The Importance Of Animal Diets In A Zoo

Animal nutrients pertains to the dietary needs of animals, usually those in food production, zoos, and aquariums. An animal’s diet is very important because it affects the performance of the animal. A healthy animal has a less chance of getting diseases and will have more energy to carry out their daily tasks. An animal’s diet is very dependent on the landscape and the availability of food found in its habitat. A drastic change in an animal’s habitat can lead to changes in the animal’s diet. While, animal diets have variations depending on their habitat, so do human diets. Humans have undergone dietary changes due to evolution.

It is a zoo’s job to keep the animal’s healthy and happy for the sake of the animal and the visitors. Zoo Miami normally spend $1.3 million every year on the animals’ food. Zoos, including Zoo Miami, use different feeding tactics to make sure that the animals eat their food and are healthy. They do not feed an animal the same meal two days in a row instead they switch food items and feed them different combinations of fruits and meats. Sometimes, when an animal in the zoo dies of natural causes, as seen with the case of the Kudu that we had seen on the tour, they feed the deceased animal to the other animals at the zoo. This method is called carcass feeding and it is a more natural way of

Creating the diets for the animals at the zoos and making sure the diets have proper nutrition is a hard job with many steps to it. It was very interesting to listen to what the staff at Zoo Miami kitchen had to say because they spoke about the animals with a respectful tone instead of disregarding their importance. They also seemed to care about each individual animal’s needs rather than just grouping all the animals in that enclosure. They give each individual animal the attention and care they need and will do anything to get the animals to eat their food and take their