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Produce and Vit. E Pages: (2) 1 2 
cydneyp

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Posts: 25
Joined:
Nov 12th - 00:56

Posted: Nov 12 2007, 01:53 AM
I was wondering if anyone could tell me what and how much they feed their black rhinos on a daily basis for produce and vit. E? We feed banana, sweet potato, carrot, and apples. Our male also gets bread daily and 1/4 cup liquid vit E. every other day. Our female does not get bread daily and gets 1 teaspoon vit. E. every day. Also any info on brands and amounts of grain fed out and types of hay offered would help. Thank you.

Cydney
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Rynotamer

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Posts: 27
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Jul 24th - 02:10

Posted: Nov 12 2007, 03:37 AM
Cydney,

We give our rhinos (1.1) 2 tablespoons of Vit E daily in a cored apple. They take it pretty easily. Any other produce is given just as rewards for training or medical procedures and is somewhat limited as to how much given. We are now giving our rhinos a Mazuri brand herbivore diet, I can't recall the exact name at the moment, I'll have to come back to you on that. We feed a mixed hay (2nd and 3rd cutting), we have gotten away from feeding pure alfalfa.

Mark

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Mark Marquardt
Potter Park Zoo
Lansing, Michigan



RIP.....Spike and Ebony '08
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Sarahk

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Posts: 12
Joined:
Aug 25th - 03:48

Posted: Nov 17 2007, 02:02 AM
Each of our 5 black rhinos get from 6-15 cc's of Vitamin E each. We give them an apple at the same time. We just squirt it in their mouths. Our two males receive biotin also. Produce is only given as a treat, enrichment, for training, to get on exhibit, etc.

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Sarah Ksiazek
African Savannah
Kansas City Zoo

RIP Kipenzi - 2000-2008
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cydneyp

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Posts: 25
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Nov 12th - 00:56

Posted: Nov 18 2007, 10:20 PM
Thank you for your responses. If anyone knows what other facilities do, or know a good contact, could you please forward them on to me?
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adam

Moderator


Posts: 30
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May 28th - 15:15

Posted: Nov 20 2007, 02:29 PM
Columbus Zoo gives all of our Black Rhinos (3) get 6ml of Vitamin E 6ml (Emcelle Tocopherol), produce (apples and carrots) as enrichment and training. They also get 2 bananas with there phosphorus supplement.

adam
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nyukitx

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Posts: 21
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Jun 7th - 06:06

Posted: Nov 27 2007, 05:34 AM
Cydney--we give our rhinos 5 cc of Vit. E emcelle in a cored apple every day and use produce in training as well as provide 5-8 lbs each evening scattered in their hay (as part of the diet card). We feed out an Equilene sweetfeed that seems to be a bit archaic but it's working for us so far.

Adam--what is the phosphorus for? We use it on our nursing dam but not as a full time supplement. Do the boys get it too?
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Rynotamer

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Posts: 27
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Jul 24th - 02:10

Posted: Nov 28 2007, 01:50 AM
nyukitx,

What kind of rhinos do you have?

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Mark Marquardt
Potter Park Zoo
Lansing, Michigan



RIP.....Spike and Ebony '08
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cydneyp

Member


Posts: 25
Joined:
Nov 12th - 00:56

Posted: Dec 2 2007, 01:05 AM
Here at Racine we have 1.1 blacks. I have continued to look into the recommended doses and we ran a chem panel on our 0.1. Our female receives about 5 cc of Vit. E (Mazuri Vitamin E TPGS, 20% Solution (5M84). This form of the vitamin in that solution provides a vitamin E potency of 77.4 IU/g) SID and she has Vit. E levels within normal limits according to published data. I have not had a chance to acquire blood from our 1.0 recently acquired from Brookfield, but he now receives 15 cc Vit E. SID (readjusted due to communication errors).
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CassandraS

Advanced Member


Posts: 35
Joined:
Aug 3rd - 16:50

Posted: Dec 5 2007, 08:54 PM
Cyndney,
I was just curious why you give the male so much more than the female?
This string has made me revisit what we give our rhinos and why? We currently give our rhinos Vit. E and Flaxseed Oil capsules in a banana daily. We give 4000 IU of each. Does anyone else give flaxseed oil?
We get our capsules from Sam's Club-where does everyone else get there Vit. E?
We have been giving them this so long, I'm not sure anyone knows exactly why anymore, so I would be interested to know anyone's input as to whether we're wasting our time with these supplements.


