Tiger Nutrition, Food Preparation and Feeding

Citation

Dierenfeld, E.S., Bush, M., Phillips, L. and R. Montali (1994) Nutrition, Food Preparation and Feeding. In: Management and Conservation of Captive Tigers, Panthera tigris. R. Tilson, G. Brady, K. Traylor-Holzer and D. Armstrong, Eds. Minnesota Zoo: Apple Valley, Minnesota

Abstract

Unique nutritional requirements of fe lids must be recognized in feeding captive tigers, including the need for high protein and fat diets, inclusion of dietary vitamin A (as retinol), arachadonic acid, taurine, and niacin. General reviews of felid nutrition (Scott 1968, MacDonald et al. 1984), a more specific review applying these data to captive tiger management (Dierenfeld 1987), and a summary of digestion studies conducted on captive tigers (Hackenberger et al. 1987) provide evidence that the domestic cat remains the best model for establishing dietary composition parameters (National Research Council 1984) for the tiger.

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