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DIET
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In the wild, the remaining one percent of a giant panda’s diet may include bulbs such as iris and crocus, wildflowers, vines, fish, eggs, grasses other than bamboo, or small animals such as rodents or carrion (dead animals).
In the United States, most zoos feed their pandas leaf-eater biscuits. Leaf-eater biscuits are a reddish color, and are made primarily of soybean meal, corn gluten meal, and sugar beet pulp. They contain vitamins and minerals to form a nutritious and complete diet for leaf-eating primates, as well as many other zoo animals, including giant pandas.
- The National Zoo pandas also eat apples, pears, cooked sweet potatoes, and carrots. Their favorite reward is a fruitsicle with sliced and pureed fruit.
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Zoo Atlanta pandas eat apples and pears, and love bananas. Yang Yang will also eat sweet potato, which Lun Lun won't eat. Neither adult will eat carrots. Mei Lan is still nursing, but enjoys her mother’s bananas.
- Pandas at the San Diego Zoo enjoy carrots and yams. On special occasions, the pandas receive ice cakes filled with special treats, such as fruit.
- The pandas at the Memphis Zoo are part of a research study on nutrition and food selection of captive pandas. Both Ya Ya and Le Le love apples. Le Le will also eat sugar cane, raisins soaked in water, some dry fruit, but he loves bamboo and is a voracious eater. Ya Ya, on the other hand, will eat anything as a treat: watermelons, strawberries, cantaloupe. She adores fruitsicles while Le Le will sit and watch his melt.
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