Zoo visitors (and blog readers!) often ask what kind of meat we feed the tigers. I would like to go into further detail about the diet we offer. Every day (except Tuesdays) we give the tigers a USDA-inspected, carnivore meat that is precisely weighed out by the gram. The meat is one-half ground beef and one-half beef heart, with added vitamins, minerals, and amino acids (taurine, in particular). On Tuesdays the tigers receive either a leg of lamb or a rack of ribs. On Sundays they are offered a whole rabbit (frozen and then thawed) along with their carnivore meat. On Mondays and Thursdays we add a large cow femur bone to their diet, which they will gnaw on for a couple of hours.

For several reasons (avian flu being one of them), chicken is not a preferred food item for tigers. Also, we do not feed whole meat pieces on a daily basis because they are deficient in several vitamins and minerals and do not represent a complete diet. I have offered ground horsemeat to Sumatran tigers at another institution, and it seemed to me that the tigers really did prefer the taste of the beef-based diet over the horse-based.

As far as training goes for tiger cubs Mata and Rimba, I use zoo carnivore meatballs as rewards for performing behaviors correctly. But I will also use the same meatballs to give any necessary medications. Rimba needed to take antibiotics after his physical exam in September because he had a small growth removed from inside his left ear. The biopsy done on the growth showed that it wasn’t anything to be concerned about, but I still needed to give him antibiotics for five days to make sure that his ear healed properly. The meatballs worked wonders, and he took all of his pills with no problems!

Bridget Mulholland is a senior mammal keeper at the San Diego Zoo’s Tiger River exhibit.

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