Scribd
Upload
46 views4 pages

Zoo Animals - Diet

Zoo animals require diets that closely resemble their natural feeding habits, including proper food types, amounts, and preparation methods. Carnivores typically consume meat-based diets supplemented with vitamins and minerals, while herbivores rely on hays, browse, and pelleted diets for nutrition. It is crucial to manage feeding practices carefully to ensure animal health and prevent issues related to overfeeding or dietary changes.

Uploaded by

Mc 'Rage
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
46 views4 pages

Zoo Animals - Diet

Zoo animals require diets that closely resemble their natural feeding habits, including proper food types, amounts, and preparation methods. Carnivores typically consume meat-based diets supplemented with vitamins and minerals, while herbivores rely on hays, browse, and pelleted diets for nutrition. It is crucial to manage feeding practices carefully to ensure animal health and prevent issues related to overfeeding or dietary changes.

Uploaded by

Mc 'Rage
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Describe the major diets of zoo animals.

The basic needs for any animal to stay alive are food and water. Consequently, animals are to be
provided with enough food and water to stay healthy. This means that the animal is fed with the right
amount of food, resembling its natural diet and that clean drinking water is available at all times.

Diet

- For every animal diet, the following information must be detailed,


• The animal species.
• What to feed.
• How much food (amount per animal).
• Food schedule (time, frequency).
• How to prepare the food (whole food items? chopped fruit?).
• How to feed.
• Enrichment feeding.
- The diet that is fed to the animals should be as similar to the animals’ diet in the wild as
possible.
- Each diet must find the balance between a starving animal and an over-fed animal.
- Every animal should be fed with more than one type of food: This way the animals have a more
varied diet and are accustomed to several food items, this might come in handy when one type
of food becomes unavailable for a while.
- Animals that are fed a balanced diet will stay healthier, have a higher reproductive rate and
offspring will have a better chance of survival.
- Staff should research the nutritional requirements of each species.
- In the wild, the diet of animals will often change throughout the year, and this should be
stimulated as much as possible. E.g. to simulate hibernation, the bears have a richer and more
varied diet during spring and summer and receive lower amounts of food during winter
- If the diet of an animal is to be changed, it is important to do this slowly. The animal, as well as
its digestive system, needs time to adjust to the new food items. Many animals suffer from
diarrhea when diets are changed too quickly.
- Uncontrolled feeding by visitors should not be permitted in the zoo. If visitors feed the animals
without control, you will never know exactly what and how much food the animals received. As
a result, the animals might get fat through overfeeding or could be fed with unhealthy food
items.
- Meat and fish items should be frozen. Before fish is fed to an animal, it should be frozen and
thawed (de-freezing) to kill parasites that fish often carry. The fish might lose some of its
vitamins and minerals during the process. These vital elements could be replaced with
supplements.
- If meat is stored in the freezer it is advised to freeze the meat per portion for one day, for
example meat for one week in seven separate lumps of meat used for the total zoo every day.
- Food and drinks should be protected against dampness, rotting, mould and contamination by
pests (mice, rats, sparrow, insects) by storing the food items off the ground and in sealed
containers. Supplies of fresh food should be kept under refrigeration, when necessary.

Carnivores are defined by the fact that they eat other animals or animal products.
Meat-based diets.

Meat- based diets are commonly fed to captive mammalian carnivores. A primary ingredient in this type
of diet is muscle. In and of itself, muscle is not properly balanced to meet the nutrient requirements of
carnivores, and there have been many reports of diseases (e.g. rickets) associated with the use of
muscle as the sole dietary component. In general, muscle is deficient in calcium and not appropriately
balanced in several other essential nutrients.

In order to correct the inherent nutrient deficiencies of muscle when used as a food for mammalian
carnivores, it is possible to supplement muscle with appropriate vitamins and minerals to achieve a
nutritionally complete diet. This approach has been used successfully for many years. In some cases, it
may not be practical to provide a nutritionally complete diet. In these cases, muscle meat supplemented
with a multivitamin and mineral product is sufficient.

Manufactured meat-based diets.

Manufactured meat- based diets comprise a variety of raw animal components (usually muscle, organs,
and fat) supplemented with various other ingredients, such as vitamins and minerals. Raw meat–based
diets are highly perishable, which is why most of these diets are frozen. Proper handling—at the time of
manufacture, during storage and thawing, and before feeding the thawed product—is critical to
minimize the degree of microbial contamination.

It is not uncommon to find inconsistencies in the nutrient composition of manufactured meat-based


diets. Variations in the amounts of muscle and organ tissue used in the mixes and their inherent
variability in composition can lead to significant differences in nutrient profile.

Diets that contain appreciable quantities of organ tissue tend to have greater nutrient variability than
diets that contain large quantities of muscle.

Gel diets.

Gel diets are high-moisture products formed with either a protein or a carbohydrate gel matrix
containing a fixed set of nutrients. These diets have the advantages of nutritional flexibility and
palatability. Gels have the same disadvantages as do other wet diets; they are highly perishable.

Gel diets have been used for bears and may be particularly useful as treats or to provide medication.

Whole prey.

Whole- prey animals that are properly managed before being fed can be acceptable and complete
sources of nutrients for carnivores that eat prey as part or all of their diet. Rodents, lagomorphs, poultry,
and fish are the most common whole vertebrate prey, although lizards, snakes, and invertebrates also
are fed.

Unlike invertebrates, vertebrate prey composition is similar across species and more commonly reflects
the nutrient needs of the consumer.

Nevertheless, both vertebrates and invertebrates must be appropriately handled to maintain their
nutritional integrity.
Herbivores are animals that have evolved to eat primarily plant matter.

Hay

Hays—forages that are harvested and dried—are important sources of nutrients for herbivores and
often provide a major portion of dry- matter intake for captive mammalian herbivores.

Hays are especially valuable as a source of fiber in support of normal microbial fermentation and normal
feeding behavior.

Browse

Browse is used as a foraging food in many institutions. It is defined as small bushes, twigs, sprouts,
herbaceous plants, small trees, and other vegetation—including buds, twigs, leaves, fruit, and flowers of
woody plants—fed on by wildlife.

Browse used at zoos varies in type, quality, and nutrient composition.

Pelleted diets

Pelleted diets are manufactured from ground ingredients that are compressed into cylinder- shaped
particles.

These diets differ from extruded products in the following ways:

- they may be composed of recognizable ingredient particles


- they are denser, they are not cooked as much
- they tend to have slightly more moisture (mold inhibitors are frequently used)
- their starch tends to be less digestible
- they can be less palatable than extruded particles for carnivores and omnivores.

Other considerations

Water

- Water has to be present at all times.


- To keep the water fresh keepers should empty, clean and refill the water buckets on a daily
basis.
- When the enclosure has a moat to contain the animals in their enclosure, this could be used by
the animals to drink.
- Preventing the water from standing still for long periods (make a stream flowing through the
water), combined with emptying and cleaning the moat regularly will keep the water safe for
the animals to drink and simply makes it look better.

Feeding

- Most animals feed throughout the day.


- In the wild herbivores and omnivores spend most of their time feeding or looking for food /
water.
- Most carnivores on the other hand need to hunt for prey and may not always succeed.
- The feeding regime in the zoo should be designed to resemble the way the animals would feed
in the wild.
- How food items are presented is also of importance. The natural behavior of the animals and
the social aspects of animals living in groups should be considered.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy