Foot Health in Captive Indian Rhinos

B

Bubo

New Member
So I've been researching Indian Rhinos while day-dreaming about my fantasy zoo. From what I've read, captive Indian Rhinos (universally?) have foot-health problems. Health of the foot pads and toes is terrible compared to wild specimens. I was wondering if this could be due to a niacin deficiency?

Rhinos have a very similar digestive tract to horses, so I assume they also absorb niacin only at the last stages of digestion? Horses eat more niacin than they can absorb, so niacin deficiency isn't a problem, but maybe rhinos don't get enough? Other symptoms captive Indian Rhinos exhibit seem to match up: sensitivity to sunlight in summer months (currently attributed to unproven-but-assumed herpes infections), breakable horns, and stomach ulcers. Niacin deficiencies can take a long time to become fatal, and it seems these rhinos die of foot problems long before that can happen. Additionally, carrots seem to be the highest niacin contributors to their diet. Perhaps the addition of dates could solve this problem, if it's indeed caused by this deficiency?

Thoughts on this? Does anyone know of any niacin studies in this species of rhino?
 
tschandler71 said:
We feed our horses and donkeys carrots, and the the pygmy goats as well
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The diet of the average horse supplies about 50% more niacin than a horse needs, so I don't doubt carrots are sufficient for horses, donkeys, and goats. I very much doubt that rhinos only need as much niacin as what is provided by a horse diet though.
 
The foot problem in rhinos is well researched and the reason is surely not a niacin deficiency but simply wrong kind of flooring (concrete, epoxy aso.). Indian rhinos walk on swampy, softe substrate in nature and that simply is to duplicate in captivity. Additionally they are usually getting overweight with time as in zoos we rarely reduce the amount and composition of food according to natural fluctuations (wet versus dry season). We shall always look at such factors first before making theories and applying artificial solutions. Nature is the thing to duplicate. In Europe more and more zoos are switching into "biofloor" for Indian rhinos. That provides an ideal substrate, soft, wet, self-desinfecting and smelling nicely. First used in Basel in part, expanded in the new Wroclaw facility.
 
Foot Health in Indian Rhinos

Rhinopithecus -- can you describe 'bio-floor' please?
 
Rhinopithecus said:
That provides an ideal substrate, soft, wet, self-desinfecting and smelling nicely. First used in Basel in part, expanded in the new Wroclaw facility.
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I remember some years ago seeing on a T.V. zoo programme, the adult bull 'Kumar'(now dead) at Whipsnade being trained to stand quietly for treatment for his foot problems. They said that the 'Basel strain'(he was from that line) suffered particularly badly from foot problems. I think that was probably a fallacy and that the reality is that all G.I rhinos that aren't kept on suitable flooring suffer similarly.

I know Basel's smallish outdoor enclosure was originally mostly concrete-floored, but some years ago they changed it so nowadays it is covered with a deep mulch and I suspect their foot problems have pretty much disappeared as a result.

In the wild these animals 'take the weight of their feet' for most of the daylight hours, when they wallow, hippo-like in the swampy 'jheels' that bisect their habitat.
 
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Biofloor is a deep (min. 1.2 m) mixture of woodchips and shredded bark that is watered daily. There is a drain underneath as well allowing for excess water to pass through. It is decomposing naturally from the bottom giving nice temperature on top that is ca. 27-28 C. We don't know yet how often it will need to be changed totally. It is here since september last year and rhinos spent long winter there. Until now we only had to add top layer of the new bark twice as it is compacting a bit. The feaces are of course collected daily. This is not a problem because rhinos have a tendency to use selected latrine. The feet (and they are trained to lay down and show the soles) look like on pictures taken from the wild.
 
Foot health...

This is not wildly different from deep litter for poultry or even Aspinall's Gorillas -- seems like a really good system.
 
Rhinopithecus said:
Biofloor is a deep (min. 1.2 m) mixture of woodchips and shredded bark that is watered daily. There is a drain underneath as well allowing for excess water to pass through. It is decomposing naturally from the bottom giving nice temperature on top that is ca. 27-28 C. We don't know yet how often it will need to be changed totally. It is here since september last year and rhinos spent long winter there. Until now we only had to add top layer of the new bark twice as it is compacting a bit. The feaces are of course collected daily. This is not a problem because rhinos have a tendency to use selected latrine. The feet (and they are trained to lay down and show the soles) look like on pictures taken from the wild.
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Gotcha. The husbandry manual I'm reading was written, I think, when mulched floors were just starting to become a thing, because in several places it implied that such a floor only delays foot problems rather than solve them.
 
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