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Cassandra Sampson
Great Plains Zoo
Sioux Falls, SD
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cydneyp

Member


Posts: 25
Joined:
Nov 12th - 00:56

Posted: Dec 6 2007, 08:09 PM
Cassandra,

Since my last posting, I cross referenced the diet information that our male came to us with. There was an error with the data provided and we have since reduced the vit E to 15 cc SID (Mazuri brand Vitamin E TPGS 20% solution 5M84) But I'm still curious as to how the doses for the animals are calculated (i.e. trial and error with blood chem panels, a "make up" in the difference needed and what is available in diets). Anyone who knows how their facilities came up with the doses of vit E for their rhinos, could you please forward that to me?
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CassandraS

Advanced Member


Posts: 35
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Aug 3rd - 16:50

Posted: Dec 6 2007, 10:19 PM
Cydney,
Thanks for responding. I did some online research, and am talking with our vet and tech to decide if we should change what we're currently giving. I know that we went to the info sheets on the Mazuri website for their Vit. E products, and they gave a dosage according to the weight of the animal. How they came up with the proper dosage, I couldn't tell you. I'm wondering if anyone really knows.
Our zoo's vet tech just sent out an e-mail to Michelle Miller(Disney's DVM) who is supposed to know about black rhinos-so maybe she will give some insight as to the questions we all seem to have.

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Cassandra Sampson
Great Plains Zoo
Sioux Falls, SD
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Sarahk

Member


Posts: 12
Joined:
Aug 25th - 03:48

Posted: Dec 8 2007, 03:59 AM
We get our Vitamin E from Mazuri. It comes in a plastic bottle. It may be worth it to check on getting that instead of using caps everyday. Two of our females and one of our males get 15 cc Vit E everyday. One male gets 10 cc and one female gets 6 cc (she's 3 years old).

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Sarah Ksiazek
African Savannah
Kansas City Zoo

RIP Kipenzi - 2000-2008
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adam

Moderator


Posts: 30
Joined:
May 28th - 15:15

Posted: Dec 8 2007, 12:34 PM
In Columbus, our guestimated dosage was based on their weight. We also took blood for several weeks after we started to check their vitamin e levels became normal, which they have.

adam
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adam

Moderator


Posts: 30
Joined:
May 28th - 15:15

Posted: Dec 9 2007, 10:25 AM
What I meant to say is we checked their vitamin E levels to see if the levels normalized. After several weeks their levels did seem to become more normal.

adam
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CassandraS

Advanced Member


Posts: 35
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Aug 3rd - 16:50

Posted: Jul 22 2008, 07:03 PM
Hey everybody,
The discussion continues........
We decided to switch from the capsules we were giving to Emcelle (sold by Mazuri). Before we switched, we drew blood on our adults and their levels were much lower than they should be. Normal levels, from what we have read, should be 1-3, and ours were .3 and .5. We gave the Emcelle liquid Vit. E orally for one month at dosages that were recommended according to their weight(5.75cc and 6cc). Then we tested their blood again, but the levels still had not risen to within normal ranges. Now we are confused, and wondering what to do next. Should we wait a while and test blood again, or raise the dosage? From what I could get from the replies, Columbus and Racine said they have tested blood levels and they are normal. Has anyone else tested blood levels?


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Cassandra Sampson
Great Plains Zoo
Sioux Falls, SD
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