What do King Cheetahs eat?

The king cheetah eats the same as any other cheetah. This is because the only difference between the king cheetah and other cheetahs is the markings on the coat due to a genetic mutation. Such a genetic mutation has no bearing on what the cheetah eats.

King cheetah
King cheetah. Notice the ’embossed coat’ – the raised black hairs.

The most authoritative book on the wild cats states:

“…the king cheetah is in fact just an ordinary cheetah with abnormal markings. The king coat pattern is controlled by a single recessive gene; if both parents have the gene, about a quarter of offspring will have the king coat pattern.”

The king cheetah is rare both in the wild and in captivity.

So, in answer to the question in the title, the diet of the king cheetah and all wild cheetahs with the usual pattern will contain the following prey animals in order of most common starting from the top:

  • Thompson’s gazelle
  • Grant’s gazelle
  • Impala
  • Cape hare
  • Wildebeest
  • Hartebeest
  • Burchell’s zebra
  • Springbok
  • Steenbok
  • Ostrich
  • Topi
  • Waterbuck
  • Warthog
  • Greater kudu
  • Bushbuck
  • Roan antelope
  • Duiker
  • Kori bustard
  • Mole-rat
  • Reedbuck
  • Gemsbok
  • African buffalo
  • Giraffe
  • Eland




1 thought on “What do King Cheetahs eat?”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. That is a beautiful cat. He looks almost mosaic.
    And, I was happy to see that domesticated cats wasn’t on his preferred dietary list.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

follow it link and logo