Comparison of proximate composition of domestic cat (Felis catus), clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), snow leopard (Uncia uncia), African lion (Panthera leo), and Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) maternal milk with exotic cat hand-rearing formulae

Citation

Murtough KL, Power ML, Maslanka M. 2013. Comparison of proximate composition of domestic cat (Felis catus), clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), Snow leopard (Uncial uncia), African lion (Panthera leo), and Sumatran Tiger (Panthera Tigris sumatrae). In Ward A, Coslik A, Mahan K, Treiber K, Reppert A, Maslanka M, Eds. Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Zoo and Wildlife Nutrition, AZA Nutrition Advisory Group, Salt Lake City, UT.

Abstract

The aims of this study are (1) to compare proximate composition of milks of five felids, the domestic cat (Felis catus), clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), snow leopard (Uncia uncia), African lion (Panthera leo), and Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) to establish if there exist species-specific differences in felid maternal milk composition, (2) to conduct proximate analyses on commercial hand-rearing formulae commonly used by zoological institutions for clouded leopards, snow leopards, African lions, and Sumatran tigers, (3) to compare the maternal milk compositions of the before-mentioned felids against the compositions of the selected hand- rearing formulae, and (4) to provide exotic felid hand-rearing formulae recommendations to the zoological community.

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