Big Cat Rescue feeding class.
The cats at Big Cat Rescue get fed once
a day, seven days a week. They are fed
first thing in the morning. Their main
diet is a commercial carnivore diet
called mush, which is ground-up organs and
intestines. This has a lot of protein and
nutrients in it and is fortified with
vitamins. They also eat raw chicken,
chicken necks, 0:00:25.390, 0:00:31.320 chicken wings, boneless chicken,
chicken quarters,
and raw red meat. And twice a week, whole
prey already dead, humanely killed
rabbits or rats; the whole prey is needed
to vary their diet and also to provide
them with roughage in the form of fur and
bones. It comes to us from a vendor who
supplies the pet snake industry and the
animals are humanely euthanized.
Some cats are on special diets because
of health reasons, picky eating and etc.
Special foods may be given to these
animals, including lamb, pork, liver, fish
and other varieties. The amount of food
we feed depends on the size of the cat
and whether their weight is healthy.
Every day, except for whole prey day, we
feed out about 500 pounds of meat.
Preparing to feed. Assigned feeders,
feeder trainees and interns should check
the clipboard and food prep for route
assignments and any special diets and
instructions, as well as the important
update section of the Big Cat Rescue dot me
site for any major announcements prior
to the start of feeding. Buckets are
marked according to the assigned routes
and are kept refrigerated prior to
feeding. Feeding sheets are stored with
the buckets of food for each route and
should be cross-checked with a supplied
food prior to leaving food prep to
ensure that all the food required for
the route is accounted for. Feeders
should take a small feeding bucket and
extra pair of gloves and a feeding stick
when going out to feed. If an animal is
on quarantine, use only the feeding stick
that has been assigned to that
particular animal - do not use this
assigned feeding stick for any other
animal. A feeding stick is an operant
stick that is used to retrieve food that
rolls out of the lockout or to stick
feed animals that are fussy eaters. Cell
phones should be left behind or muted
before starting to feed. Any disruption
to the feeder can cause cats to be
missed or vital observations to go
unnoticed. All lions and tigers and all
cougars and leopards and selected small
cats lockout doors must be closed prior
to the start of feeding by certified
senior keeper,big cat feeder to lockout
the big cats and food aggressive small
cats out of the lockout area until all
food has been placed inside. Meds must be
prepared and distributed to the cats by
senior keeper feeder
that has been certified in med
distribution prior to the start of
feeding.
Transport. Hand-pulled carts are used to
transport the food during feeding a
route. Each route will have its own cart
and in the cart should be the food
buckets for the route, special diets
supplements for the animals on the route,
and a feeding sheet with each cat and
their diet listed. To prevent dripping
blood and food bits on the sanctuary
grounds, food items should be in the
buckets at all times, not laying on the
carts. This includes bags of ground meat.
Observations.
Feeders are responsible for observing
every animal that is fed. Observations
are critical during the feeding process.
It is the one time during the day that
the animal can be completely observed.
Take the time to accurately assess the
animal. Any unseen cat should be reported
first to the senior keeper feeder
assigned to the route and if the senior
feeder cannot locate the animal, the
coordinator should be called to the
enclosure immediately. Be sure to make
note of any abnormalities in the
animal's gait as they approach the
lockout. This is a time when any limping
can be easily observed. During the day
many animals are only observed sleeping
or lying around. At feeding time any
limping or issues affecting their gait
can be detected and reported after the
food is placed in the lockout,step back
to a safe distance and look the animal
over completely, noting any injuries, any
difficulties eating or lack of interest
in food. All animal observations should
be recorded on the animals observation
log after feeding is completed.
Inappetent animals. If an animal does
not seem interested in food at feeding
time, the observation should be reported
on the chart for the animal and any other
relevant symptoms. Midday and/or later in
the afternoon, a variety of foods should
be offered by the coordinator or a
volunteer assigned by the coordinator.
Keep in mind diet restrictions with
regards to bones and fur. Follow-up
observations should be recorded, noting
if the cat did or did not want to eat,
and listing any types of and amounts of food
consumed in ounces or pounds. If an
animal was reported as not wanting to
eat in the following days of fasting day,
the animal should be not fasted. The
animal should be offered at least half a
meal or what they did or did not eat
should be reported. Feeding procedures.
Assure food for an animal is unwrapped,
portioned and ready to deliver before
approaching the animal waiting in his or
her lockout. Never underestimate the
speed of an animal. Though they may be on
the other side of their cage, they can be
in their lockout quicker than a feeder
might ever expect. The feeder must never
place a hand or arm into the lockout for
any reason, nor have any part of their
person within reach of the animal. All
food is to be delivered safely by
tossing, pitching, or dropping food through
the cage wire from a safe distance. An
example; the animal cannot reach your
hand, the food should be delivered on to
the feeding block or into the ant
resistant bowls where available. If food
rolls out or slides out of the lockout,
the feeder should never retrieve it with
their hand! A long stick may be used to
pull the food safely away from the
lockout area so that it can be redelivered
onto the food block or into the ant
resistant bowls. If, for some reason, the
food cannot be retrieved, give the animal
another portion and try to retrieve it
at a later time when the animal is not
in the vicinity and can be done safely. A
feeder must be totally familiar with the
food aggressive nature of cats sharing
an enclosure in the order of feeding
them to ensure their safety.
