What do pandas eat besides bamboo shoots?

Pandas eat various plants, insects, grubs and occasionally meat from small mammals in addition to bamboo. Bamboo consists of 99 percent of a panda's diet in the wild, and they only gain nutrients from other sources 1 percent of the time.

Pandas often live close to thick bamboo forests because they require so much of the plant. They consume the leaves, roots and shoots of the bamboo plant. Pandas are fed a number of other foods in captivity. Bamboo does not provide efficient amounts of nutrients, so caretakers supplement their diets by giving them fish, fruit, eggs, honey and various root vegetables.