1994年の飼育開始当初に与えていた１日の食事は、とうもろこし粉、ふすま、馬肉、卵などで作ったパンダ用特製団子1.3㎏、リンゴ1㎏、牛乳1ℓと栄養価の高いものでした。そのためか、主食であるはずの竹は1日に2～5kgしか食べませんでした。オスの「永明」は搬入時より、食欲不振や頻繁な粘液排泄、そして下痢などの症状が認められたため、慢性胃腸炎と診断して投薬治療を行いましたが、顕著な改善は認められませんでした。搬入時には88kgあった体重が、成長期であるのに1年間ではほとんど増えず、「永明」を健康に飼育することが緊急課題となりました。

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  High-nutrition diet when rearing first began (2 years old)

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  Current bamboo-focused diet (2 years old)

Eimei's weight and average monthly feces

We chatted with the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and Kitasato University (our partners in digestion research) and switched up the pandas' diet from high-sugar and high-fat to one packed with fiber. This helped them eat more bamboo! Since 1998, their weight has been super stable, hovering around 130 kg. We even added carrots in 1998 and Mazuri® Primate Browse Biscuit for leaf-eaters in 2001. While Moso bamboo was their main meal, we made sure to offer a variety of bamboos like Chinese, female, arrow, curved-root, and Hourai bamboo during the summer when they can get a bit picky, just to keep them munching away. And guess what? Since we stopped giving panda milk to pandas over two years old in 2009, our adult pandas have been super healthy with hardly any digestive issues!