The skull of a colugo is very distinctive, broad and flat in outline and with a nearly complete postorbital process that sets off the eye sockets. The tympanic bullae are flattened, and the palate is broad and flat. The teeth are relatively small and simple. The molars retain the basic tribosphenic pattern, with well developed lophs used in chewing abrasive plant matter. The lower incisors form a comb-like structure that is thought to be used both in grooming and in feeding.
Colugos are herbivorous, feeding on fruit, young leaves, and flowers.
They scrape green material from the surface of leaves with their lower incisors, using their tongue, which is very large, and incisors to pick the leaves. Like many other herbivores, they have a greatly elongated intestine and a very large cecum. The cecum, a sac located at the junction of large and small intestines, is divided into compartments, which harbor microorganisms that break down indigestible cellulose into components that the animal can assimilate. Colugos are nocturnal, passing the day in dens in hollow trees or suspended from branches. They hang upside down while feeding and travelling along branches.