Zoo database

Chinese muntjac

Muntiacus reevesi

Natural diet Chinese muntjac

Fruits
Grasses
Herbs
Leaves

Chinese muntjacs are largely omnivorous as their diet is very diverse and consists out of herbs, blossoms, succulent shoots, fungi, berries, grasses, and nuts. Opportunistically, they may also eat tree bark, eggs and carrion.

Feeding advice Chinese muntjac

Feed quantity per day

10% of body weight

Sample percentage calculation

If an animal weighs 13 kg and eats 10% of its body weight, it will get

13 x 0.1 = 1.3 kg feed in total per day

Feed composition

10% Concentrates
10% Leafy and cabbage vegetables
30% Grass, lucerne and other roughages
45% Browse
5% Other

Proportions (fresh product)

0.1 x 1.3 kg = 130 g concentrates
0.1 x 1.3 kg = 130 g leafy and cabbage vegetables
0.3 x 1.3 kg = 390 g grass, lucerne and other roughages
0.45 x 1.3 kg = 585 g browse
0.05 x 1.3 kg = 65 g other

Diet suggestions

In moderation

Vegetables

Not recommended

Fruits

Additional advice

Divide the “Feed quantity per day” over at least two feeding moments per day.
Supplement the diet with ad libitum browse.
The browse used in the diet can be a mixture between dried and fresh browse (read more about browsers and grazers).
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 stacking or hiding the feed (read more about feed enrichment and foraging behaviour).

Common diseases

An unbalanced diet may result in one of these more commonly occurring diseases/conditions:

Ruminal acidosis
Dental disease

Feed quantity per day

Sample percentage calculation

Feed composition

Proportions (fresh product)

Boskos Browser

Birch leaves - 10-20 kg bag

Raspberry leaves - 10-20 kg bag

KNZ Mineral-lick Wildlife

Natural Browser - 6 mm

Hennie de Boer