And now some helpful tips by our
favorite Director of Operations. So, when
you're feeding a medium to large cat
that's not locked out and you're feeding
a chicken quarter, sometimes they're a
little bigger than this. The best thing
to do is to break it so that it
straightens it out; then you want to hold
on to the chicken to the to the thigh
bone and you want to insert the leg into
the bottom ring directly on to the
feeding stone. At that point, the cat will
usually grab the leg and pull it the
rest of the way in. That way, your hand is
not going too close to the cage wire so,
again, break it, straighten it out,
hold on to the bone, insert it into the
bottom, take your hand away, or toss it
into the bottom. For a thigh, which is big
like this or a breast, you can fold it in
half and chuck it in the same way; in
through that bottom ring, you always want
to put your food in as close to the
stone as possible because you want to
feed on the stone, not toss it to the cat.
You can drop your food from the top like
so, so that it falls into the middle of
the feeding stone. Soft ball of mush is
really too big by itself to go through a
four by four, so you want to break it up
into two smaller pieces. Flatten it out
just a little bit so that it doesn't
roll when you put it in, and toss it in
on through the bottom, again directly on
to the feeding stone. So, for smaller cats
that get a baseball,
and necks I like to just take my necks
and kind of squish them into the mush
ball and have one neck that you can toss
into the cat to distract them. And then
you could drop everything else. One big
ball in from the top or from the side.
You can distract the cat and then toss
your ball; very anxious, they run in and
out, running out, running in and out. Use
your feeding stick; take your stick, put
the mush on the end of the stick, and
insert it into the cage. Feeding amounts.
Each route has its own feeding sheet,
which lists each animal on the route and
the food types and amounts it should
receive each day. The feeding sheets are
updated frequently, so be sure to refer
to the sheet for every animal, every day.
Food amounts are described as one bag,
half bag, fourth bag, softball, baseball,
golf ball, etc. There is a ball chart in
food prep to help you judge the
appropriate sizes. Additional foods,
including whole prey, chicken, and beef
vary from day to day.
Special diets, supplements, and food logs.
Some cats have special dietary needs or
have supplements added to their food. A
list of animals that have been
prescribed special diets is located in
food prep. Special diets are pre-made and
stored in either ziplock bags or small
buckets or bowls. These are clearly
labeled with the animals' names. All
feeders should know which animals
receive special diets. The special diets
are located in the refrigerator in the
appropriate large route buckets. Every
cat that receives a supplement, such as
Cosequin, is listed on the supplement
chart. The chart is in calendar form. The
supplements chart can be found in the
left-hand sidebar of the Big Cat Rescue dot me
website under the heading, Training in
Docs and in supplement chart. They can
also be found on the Med chart page for
volunteers who have access to this site.
Each animal's name is on the chart and
appears on each day of the week that
animal is supposed to receive a
supplement. Feeders who give the
supplement to the animals should initial
next to the animal's name on the chart
after feeding has been completed.
Supplements should be mixed in a small
amount of food and given to the animal
prior to feeding the rest of the meal.
The supplement should be fully consumed
before giving any other foods. After
feeding is over, the coordinator should
ensure that each cat that was given a
supplement has been initialed by the
feeder. Some animals may require close
observation of food consumption. These
animals will be listed on the important
updates and on the dry erase board and
food prep. In some cases, their food may
be weighed prior to feeding and then the
leftovers collected, bagged, and labeled
by the feeders so they can be reweighed to
determine the exact amount consumed. In
order to collect the leftovers,
lock the animal out of their feeding
lockout. This amount should be logged on
the animal's observation log daily until
further notice. Routes. Feeders must
familiarize themselves with the layouts
of the feeding routes as they differ
from the cleaning routes. A feeding route
map can be found on the Big Cat Rescue dot me
site under the heading, Training and
docs in classes and maps. Each route
will be assigned at least one senior
feeder and, if available, one certified
feeder. It may have two volunteers or
interns observing or being observed
feeding. Feeder trainees will learn the
proper technique for feeding each animal
through the observation and training
process.
Feeder trainees must observe certified trainers
feeding the cats of each route three
times. After this, the feeder trainee must
feed with instruction from a trainer
three times on each route before
becoming certified to feed each route
unsupervised. Certification is that the
trainer's in the operation manager's
discretion and feeder trainees may
require more than three observations or
instructional sessions. Once
certification is complete on all routes,
the feeder can now act as a certified
trainer to sign off other feeder
trainees if approved by the operations
manager. Safety procedures. Feeders must,
at all times,
observe the highest standards of safety.
Feeders are only permitted to feed the
cats at the same level they are trained
to clean. All animals are to be fed in
their lockout unless otherwise specified.
No part of the person may pass through
the wire into the cage or come within
reaching distance of any animal. All
tigers, lions, cougars, leopards, and
selected small cats' lockout doors must
be closed prior to the start of feeding
by certified senior keeper big cat
feeder to lock the big cats out of their
lockout area until the food has been
placed inside. Any feeder are not confident
in feeding a particular animal safely,
you should notify a trainer or senior
feeder and should not feed that animal
under any circumstances.
Clean up. Cleaning procedures are posted
in food prep and must be followed every
day. When washing bowls or buckets, extra
care should be given while rinsing to
remove traces of soap or bleach. Carts
should also be cleaned and placed in
their storage area. The trash should be
removed and thrown away. The coordinator
should be consulted regarding what to do
with any leftover foods.-EDITED-RE-DQ