Who knew babirusas could be such picky eaters?
Hey, Hospital Keepers! Can you get that animal to eat this food, please?
When animals arrive here from other facilities, they often are not used to eating what’s on our menu. During their quarantine period at the San Diego Zoo’s Jennings Center for Zoological Medicine, hospital keepers team with Nutritional Services staff to help animals transition to their new diets.
Upon arrival, each new animal is accompanied by a lot of paperwork from the shipping institution. The information is distributed to the appropriate staff here at San Diego Zoo Global. Such things as diet summary, enclosure description, husbandry management, enrichment ideas, likes and dislikes, photos and videos, medical records, and reproductive history are sent by the shipping institution. You can never have too much information when it comes to caring for animals!
Our nutritionists will have the animal’s most recent diet information, as well as the target diet we will be feeding printed up for the hospital keepers. Our goal is to get our newest resident heartily eating our diet by the end of the 30-day quarantine period. “They are currently eating this; we would like them to eat this. You have a month. Do your best. Go!”
The first week we usually feed our newest arrivals 100 percent of the familiar diet from the prior institution. Depending on the species, we try to offer a bit of our diet, too—a side order to their usual entrée, just to “test the waters.” Sometimes the animal chooses the novel item over their old standby, and within a week or two we have them completely transitioned. For other animals we need to go much slower, starting with 90 percent old diet and 10 percent new diet, then 75/25, 50/50, 25/ 75, and so on.
In many cases we are asked to transition new hoofed animals to our pellets prior to their release from quarantine. There are many ways we can go about completing this important task. We’ll offer one dish of the old diet and one dish of the new diet, or we’ll put the old pellets on one side of the dish and new pellets on the other side of the same dish. Sometimes we’ll mix the pellets together. If there are multiple items being offered, the food dish begins to look like a beautiful pie with wedges of different shades and textures.
One fun example was a pair of young babirusa boys that were in quarantine earlier this year. They were surprisingly stubborn about eating the new Zoo pellets. Pigs are usually easier to transition than most species because they like to eat. A picky pig is rare. So we were surprised when we would mix together the old and new pellets into one bowl, and these boys literally ate around the new Zoo pellets to get to their old stuff! After some brainstorming between keepers and nutritionists, we experimented and made an amazing discovery: if we lightly misted the new Zoo pellets with water and then “dusted” them with Crystal Light powder, the babirusa boys suddenly LOVED our Zoo fare! It then turned into the transition game of getting them off the “powdered pellets” and eating the plain pellets.
We monitor what amounts of food go in with an animal and then weigh and record everything that is left over the next day. These sheets are called “Ins and Outs” and give the animal care staff information to better understand what the animal is choosing to eat. We’ll also weigh the animal, at least weekly, to get a more accurate measure of how they are eating.
And then there is the poop. Yes, that funny topic from my previous post! We note the amount, the color, and the consistency. If a bird doesn’t look like they’ve eaten much out of their food pan, but there is a decent amount of poop on the ground, we know they’re eating enough. If a carnivore is transitioning between meat products, it might get the runs for a day. One indicator we use for a current group of deer is how many “shovelfuls” of poop we haul out every morning!
Gold-breasted starling
A gold-breasted starling just cleared quarantine this week. The bird came in eating “red pellets,” but we had to transition him to “yellow pellets.” This bird was healthy, and so was his poop, which—don’t be shocked—was red. Having the choice to eat red or yellow pellets, he would consistently choose the red. The next morning there would be nothing left but yellow pellets, not a single red one left in his food pan. So we started grinding the red pellets and dusting the yellow pellets. It took a bit, but the bird started picking up more of the yellow pellets, and we slowly phased out the red pellets. Soon his poop changed to a beautiful yellow, and we knew that he was successfully transitioned to his new diet—just another story about the fun we have here at the hospital and just a few more examples of how teamwork, communication, and patience help get the animals on the road from the hospital to Zoo grounds.
Kirstin Clapham is a senior hospital keeper at the San Diego Zoo. Read her previous post, Zoo Hospital: The Importance of Poop.
This is so fun to get a look behind the scenes! I’ve loved the zoo since I was a little girl, and to get such a fun, well written look at what goes into caring for the animals is really appreciated! I can’t wait to hear more!!
Hi Kirstin, I thoroughly enjoyed your blog. It’s amazing what you and the members of the SDZ hospital staff do to keep all the wonderful animals at the Zoo in excellent health. Sometimes you really have to go above and beyond the call of duty.
I had no idea of the problems encountered while the animals are at the hospital. It’s amazing the way you get the “picky” eaters to stop being so picky.
I like the fact that you monitor what goes in and what comes out to make certain that the “newcomer” will be healthy and happy.
Thank you and the hospital staff for your dedication and innovation in caring for your animal “patients”.
I love knowing what you do and how you do it! I think most folks would never dream of even asking the question about foods from the former home to you at the Zoo!
The only time I was ever cognizant of such a problem was watching raccoons washing sugar cubes when I was at camp when I was little. They just couldn’t figure out where they went!
I think the spots your critters come from can benefit (as can the animals and you) from knowing WHAT you need to know to make them happy and full.
Good job, daughter 2! “Mom 2″
Hi Kirsten! Very interesting blog. I was surprised to learn that diets between zoos vary so much that a transition is required. For example, what is the difference between red and yellow pellets? I didn’t know there was that much variety to select from in the “wild animal” pantry… Is there much difference in the meat products that you would offer big cats? I was thinking that it was pretty standard ingredients… Thank you! What a fun job you have.
Dianna, I’m sorry for the delay in answering this question. I wanted to consult with one of our three very busy staff nutritionists on this answer. Long story short, no diet is better than another and the changes are based on the location and budget of the facility.
The longer answer is: Diets for the same species in different facilities can actually vary a lot. It’s not that one diet is better than another, but because of local differences in availability and cost of food products, each institution goes through its own analysis of what items are the most economical to offer while still providing a good quality product.
Pigs, and poop, and birds — oh my!
Never a dull read!
I so look forward to your blogs Kirstin. Do the incoming animals or birds ever get the new food at their previous home? The reason I ask this is that I know that the pandas start getting and eating Panda Cakes in San Diego before they fly off to China. It would make a lot of sense if others would get some new foods in advance also.
Thank you for your complimentary comment, Lee. Depending on the species and the facility, we occasionally do a “pre-shipment” diet transition to get the ball rolling. But that is very rare since most animals only take 1-3 weeks to adjust to the new menu.
Pandas on the other hand are special, in many ways, so the transition process for them is much longer. I worked pandas years ago and remember making that bread long before they were to return to China. Slow and steady, subtle and patient was that process!
You are such an excellent writer! Thank you for describing in detail the complexity of food transition. It made me smile to think that all animals are picky about what they eat, not just kids.
Who knew Crystal Light powder could be a solution to a stubborn pig. LOL.
Thank you for your feedback