On Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day, the zoo is closed.  Most businesses shut down, and employees go spend time with their families.  For zookeepers, the zoo animal family comes first on the holidays!  At least 2-3 workers come in for a few hours to make sure all the animals get fed.

Today, we cooked up double the food for the animals and stored the extra in the fridge- all labeled to ensure each animal gets the right diet.  Most of the zookeepers agree that the holidays are some of the best days to take care of the animals.  There’s very little traffic on the way to work, a peaceful calm to the zoo, and one day that you’re not scooping poop!  I imagine the animals enjoy getting us out of their fur, scales, or feathers for most of the day, too.

In keeping with the holiday spirit, many of the animals get special treats with their diets.  It’s a day of feasting for us; the animals should join in the fun too!  Besides special treats, they’ll all get a bit of pumpkin pie spice.  Many animals enjoy different scents in their homes- something to spice up their life!  Since pumpkin pie is not veterinarian recommended, we’ll try the next best thing.

If you’re on Facebook, be sure to look up ZooAmerica.  Our marketing friends made a special video just for Thanksgiving that will be posted Thursday morning.  Included in the video is a clip of a rattlesnake eating a rat.  In order to get the footage, the camera had to tape overnight since our Western Diamondback is a very shy eater. 

Have a wonderful holiday!