How Much Do Tigers Eat?

An adult tiger eats from 18 to 27 kilograms of food a night (40 - 60 pounds). Other examples of how much tigers eat at one sitting or during one day are as follows:

  • A male tiger ate 35 kilograms of flesh in one night (77 lbs).
  • A tigress consumed 30 kilograms of flesh at one sitting (an adult chital). It took her from mid-morning on one day to the morning of the next day to do it.
  • A tigress and and two young ate 102 kilograms (225 pounds) of flesh in two days (17 kgs per animal per day)
  • One large buffalo plus an adult cow were eaten in six days by four tigers.
  • The maximum a tiger can eat over 24 hours is a fifth of its body weight which for a large male equals 45 kgs. At the end of eating the carcass of the prey, it will be decomposing. 
  • The flesh of a carcass decomposes in two days in hot weather. Tigers will eat putrified flesh covered in maggots and when finishing a large carcass tigers may spend more than half their time eating decomposing flesh. Meat putrefies in a couple of days in hot weather. They continue to eat a large carcass for four or five days.

To reassure you, the sources for this information are absolutely top quality. They are referenced in a book called Wild Cats of the World. That book digs deep into all the reference studies that you can possibly imagine to pick out the kind of information you see on this page. If you want the full list of references please leave a comment and I'd be pleased to oblige.





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