Hand-rearing giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi and Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) at two north American zoological institutes

Citation

Ward AM and Eschweiler KM. 2025. Hand-rearing giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi and Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) at two north American zoological institutes. In Treiber K, Brooks M, D’amato-Anderson J, Nylander J, Eds. Proceedings of the Sixteenth Conference on Zoo and Wildlife Nutrition, AZA Nutrition Advisory Group, Oklahoma City, OK.

Abstract

At Fort Worth Zoo (FWZ) in 2007, 1.0 reticulated giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata), was hand-reared on a cow’s milk formula. Subsequent calves hand-reared in 2021 (0.1), 2022 (1.0), and 2024 (0.1), the formula was changed to better mimic dam’s milk using Zoological Milk Matrix 30/52 (ZL 30/52) and evaporated milk. Fresno Chaffee Zoo (FCZ) hand-reared 1.0 Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi in 2023 on a similar formula of Zoological Milk Matrix 30/52 and Lactaid (Table 1). FCZ added Probios multispecies powder and FWZ added Lacteeze or Colief to their formulas.

Colostrum provision varied by product and days fed. Sources of colostrum included fresh bovine colostrum, giraffe plasma, colostrum replacer products (Ultra Start 150, Milk Products LLC, 435 East Main Street, PO Box 150, Chilton, WI 53014; Land O Lakes Colostrum Replacer) fed from 5-14 days. All FWZ calves started with five feedings quickly dropping to four by 2-3 weeks of age, while the FCZ calf started on four feedings. Calf daily consumption reached a maximum of 8-11% of body weight (BW) around three weeks for the calves on the ZL 30/52 formulas, while the calf on cow’s milk reached maximum consumption of 10% on day 6. Consumption dropped to 4-5% BW between 3-5 months, with all animals down to two feedings by five months with the exception of one FWZ calf that was euthanized with sand impaction at 4.3 months. Within this range, the FCZ calf had the highest consumption for the longest amount of time, still receiving 3% of body weight for the last feed, while the FWZ calves were down to 1% of BW. Kcals maxed at five months for the FWZ ZL 30/52 calves at approximately 5500 kcals and 4650 kcals for the cow’s milk calf. The FCZ calf reached maximum kcals at seven months at 9106 kcals. Solids were introduced around 1.5 months (FCZ) and between 2 and 3 months (FWZ). The calves on ZL 30/52 formula were weaned at approximately eight months while the calf on cow’s milk was weaned at seven months.

Average daily gain (ADG) for the ZL 30/52 calves ranged from 0.734 to 1.152 kg/d, while ADG was 0.531 kg/d for the cow’s milk calf. ADG for three of the ZL 30/52 calves exceeded those reported for hand-reared giraffe beyond 3.5 months at <0.854 kg/d (Meuffels et al., 2019). Two of the ZL 30/52 calves ADGs’ exceeded those reported for parent-reared giraffe 0.87-1.05 kg/d (Meuffels et al., 2019) and were similar to parent-reared giraffe at the FWZ, 1.038 ± 0.106 kg/d, n=8 (unpublished data). There did not appear to be a difference between male and female parent-reared calves for the time period measured in either the review by Meuffles et. al (2019) or in the FWZ data (Figure 1).

The ZL 30/52 based formula is more similar to giraffe milk than a cow’s milk formula and resulted in growth rates comparable to parent-reared giraffe. Consumption of a lower energy formula combined with earlier weaning and later introduction of solids would have contributed to the significantly lower ADG in the cow’s milk calf. Meuffels et al. (2019) hand-reared calves on cow’s milk formulas also did not achieve ADGs over the complete hand-rearing time period similar to parent-reared animals.

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