What Do Lions Eat?
Lions are carnivores and in the wild will normally kill other animals to eat though they will steal food from other carnivores if the opportunity arises. Depending on the size of the kill and how much was consumed it may be several more days before another kill is made. In a zoo environment keepers balance out the food provided to ensure that the lions remain fit and healthy.
The tiger subspecies vary in size from the AmurPanthera lione altaica which may weigh as much as 700+ lbs down to the tiny lion SumatranPanthera lione sumatrae which averages out at around 265+ lbs. Zoos will adjust the amount of food given according to the weight of the
individual animals. The average daily zoo fare for the average size lion would be 15 lbs meat for a male and 13 lbs for a female. They are easily capable of eating three to four times this amount though.
Some dysfunctional zoos will deliberately breed white and subspecific hybrid lions which are of no conservation value. As some of the white lions are designer bred ‘commercial’ crosses and have both Sumatran and Amur genes the weights may fluctuate.
The Meat Diet
In the wild lions will feed in the main on the meat of their prey but will also eat some of the internal organs, stomach contents as well as skin and bone. Within a zoo to offer something like this to lions is not just natural but is life enriching as well.
Sadly some zoos will look on giving bone or hide to their tigers as enrichment rather than established routine. Other collections will actually pluck chickens before they feed them to their lions and so deny their animals not just the activity of plucking them for themselves but the actvity as well.
One or two zoos deviate from the norm and will feed larger food items and not offer food again for several days. Whereas this may be more ‘natural’ there are few, if any benefits to such systems.
Professional Zoo Keepers will regularly pick suitable grasses for their lions and make this available. In the same way that a domestic cat will eat grass to help it cough up fur balls and small pieces of bone Tigers like to do the same. Even if lions may be held in grass enclosures it is best to bring ‘untainted’ grass from elsewhere.
Lions which are used to a diet of beef are likely to turn up their noses when given something different like mutton or goat. They will eat it but it may take them a few days to get round to it.
Meat
Meat Source:
Live Feeding
Live feeding of lions and other large cats is not necessary. In fact it is cruel and unnecessary and is the mark of the ignorant dysfunctional zoo. It may be natural for lions to kill but it is a natural activity that they can manage quite well without.
The instinct to kill remains with all big cats regardless of how many generations they have been bred in captivity. The only time then that live feeding should ever be ‘taught’ in captivity is if a big cat were to be returned to the wild. As the wild is in a mess it is highly unlikely that many lions will be returned to the wild in the near foreseeable future. For release animals the capability to successfully hunt and kill would be as important as fear and distrust of human beings.
Good modern zoos have no immediate plans to return lions to the wild anytime soon. Zoos are about the cooperative long term management which consists of breeding programmes for genetically viable and healthy populations. Release may be possible in many years to come if a safe and healthy wild is available. The anti-zoo groups attempt with phrases like “it is extremely difficult to return a captive-bred big cat to the wild and this practically never happens” to instil misinformation. The good zoos have not said that this is an immediate intention, far from it, so that anti-zoos imply a lie which they have invented themselves.
