Panda Diet Facts: What Food Do Giant Pandas Normally Eat?

Many people who are new to giant pandas don’t know the panda’s diet. They often ask “Are pandas carnivores or herbivores”, “Do pandas eat meat”, “do pandas eat fish”, etc.

The panda eats bamboo. There are many kinds of bamboos that giant pandas like to eat. According to statistics, there are nearly 60 kinds of bamboos that giant pandas like to eat, and about 27 of them are the favorite of giant pandas. They are Phyllostachys bissetii, Fargesia robusta, Bashania fangiana, Indocalamus tessellatus, Chimonobambusa pachystachys, Bashania fargesii, Pleioblastus amarus, Chimonobambusa szechuanensis, etc.

Why do pandas eat bamboo？

The reason why bamboo is chosen is that few species feed on bamboo and the competition is not intense. At the same time, the adaptability of bamboo is strong, the growth rate of them is fast, and it is not afraid to be eaten.

At the very beginning, the pandas did not eat bamboo. The change occurred at the end of the last glacial period when the preys of the giant pandas were almost extinct. To survive, giant pandas have to change their diet to adapt to this change. In the long-term adaptation to the environment, the main food of giant pandas has changed from meat to bamboo, and their caries has become particularly broad, which are suitable for grinding bamboo fibers.

How do pandas eat bamboo?

Pandas have a special layer of esophageal mucosa that protects them from bamboo damage!

Moreover, scientists have found that the panda’s digestive tract does have bacteria similar to herbivores – 13 kinds of bacteria can differentiate cellulose, and 7 of them are unique to giant pandas.

When eating, the pandas will smell the bamboo pile first, and select those that suit their minds by their claws or mouth. When the sense of smell is wrong, it is visually confirmed. If it is not satisfied, they will drop them and choose again.

And then they remove the dirt and dry parts of the bamboo leaves, and some even use the mouth to wet the bamboo leaves. Here they will sit down and prepare to eat.

How many bamboos Do Pandas Eat?

An adult giant panda weighing 100 kilograms spends 12-16 hours a day, eating 10-18 kilograms of bamboo leaves and bamboo stalks, or 30-38 kilograms of fresh bamboo shoots while discharging more than 10 kilograms of feces to maintain metabolic balance.

But because bamboo is a very low-energy food and the panda’s intestines are relatively short, constantly eating, the giant panda is eating all day long.

What do baby pandas eat? Do they also eat bamboo?

Just like human beings, baby pandas eat breast milk in their early years. The enzymes in the breast milk of giant pandas are not found in other milk.

When they are a little bigger, they eat the artificially modulated basin milk. When they are almost half-year-old, they can eat tender bamboo shoots, and then bamboo.

What do pandas eat besides bamboo?

The main food of the panda is bamboo. Occasionally, they eat other plants, such as awnless wheat, corn, horsetail, notopterygium, Polygonaceae Rumex Crispus, and other dozens of plants.

They even feed on animal carcasses or catch smaller animals for food. Giant pandas love meat, especially mutton.

Do pandas eat the same all year round?

Giant pandas love to eat different kinds of bamboo shoots in spring and summer. In autumn, bamboo leaves are the main food. In winter, bamboo stalks are the main food.

However, bamboo shoots are generally preferred because of the high water content, nutrient content, and sugar content.

Can pandas eat meat?

Giant pandas eat meat. But as China’s national treasures, most of the giant pandas can only be seen in zoos, so everyone is used to their behavior acting cute, ignoring its nature.

Giant pandas love meat very much, and they don’t refuse birds nor eggs. When a giant panda meets a bamboo rat while eating bamboo, they will swallow it. Sometimes the giant panda sees other carnivores such as cockroaches, leopards, and the like catch muntjac, they will squat nearby, waiting for their residual scraps. Or they will steal food that other cats have buried.

Do pandas eat carrots?

Yes! They eat a little carrot.

There is a giant panda named “Nuannuan” of two years old who only likes to eat carrots, especially the finest. The Malaysian National Zoo spends more than $600,000 a year on “Nuannuan” food purchases. Because of this, “Nuannuan”, as the world’s first giant panda to be “returned” on November 15, 2017, breaks the record!

Do pandas eat fish?

The answer is an unbelievable yes!

The giant panda is an omnivorous animal and now has canine teeth, so he also eats small animals, including fish. The giant panda evolves to eat bamboo as the main food because there is no fish or too little in the place where it lives, so it is not used to it!

Do pandas eat rats?

The ancestor of the giant panda was eating bamboo rats. The bamboo rat is a big mouse living in the bamboo. Because of evolution, the giant panda is now vegetarian, and 99% of the food is bamboo.

However, because bamboo is sometimes insufficient, and the bamboo rat’s meat is tender, which is very suitable for giant pandas, the bamboo rat is the favorite food of giant pandas except for bamboo.

Do pandas eat fruits?

Giant pandas like to eat some wild fruits, such as wild apples on the mountain. Giant pandas like them very much. Apples are low-sugar foods, and they taste very good. In leisure time, the giant pandas will also find some to eat when.