We all love to eat and our animals are no exception. With carnivores, omnivores, insectivores, herbivores, and many dietary restrictions in mind, our keepers are responsible for preparing all of our animals’ meals, giving it to the animal, and of course cleaning up afterwards. Many may be interested to know that the food our animals eat is food we would eat, much of which is purchased at local grocery stores! One of the biggest rules our keepers follow when preparing diets is “if you wouldn’t eat it, then do not serve it to the animals.” This rule ensures that our kitchen is always stocked with fresh, high quality produce.

Each animal has a formulated diet that is written down on their diet sheet like the one shown for the gibbons.

You will notice that most of the food the gibbons (and many of our other animals) eat can be found in your very own kitchen! By using these diet sheets, our staff know exactly what each animal is eating at any given time.

When a keeper comes into work in the morning, they know what was fed overnight and can continue with the animals’ uniform dietary schedule. Many animals, like the sloths, eat separately and are given the same food, but with different portions. This makes it simple for our keepers to create an individualized dietary plan that fits each animal’s specific needs. However, other species such as the Japanese macaques (aka snow monkeys) are fed together and because of their social hierarchy, the keepers have less control over what each individual animal gets.

Although the animals’ diet are uniform during most of the week, on Fridays the zookeepers give out a “treat of the week”. For animals that enjoy eating fruit, this treat usually includes an in-season fruit that the animals do not normally get such as pineapple, strawberries and/or kiwi. Our pumas and other carnivores receive a bone to chew. These bones clean their teeth and provide enrichment. While most carnivores will chew up the bone and then drop it, our wolverines will eat the entire bone.

The animals at the Minnesota Zoo enjoy a balanced diet, just like us! Our keepers do a tremendous job making sure that our animals are happy, healthy and well-fed.