<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-825" title="enrichment_options" src="http://aecetia.net/gws/aazk/wp-content/uploads/enrichment_options.jpg" alt="enrichment_options" width="482" height="189" />

<em>By
Deborah Wettlaufer, Enrichment Officer
Cheetah Outreach
Cape Town, South Africa</em>

Our caracal (<em>Caracal caracal</em>) is very food-motivated and always eats rapidly.  Because she lacks her back molars, we cannot give her small bones, such as chicken on the bone, but we sometimes give her large turkey or horse bones to prolong feeding.  As a special treat, she is occasionally given a ‘bloodsicle’ made of frozen blood and pieces of meat.  To provide more of a challenge, I decided to hang a larger bloodsicle for her.  I froze blood and 150g (~5.3 oz.) of turkey pieces in a medium-sized plastic container with a string with knots inserted through a hole in the middle of the top so it would freeze in the center of the bloodsicle.

To make it even more interesting for her, we hung the bloodsicle from a bungee feeder.  The bungee feeder consists of one meter of bungee cord with one end attached to a length of nylon cord with a clip on the end to attach it to the top of the enclosure.  The other end also has a clip from which various food items can be attached.  The bungee cord is contained within one meter of garden hose to prevent it from wrapping around any of the animal’s extremities or swinging back in the animal’s face.

After we hung the bloodsicle, she immediately came to investigate it.  At first she seemed a little confused about how to approach it since she is used to her bloodsicles on a flat surface.  She tried to lick the bloodsicle from a standing position but every time she licked it, it moved about.  She constantly moved around it to gain a better position, batting at it and trying to grab it when it moved.    Eventually she figured out that sitting down and holding it with one paw kept it from moving around so she could lick continuously.  If the bloodsicle moved at all, she dug her claws in deeper to stabilize it.  As blood dripped on to her fur, she stopped a few times to clean herself, and then resumed licking.  While licking, she appeared as though she was in a trance, oblivious to everything around her.<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2104" title="caracal_bloodsicle" src="http://aecetia.net/gws/aazk/wp-content/uploads/caracal_bloodsicle.jpg" alt="caracal_bloodsicle" width="417" height="620" />

As she licked the bloodsicle, the meat at the bottom gradually was exposed and she became very excited.  She tried a new tactic of grabbing the meat with her teeth and trying to rip it out of the bloodsicle.  Occasionally she tried to carry the whole bloodsicle off but it bounced away from her and she ran after it, grabbed it and began ripping at the meat again.  She worked at it until the bloodsicle and meat were gone.

We considered this exercise successful in that it prolonged feeding, challenged her cognitive skills and kept a very intelligent and active cat busy for almost 45 minutes.

<strong>BHC Comments by Enrichment Options Co-Editor Julie Hartell-DeNardo:</strong>
Deborah, thank you for sharing your paper with the AAZK Forum readers.  This is a great example of using a food presentation-based enrichment strategy to increase both the behaviors involved in food consumption as well as the amount of time spent engaged in food acquisition-related behaviors.  The animal is stimulated mentally to figure out how to obtain the more challenging and enticing food.  Additionally the caracal participated in more physical activity, using more muscles and energy than it would if just presented with food in a routine location.  This creative feeding strategy could be effective with other small carnivore species or even large carnivores – or if the meat and blood are substituted for produce and juice this idea may even translate into primate species applications.

Some safety considerations to keep in mind with bungee and rope enrichment components is to:

•   ensure no loops exists that could act to trap an appendage or head,
•   determine a length that minimizes slack and prevents the possibility of excess to wrap                  around an animal or body part, and
•   when possible, enclose rope/bungees in pvc or other piping that can act to stabilize
the length of the rope/bungee and prevents wrap around or dangerous loops from                  forming while the animal is engaged with the enrichment.

Thanks again to Deborah for this fantastic idea with diverse potential applications!

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