Zoo database

Giraffe

Giraffa ssp.

Natural diet Giraffe

Herbs
Leaves

As can be expected with their long necks, giraffes are herbivorous browsers that consume vegetation located at higher places. They will occasionally eat and chew on bones of carcasses to get the nutrients their body lacks (osteophagy), afterwards the bones are spit out.

Feeding advice Giraffe

Feed quantity per day

2% of body weight

Sample percentage calculation

If an animal weighs 800 kg and eats 2% of its body weight, it will get

800 x 0.02 = 16 kg feed in total per day

Feed composition

10% Concentrates
35% Grass, lucerne and other roughages
55% Browse

Proportions (fresh product)

0.1 x 16 kg = 1600 g concentrates
0.35 x 16 kg = 5600 g grass, lucerne and other roughages
0.55 x 16 kg = 8800 g browse

Diet suggestions

Not recommended

Fruits

Grass hay

Additional advice

Divide the “Feed quantity per day” over at least two feeding moments per day.
The browse used in the diet can be a mixture between dried and fresh browse (read more about browsers and grazers).
Supplement the diet with ad libitum roughages.
Using salt lick can provide for the minerals normally obtained through osteophagy.
Feeding fruits might lead to abnormal fermentation in the hindgut because of high sugar levels (read more about nutritional values of (wild) fruits and vegetables).
Stimulate foraging behaviour by hiding, stacking or hanging the feed (read more about feed enrichment and foraging behaviour).

Common diseases

An unbalanced diet may result in one of these more commonly occurring diseases/conditions:

Peracute mortality syndrome
Skin lesions
Urolithiasis (Bladder stones)
Laminitis
White muscle disease
Rumen acidosis
Metabolic bone disease

Feed quantity per day

Sample percentage calculation

Feed composition

Proportions (fresh product)

Boskos Browser

Natural Browser - 10 mm

KNZ liksteen wild

Berkenblad - 10-20 kg zak

Hazelnootblad - 10-20 kg zak

Michiel Derks

Director Petfood & Zoos