Marsupial Diets
Primate diets
Zoo grazing animal diets
Zoo Animal Diets
Specialty Feeds manufactures diets for a wide range of animals. We believe that the breadth of experience that we have makes us a good partner in the care of zoo animals.
Although the list below is fairly short, we also have made specific diets for Elephants, Gazelles, Giraffes, Leaf eating Primates, New World and Old World Primates, and a range of other animals. We are committed to increasing the range of diets available and are mindful of the special needs zoos have in catering for the nutritional requirements of their animals. Please contact us if you are interested in diets for animal groups other than those shown here.
Back to Top
Browsers
Back to Top
Browser Cubes
A pelleted concentrate designed for browsing animals..
- This diet is designed as a supplementary feed for grazing / browsing animals. The cubes must be fed along with good quality roughage such as hay or free grazing.
- The diet is manufactured as an 8 mm diameter cube 10 – 30 mm long.
- Packaging is in 20 Kg woven polyethylene bags.
Back to Top
General Ungulate
Back to Top
Ungulate Cubes
This diet was designed as a general ungulate cube.
- The diet is designed with a relatively high fibre content. This should enable its use as the sole feed source with actively growing animals. It is however recommended that such animals be allowed access to good quality free choice roughage.
- For animals with lower metabolic rates the feed has sufficient vitamins and minerals to enable its use as a feed supplement to mixed roughage
- The diet is manufactured as an 8 mm diameter cube 10 – 30 mm long.
- Packaging is in 20 Kg woven polyethylene bags.
Back to Top
Primate
Back to Top
Marmoset Pellets
A new world primate diet specifically designed for marmosets with limited access to daylight. The diet has been supplemented with high levels of Vitamin D to minimize risk of deficiencies in these animals. If animals have significant daylight exposure Vitamin D levels must be reviewed.
- Diet is available as an 8mm pellet or as a powder/mash
- A reduced Vitamin D version of this diet is available. Please contact us for more information
Back to Top
Omnivore Primate Pellets
A primate diet specifically designed for omnivorous primates. This diet would suit a range of primates including Macaca sp. (Macaque).
- Although this diet has been designed to provide complete nutrition, it is recommended that it be fed along with fresh fruit.
- Stabilised Vitamin C in the form of the DSM product Stay C has been added to the diet. While the Vitamin C activity should retain for the shelf life of the diet, we would recommend that an additional Vitamin C source be included in the complete diet.
- The diet contains a banana flavouring as standard. In the past we have found this improves diet palatability.
- To retain diet palatability the diet is vacuum packed in three layers of packaging, the first layer being a paper liner followed by two separate layers of low oxygen permeability plastic.
- This diet and packaging system is suitable for irradiation if required.
Keywords:
Back to Top
Red Panda Pellets
A fixed formulation diet to meet the nutritional and palatability requirements of red pandas.
Diet is packed under nitrogen in oxygen impermeable bags to improve shelf life.
Keywords:
Back to Top
Leaf Eater Primate Pellets
A fixed formulation diet for Leaf Eating Primates. A similar formulation with a lower total iron content is Lemur Pellets
Diet is packed under nitrogen in oxygen impermeable bags to improve shelf life.
Keywords:
Back to Top
Lemur Pellets
A fixed formulation diet for Leaf Eating Primates including Lemurs. This diet is based on the same formulation as Leaf Eating Primate Pellets with the exception of a lower total iron content.
Diet is packed under nitrogen in oxygen impermeable bags to improve shelf life.
Keywords:
Back to Top
Big Cat Premix
Back to Top
SF52 Vitamin and Mineral Premix
A Vitamin and mineral premix primarily designed for large cats being fed raw meat. Can also be fed to dogs and birds.
- Include into the final ration 1.5g per 5 Kg body weight for cats.
- Fine powder. Vacuum sealed in 1,2 or 5Kg packs.
Back to Top
Marsupial Animal Diets
Marsupials are a very diverse group of animals. They range from carnivores to omnivores to herbivores, foregut fermenters to hindgut fermenters, selective browsers to fairly indiscriminate grazing animals. As such it is really only for convenience that we group them together.
Many of the diets that we design for marsupials rely on the excellent reference book written by Ian D. Hume Marsupial Nutrition published 1999 by Cambridge University Press
(ISBN 0 521 59406 5).
Back to Top
Marsupials
Back to Top
Small Marsupial Omnivore Pellets
This diet is designed as a supplementary feed for small omnivorous marsupials.
- Detailed nutritional requirements of marsupials is not well characterized. This diet was designed using the best information we could obtain from the literature to satisfy the nutritional requirements of a mixed colony of small omnivorous marsupials. The colony contained Western Barred Bandicoot (Perameles bougainville), Bilbies (Macrotis lagotis) and Boodies (Burrowing Bettong) (Bettongia leseur).
- Feedback from animal carers have indicated that the diet is palatable to most of the individuals of these species.
- From several studies performed on the gut and faecal contents of wild small omnivorous marsupials it would appear that their natural diet was relatively highly digestible but had a fairly high fibre content. The raw material selection was carefully chosen in an attempt to mimic these nutritional parameters
- The diet is manufactured as an 4 mm diameter cube 5 – 12 mm long.
- Packaging is in 20 Kg woven polyethylene bags.
Keywords:
Back to Top
Small Marsupial Herbivore Pellets
A diet designed specifically for small herbivorous marsupials.
Back to Top
Quokka Cubes
A diet designed for Quokka (Setonix brachyurus).
This diet is no longer being held in stock but can be manufactured to order, minimum 1 tonne.
- Quokka are a small foregut fermenting marsupial native to Western Australia. The most prominent population is on Rottenest Island.
- This diet was designed around the work of Dr. Byron KAKULUS. This work was published as a book Man Marsupials and Muscle, ISBN 0 85564 172 X in 1982.
- This diet design has been fed to breeding colonies, zoo colonies and experimental animal colonies for around fifteen years.
- The vitamin A and vitamin E inclusion in this diet appears to be exceptionally high. I have some doubt that this inclusion rate is necessary, however considering the time that the diet has been in successful use, I am very reluctant to modify this formulation.
- The diet is manufactured as an 12 mm diameter cube 15 – 25 mm long.
- Packaging is in 20 Kg woven polyethylene bags.
Back to Top
Kangaroo Cubes
A reformulated balanced diet designed for large foregut fermenting marsupials.
- Detailed nutritional requirements of marsupials is not well characterised. This diet was designed using the best information we could obtain from the literature and our experience in feeding trials.
- This diet is designed as a supplementary feed to grazing / browsing large marsupials. The cubes must be fed along with a good quality roughage such as hay or grazing.
- Diet ingredients are carefully selected to minimise the risk of soft palate damage.
- Feedback from animal carers have indicated that the diet is palatable to a range of Kangaroo species.
- The diet is manufactured as an 8 mm diameter cube 10 – 20 mm long.
- Packaging is in 20 Kg woven polyethylene bags.
Back to Top
