Picky eaters and what to do when they don’t want to eat – A case study

Citation

Livingston S, Sullivan K, Williams S, Cersosimo L, and Valdes EV. 2019. Picky eaters and what to do when they don’t want to eat – A case study. In Brooks M, Freel T, Koutsos E Eds. Proceedings of the Thirteenth Conference on Zoo and Wildlife Nutrition, Zoo and Wildlife Nutrition Foundation and AZA Nutrition Advisory Group, Saint Louis, MO.

Abstract

A female reticulated giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge® has exhibited recurring episodes of limited feed consumption and weight loss over a number of years. The giraffe typically continues to consume some alfalfa and browse but will consume only small amounts or no pelleted herbivore diet during these periods which can last from a few days to over a week. Multiple other feeds have been tested over the years with limited success. The team has tried to correlate occurrences with reproductive cycle with inconclusive results. Weight and body condition score are lower than desired and are negatively impacted by these periods of low feed consumption

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