After we check on everyone in the morning, the first task of the day is breakfast. As you can see, the kitchen at the cheetah barn is quite cozy. That’s Carnivore Supervisor Kevin making breakfast today.
time to make the donuts...
It does have everything a cheetah keeper would need though – brushes, leashes, dog food, tools, cleaning supplies, and safety equipment.
Mmmmm yummy!
*This is part 2/4 in our CheetahDog Blog Giveaway. Post a comment and you’ll be entered to win two free tickets to the Zoo! If you answer all 4 in this series, your chances of winning increase.
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woo! that looks delicious
I like how you can hear one of the doggies barking in the background! enjoy your breakfast, cheetahs!
The cheetahs are probably my favorite animals to visit at the zoo. Seeing them run around with the Shepherds is pretty cool. I had seen something on Discovery about them a while back. Back in the day, the Cheetah seemed to be the favorite animal of all the kids in school because of their speed….I guess it takes me back to those days.
Interesting to see the behind the scenes. Why do you need dog food in the cheetah barn? Snack??
I never realized that they ate dog food! Very interesting!
Is it 3 lbs per day per animal? Or 3 lbs per day in the habitat? I couldn’t imagine Cheetah’s sharing!
Actually the dog food is for the Anatolian Shepherd dogs – I should have mentioned that!
That’s 3 pounds per animal per day. And the dog food is for the Anatolian Shepherd dogs, I should have included that in the description. They are separated for their feedings to make sure we know how much each one eats. They will share other enrichment items and things like bones though – more on that later on!
Would love to know more about OUR cheetahs. where did they come from? Male or Female?
Thanks for the behind the scenes look at their dinner. I had no idea what they ate.
I love these behind the scenes peeks! It’s so cool! I can’t wait for the rest of the series!
Why do you keep the Shephard dogs with the cheetahs? What about any other cats? How does the zoo determine how much an animal eats? I love all the cats and they are my favorite part of the zoo..
I’m assuming other nutrients are added to the raw meat… otherwise why grind it? In the wild these animals don’t get ground meat.
why do you grind the meat? wouldn’t it be more like their natural habitat if they were just to chew it without it being ground?
Cheetah buffet!! I assume the meat is ground so that vitamins and any necesary meds can be added?
What a great way for kids to get a personal connection to the animals they see at the zoo.
My kids Homeschool and are currently studing Apologia’s Land Animals Creation Series. I’ll forward this to my co-op and the Holy Family and Katy Homeschool Groups. My daughter will love to add the zoo to her Facebook page.
Thanks so much for all you do for the families of Houston.
I am loving this blog! I love to see the promotion of the Dogs! I had heard they were being given to farmers in Africa to deter Cheetahs, so the farmers would stop killing them, perhaps we should do this hear for the Coyotes.
Went to the zoo today! Weather was great. When are the dogs and cheetahs together? I have been a few times and have not seen them together.
When I went to the zoo a couple of weeks ago I got the most amazing picture of the cheetah. He was looking right at me as he paced back and forth. It was amazing to think that the only thing seperating us was the fence. Beautiful animal.
Check out this earlier post on the blog for some info on our cheetahs http://houstonzooblogs.org/cheetahdog/2009/04/
Thanks for the questions!
Several people have asked “why ground meat?” and this is a great question. The diet is actually a nutritionally complete diet specially made for zoo cats. It looks like hamburger but it actually has vitamins and minerals added in. We feed this because just feeding plain meat, like you buy at the grocery store, is not a complete diet.
To better simulate what they would eat in the wild we also feed whole prey like rats and bones, and sometimes they get large pieces of meat still on the bone – there will be more on this in a later post.
Now seeing todays blog I understand the need for the dog food, but that doesn’t explain why the dog is needed.
For those of you wondering about why we have the dogs, check out our first post, at http://houstonzooblogs.org/cheetahdog/2009/04/
I’ll include more information on the dogs and footage of them interacting with the cheetahs in future posts.
You’re right, they are used in Africa and many farmers in Texas have them too!