Price per: 20 kg bag
Elephant
Elephas maximus & Loxodonta africana
Natural diet Elephant
Elephants are herbivorous intermediate grazers and browsers. In the wild, they usually spend a few days eating in one place before they move on to the next. They drink water whenever its available.
Feeding advice Elephant
Feed quantity per day
1.5-3%
Example percentage calculation
If an animal weighs 4,000 kg and eats 2% of its body weight, it will get
4,000 x 0.02 = 80 kg feed in total per day
Feed composition
10% Concentrates
65% Grass, alfalfa, roughage
25% Browse
Proportions (fresh product)
0.1 x 80 kg = 8,000 g concentrates
0.65 x 80 kg = 52,000 g grass, alfalfa, roughage
0.25 x 80 kg = 20,000 g browse
Feeding advice Elephant
Feed quantity per day
1.5-3%
Example percentage calculation
If an animal weighs 4,000 kg and eats 2% of its body weight, it will get
4,000 x 0.02 = 80 kg feed in total per day
Feed composition
10% Concentrates
65% Grass, alfalfa, roughage
25% Browse
Proportions (fresh product)
0.1 x 80 kg = 8,000 g concentrates
0.65 x 80 kg = 52,000 g grass, alfalfa, roughage
0.25 x 80 kg = 20,000 g browse
Diet suggestions
Recommended
Lucerne hay
Straw
Variety of browse (willow, birch, blackberry)
Fresh forages
Not recommended
Fruits
Common diseases
An unbalanced diet may result in one of these more commonly occurring diseases/conditions:
- Obesity
- Vitamin E deficiency
- Colic
- Hypocalcaemia
- Teeth or tusk problems
Additional advice
- Divide the “Feed quantity per day” over at least two feeding moments per day.
- Supplement the diet with ad libitum roughage and/or browse (read more about browsers and grazers).
- Supplement adequate vitamin E by feeding sufficient concentrates.
- Although present in their natural diets, feeding fruits might lead to abnormal fermentation in the hindgut because of high sugar levels in cultivated fruits compared to wild fruits (read more about nutritional values of (wild) fruits and vegetables).
- Stimulate foraging behaviour by hiding, stacking or hanging the feed (read more about feed enrichment and foraging behaviour).
Diet suggestions
Recommended
Lucerne hay
Straw
Variety of browse (willow, birch, blackberry)
Fresh forages
Not recommended
Fruits
Common diseases
An unbalanced diet may result in one of these more commonly occurring diseases/conditions:
- Obesity
- Vitamin E deficiency
- Colic
- Hypocalcaemia
- Teeth or tusk problems
Species within this group
Elephas maximus
Loxodonta africana
