Even though the lionesses are the members of the pride that make the kills they and the cubs have to wait for the males to finish before they can eat. Usually males eat first then the females and then the cubs. When food is scarce cubs often starve. Wild lions get their vitamins and minerals by eating pieces of bone and the stomach contents of the animal they killed. In the wild lions dont eat every day expecially if they had a big meal. A lion eats as much as 60 pounds (27.3 kilograms) of food at one feeding. Now it can go for two or three days before eating again. Strong jaws and sharp teeth are well saited to its diet of meat. An adult lion as thirty teeth. The sharp big long teeth in the front of a lions mouth are called canine teeth. These teeth are sharp and when a lion bites a piece of meat these teeth slide against one another like the blades is scissors to cut and slice it. The back teeth are used for crushing bones. Lions bite chunks of meat and swallow them whole, lions dont chew their food. After a big meal lions go to a river or water whole to drink using its long tongue to lap up water into its mouth. Lions get a small amount at a time so it takes ten minutes to satisfy its thirst. Lions some times go two or three days without water, but it needs to drink every day and usually stays close to a water whole.

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