Can Red Pandas live well on non-bamboo diets?
They can do quite well on a non-bamboo diet but it must meet their nutritional needs. The reason red pandas can live on a diet that is 100% bamboo is that the nutritional quality varies very little throughout the seasons and it meets their nutritional needs. For variety, the pandas will eat fruits, insects, and mushroom in the summer months. Because of the high fiber content, the bamboo is actually very difficult for the red panda to digest. They only absorb about about 25% of the nutrients contained in the bamboo so they expend large amounts of energy foraging for enough bamboo to meet their dietary needs.
