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More informationGiraffe
Giraffa ssp.
Natural diet Giraffe
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%
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, alfalfa, roughage
55% Browse
Proportions (fresh product)
0,1 x 16 kg = 1.600 g concentrates
0,35 x 16 kg = 5.600 g grass, alfalfa, roughage
0,55 x 16 kg = 8.800 g browse
Feeding advice Giraffe
Feed quantity per day
2%
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, alfalfa, roughage
55% Browse
Proportions (fresh product)
0,1 x 16 kg = 1.600 g concentrates
0,35 x 16 kg = 5.600 g grass, alfalfa, roughage
0,55 x 16 kg = 8.800 g browse
Diet Suggestions
Recommended
Variety of browse (willow, aspen, birch, rowan)
Lucerne hay
Salt lick
Not recommended
Fruits
Grass hay
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
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).
Diet Suggestions
Recommended
Variety of browse (willow, aspen, birch, rowan)
Lucerne hay
Salt lick
Not recommended
Fruits
Grass hay
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
