Changsha Evening News, Changsha, January 10 (All** reporter He Wenbing, correspondent Tan Simin) The birthday dinner has been put in place, and the fresh meat is ......Today, the tiger "Xiuxiu" living in the Changsha Ecological Zoo celebrated its 5th birthday, and early in the morning, the keeper prepared pork and eggs for "Xiuxiu", specially added two chickens, and added a spoonful of vitamin and mineral tablets ground into powder.
As soon as the birthday dinner was on the "table", before the friends had time to sing a happy birthday song for her, the tigress "Xiuxiu" couldn't wait to nibble on it. When it comes to the king of beasts, everyone always thinks of the ceiling of carnivorous animals - tigers. In the Changsha Ecological Zoo, the tiger's recipes are rich and diverse, mainly meat-based, such as fresh beef, refined pork, chicken and rabbit, etc., and then paired with calcium tablets and eggs, the nutrition is in place.
Whenever a tiger celebrates its birthday, an extra dish will be added. According to the tiger breeder, each tiger eats an average of about 5 kilograms of meat per day, and some meat will be appropriately added for individual large tigers to ensure that they are well fed.
However, when you visit the zoo, you will sometimes find that the majestic tiger is actually eating grass, and visitors can't help but question, is the tiger hungry to eat grass to satisfy its hunger?
Of course not, friends who have had cats know that they will prepare some cat grass for the kittens at home to help the kittens get rid of the cat hair licked into the stomach. As the largest cat, the tiger has similar habits to kittens, often using their tongues to comb their hair, because the tongue has barbs, so the tiger will lick the hair into the body when grooming, and these hairs cannot be digested.
So, how do tigers deal with indigestion? The stomach and intestines of tigers do not have enzymes to digest plant fibers, so plant fibers such as grass and malt will also not be digested, but will stimulate the stomach and intestines, increase intestinal peristalsis, and vomit out these accumulated hairs and undigested bones. Therefore, tigers occasionally eat grass to help digestion, not to eat grass when they are hungry.