Can Red Pandas live well on non-bamboo diets?

I know that the red panda's primary food source is bamboo leaves, but I also know that they feed on other shoots and leaves, berries, succulent plants, roots, eggs, and small vertebrates. In zoos such as the Fort Wayne Zoo, here: http://www.kidszoo.org/animals/redpanda.... the zoo care diet is listed as not having any amount of bamboo in it.



I was wondering for purely curiosity reasons if the red panda is able to live well on this type of diet. I would assume that some of them technically do, or else the zoo listings would be listing their diets with bamboo. So, in my uncertainty, I am asking here for some sort of input.

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.
Reply:Red pandas just may be the cutest animals ever!

They are extremely well adapted to their specialized bamboo diet, similar to koalas with eucalyptus.
Reply:They can live on other diets, when no bamboo is around. They eat many other things besides bamboo.
Reply:i`m sure the zoo feeds them a suitable diet.