Zoo database

Pygmy Hippo

Choerpsis liberiensis

Natural diet Pygmy Hippo

The pygmy hippo is a herbivorous browsing species. Their diet is of higher nutritional quality compared to the common hippo, feeding mainly on leaves, roots and fallen fruits instead of grasses.

Grasses
Grasses
Herbs
Herbs
Leaves
Leaves

Feeding advice Pygmy Hippo

Feed quantity per day

1-1.5%

Sample percentage calculation

If an animal weighs 200 kg and eats 1.5% of its body weight, it will get
 
200 x 0.02 = 3 kg feed in total per day

Feed composition

10% Concentrates
10% Leafy greens and cabbages
5% Grass, alfalfa, roughage
75% Browse

Proportions (fresh product)

0.1 x 3 kg = 300 g concentrates
0.1 x 3 kg = 300 g leafy greens and cabbages
0.05 x 3 kg = 150 g grass, alfalfa, roughage
0.75 x 3 kg = 2,250 g browse

Diet Suggestions

Recommended

Variety of browse (willow, aspen, birch, rowan)
High fiber pellets
Lucerne hay
Grass hay
Salt lick

In moderation

Green leafy vegetables
Root vegetables

Not recommended

Fruits


Common diseases

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

  • Obesity
  • Renal Disease
  • Dental diseases
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Pododermatitis

Additional advice

  • Divide the “Feed quantity per day” over at least two feeding moments per day.
  • The browse used in the diet can be a mixture between dried and fresh browse (read more about browsers and grazers).
  • Supplement the diet with ad libitum roughages.
  • The ratio of lucerne hay in the diet should be higher than grass hay (not a 50/50 ratio).
  • 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).
  • Pygmy Hippos are nocturnal species meaning that they mainly eat during the night.
  • Stimulate foraging behaviour by feeding root vegetables in the water, scatter feeding or by hiding the feed (read more about feed enrichment and foraging behaviour).