "2026-01-30T15:24:08Z")
Oh, yes, parasites and parasitoids can be highly spezialised! We had some discussion about them in the “random interesting fact” thread, like here and in some posts before and after that:
> [@Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 1)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8284):
>
> There are probably more species of parasitic animals than all the other animals taken together. I say probably because we haven’t counted all the animals: we don’t know how many there are. But almost every animal you examine close enough has at least one dedicated parasite. Humans, for instance, have at least three [obligate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obligate_parasite) ectoparasites: the [head louse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_louse), the [body louse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_louse) and the [crab louse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_louse). That is not couting the numerous parasited we share with other animals, like the flea, several mites, all ki…
Speaking of the Iberian Lynx where I take my avatar and name from, they were extremely specialised eaters, their diet being almost exclusively rabbits. Then **[myxomatosis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxomatosis)** hit the rabbits hard and the lynx almost went extinct. They are very good at catching rabbits, but they struggle with birds, it seems. Their life would be easier if they learned to diversify their diet.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/33 "2026-01-30T15:59:27Z")
> [@Frodo](#):
>
> James Bond to be played by a trained Koala?
No, but I can visualize Ernst Stavro Blofeld petting a white Koala in his lap.
“Ah, Mr. Bond! Come in, come in. Don’t mind the gunmen behind you. We were discussing our Eucalyptus breeding program. One day, Everyone will be dying to eat our bioengineered eucalyptus leaves.”
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/34 "2026-01-30T16:21:34Z")
Yes, rabbits depend on coprophagy (eating their poop) for some of their nutrients, including a lot of B vitamins produces by bacteria in their gut.
> **[The Effect of Coprophagy on the Excretion of B Vitamins by the Rabbit](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022316623113964)**
>
> Rabbits that are collared to prevent coprophagy or consumption of the soft feces excrete approximately 29% more feces than are recovered when copropha…
Rabbits produce two kinds of poop, and only eat one kind. I suspect some larger animals with longer, more effective guts can digest those nutrients directly, but rabbits need to move quickly, and can’t carry around all the gut contents that a larger herbivore can afford to carry around.
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### Author:  [@Loggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loggins)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/35 "2026-01-30T18:34:27Z")
Yes ive had two rabbits, and they ate their poop. I had no idea why - i assumed they found some plant rests there. But as you say, maybe not.
(They both died – although after many years, so poop might be ok for rabbits, more than old age is)
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/36 "2026-01-30T18:35:56Z")
It might, you know, simply taste good. Who are we to judge? Just ask your dog.
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### Author:  [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/37 "2026-01-30T18:42:32Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Kinda cute except for the vicious habit of eating humans for the fun of it.
There’s a documentary which features this sort of dangerous animal, _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/38 "2026-01-30T19:06:32Z")
They need to eat their poop, if you prevent them from doing it, they’ll get sick.
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### Author:  [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/39 "2026-01-30T20:24:35Z")
Would have been an excellent follow-up for George Lazerbeam. He’d have been shaken AND stirred.
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### Author:  [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-animals-that-supposedly-only-eat-one-plant-really-that-restricted/1027158/40 "2026-01-30T20:44:56Z")
My mother keeps a range of stick insects, though not the Lord Howe Island species. One of the species she’s kept for years, according to her, can eat a reasonably large range of plant species, but only if they are introduced to them at a very young age.
So, if you keep a hatchling on privet only, then move it to bramble when it’s a few months old, it won’t recognise it as food and will just sit there and starve. Likewise if you keep a hatchling on only bramble, then move it to privet it will starve, while if you give it both when it’s tiny, it can eat both.
I wonder if something similar was happening there.
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