Diets for callitrichids – management guidelines

Crissey, S.D., Lintzenich, B. and K. Slifka (1998), Diets for callitrichids – management guidelines. In: AZACallitrichid Husbandry Manual, American Association of Zoos and Aquariums

Meeting the nutritional needs of Callitrichids is essential if they are to survive and reproduce in captivity. It is appropriate to offer animals in captivity a diet that best matches their nutritional requirements. Any efforts to develop appropriate dietary guidelines must consider the following:

1. information from feeding-ecology data,
2. information from published nutrient-requirement data (which often includes laboratory primate requirements),
3. foods available to zoos, and
4. the animals’ food preferences.

In this chapter, we will provide a general overview for feeding callitrichids. Several SSPs are establishing or have published husbandry manuals for individual species that include species-specific nutritional and feeding recommendations. Please refer to those documents for additional and, sometimes, more specific nutritional information and feeding guidelines.