Bamboo is the key to the growth, development, physical health, and normal breeding of giant pandas. 99% of the food for giant pandas is bamboo, and there are more than 60 types of bamboo plants belonging to 12 genera that can be consumed by giant pandas. In addition, wild giant pandas occasionally feed on animal carcasses or other plants, honey, etc.
Many people believe that the food of giant pandas is bamboo, but in fact, there are many types of bamboo that giant pandas like to eat, and bamboo is just one of the more common types. The common edible bamboo species of wild giant pandas include: cold arrow bamboo, August bamboo, solid bamboo, Qiongzhu, big leaf Qiongzhu, Ruo bamboo, Shaohua arrow bamboo, short cone Yushan bamboo, Beibei Yushan bamboo, Ere bamboo, Bashan wooden bamboo, rough flower arrow bamboo, short bud arrow bamboo, Huaju bamboo, etc. These bamboos have long grown under the canopy of subalpine dark coniferous forests, mountainous dark coniferous forests, mountainous mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests, and mountainous evergreen broad-leaved forests, with altitudes ranging from 700m to 3500m. The staple food of giant pandas in different mountain ranges is bamboo. The diet of giant pandas varies depending on the mountain range and season, feeding on different types of bamboo or different parts of the same type of bamboo in different seasons. I love to eat different types of bamboo shoots in spring and summer, with bamboo leaves as my main food in autumn and bamboo poles as my main food in winter.
Captive giant pandas mainly feed on one or several types of low mountain bamboo, such as Bashan wood bamboo, thorn bamboo, white bamboo, Ruo Ye bamboo, light bamboo, bitter bamboo, broad-leaved Ruo bamboo, Mao bamboo, also known as Meng Zongzhu, cold arrow bamboo, crutch bamboo, arrowhead bamboo, March bamboo shoots, square bamboo shoots, etc. In recent years, with the improvement of giant panda breeding technology, it has gradually been recognized that providing high-altitude or subalpine bamboo species that are popular for giant pandas to eat plays an important role in their physical health and normal breeding; In addition to the improvement of transportation conditions, under captive conditions, giant pandas can also be artificially provided with a large number of high-altitude or subalpine favorite bamboo species.
In addition to mainly feeding on bamboo, captive giant pandas can also obtain a small amount of refined feed, fruits, vitamins, and trace elements mainly composed of grains. This is mainly because under captive conditions, giant pandas are unable to fully feed freely, resulting in insufficient or unbalanced nutrient intake. Therefore, manual addition and supplementation are required. The main raw materials for refined feed include corn, soybeans, rice, wheat, etc. After cleaning these raw materials, they are processed and made into food for giant pandas through special processes according to a certain ratio. All foods for giant pandas have strict selection standards and require safety and nutritional testing before use. Only food that meets the requirements can be ultimately provided to giant pandas.
