The Official Houston Zoo Blog

We all eat to live (although some of us live to eat) and primates are no exception. In fact, if you go to visit monkeys and apes in nature, what you will probably see is foraging and lots of eating.

Here at the Houston Zoo, we spend as much time preparing animal food as the animals do consuming it. From the Commissary, where the dietary items are delivered and freshly prepped, to the primate kitchen, where the ingredients are made into individual diets, we are busy nearly all day making sure our animals are well fed.

Primates are primarily vegetarian, so we have a great assortment of beautiful fruits and vegetables to turn into monkey meals.

They get most of their essential nutrition from their primate biscuits: dense little packets of grains, vitamins and minerals that we feed early in the day, when everyone is the hungriest —  sort of like making sure children get their spinach before they can have dessert. Then, throughout the rest of the day, our animals are working hard to look for the rest of their diets, just as they do in the wild.

Part of making sure that our primates stay healthy is making sure they expend calories prior to taking in calories: they work for a living by looking for food that is scattered or hidden around their enclosures.

The bulk of their diets are made up of the many leafy greens that approximate the vegetation that they eat in the forests of their native habitat. The remainder of their food (depending on the species, of course) is usually fresh produce: from blueberries to avocados, these animals get the best, the most healthful and the most delicious of assortments. And, of course, we throw in a lovely array of insects that are the smattering of protein that many of our primates love to crunch on. Mealworms, waxworms, crickets and goliath worms are a tiny bit of dining entertainment that our animals have come to appreciate.

The best part of being a monkey (at least an Old World Monkey, from Africa or Asia) is that most of them have cheek pouches.

These handy pockets are useful for cramming as much fruit into your face as possible and then going off to eat it leisurely and privately, without competition from more dominant group members. For the keepers and guests, watching the animals literally “stuffing their faces” and enjoying their food is the best part of the entire diet process!

Written by Lynn Killam, Primate Supervisor

How much does it cost to feed your family for a year? At the Houston Zoo, our annual grocery bill adds up to more than $600,000! With a bill that big, imagine the impact that your support could have. Your gift might help purchase a tasty steak (or ten) for our tigers. Make your tax-deductible donation at www.houstonzoo.org/gift-of-grub. or, click our our CONTRIBUTE tab on Facebook!

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