Understanding what we are feeding the animals in our care is essential to their health and well-being. Nutritional health is integral to the medical health of any animal. Dr. Matt knows first-hand what it requires to run a 24/7/365 nutrition department in the zoo field. This job requires in-depth knowledge of daily diet preparation, food safety protocols and regulations, vendor contract negotiations, diet analysis and formulation, clinical care of the animals, research design and assessment, and public relations to help tell the story of animals and the foods they eat. There isn't an aspect of this field that we can't help you improve.
Formulating new diets or reworking existing diets is an involved process that requires both the technical knowhow and adaptability to get the right diet for your animal. Dr. Matt will work with your staff to take an in-depth look at the diets you are providing and find ways to help make those diets even better to improve the health and well-being of your animals.
- Diets analyzed on both a species and individual level against all known dietary requirements and recommendations
- Reformulation of diets based on the most up-to-date research available to help maximize animal health
- Synthesis of new diets for any animals added to your facility’s animal population
- Analysis of enrichment food items for species appropriateness and recommended allowances per animal or group
The day-to-day medical care of your animals is paramount. Clinical care consultations are focused on specific medical cases that contain nutritional components. This includes hand-rearing cases, troubleshooting medical cases, and body condition scoring, among other things. This consultation is where Dr. Matt works directly with your veterinary team and the keepers to work one-on-one with the animals that need it the most.
- Work with your Animal Health team to troubleshoot any medical cases that have a nutritional component
- Provide recommendations for feeding strategies for incoming animals, hand-rearing, and clinical cases
- Train staff on appropriate species specific visual and tactile body condition scoring of animals to help track individual animal health
Dealing with a finicky eater or over-eater can be very frustrating for staff that want the best for the animal. Even the perfectly formulated diet that meets all nutritional requirements is no good if the animal will not eat it. Dr. Matt can work with the direct support staff of an animal to learn more about the individual animal and work out a diet plan that will help the animals consume a diet that is appropriate and enriching for them.
- Work with keeper and curatorial staff to troubleshoot diet compliance by generating diet item rotation schedules, optimal feeding times, and enriching activity-based feeding methods
- Create target weight ranges for animals and feeding plans to help achieve these goals
The diets for these animals are recipes for the animals’ success. Like any recipes, their successful execution comes from proper preparation by trained staff in a kitchen equipped for their needs. Dr. Matt has spent many years working in some of the best zoo kitchens in the country, and, through his experience, he knows what works and what doesn’t. He will use that experience to walk through your daily meal preparation routines to keep your kitchens clean and ready for any inspection or tour that comes through the door.
- Diet preparation instruction for any diets formulated by Dr. Matt.
- Recommend equipment that would be needed for the kitchens to improve diet preparation
- Kitchen and animal-area walk-throughs to identify any items that need attention to make sure areas can pass any inspections
Your nutrition staff are the first line of defense when it comes to food safety, and your keeper staff are the last line of defense. Dr. Matt can train all of your staff on safe food handling procedures and how to pick out the good food from the bad when receiving, preparing, and presenting food for your animals.
- Train staff through both presentations and hands-on demonstrations on proper food handling protocols, sanitation techniques, and equipment safety (including knife handling skills)
- Provide protocols for cleaning, food storage, preparation, and delivery along with protocols for care for any feeder animals and insects
- Provide recommended food sampling schedules, sampling protocols, and recommendations for feed tests to run and laboratories to send the samples for analysis
Managing the preparation of diets of your animals is a complicated matter. It takes selecting vendors, receiving the goods, portioning out the diets, and delivering them to the animal areas. Within these many steps, there is usually room for improvement of the process that can save your facility resources, staff time, and money. Dr. Matt can analyze your process and help capture those small inefficiencies and remove them so that you can convert them to big gains for your facility.
- Workflow efficiency recommendations to improve kitchen workflow and diet delivery to help maximize productivity of staff time
- Analysis of vendor recruitment, scopes of work, contracts, and compliance to ensure your facility is getting the best quality service and products for your animals
Evidenced-based research is the cornerstone of the zoo field. Properly planned and conducted research projects help improve our understanding of the animals, their diets, and their health. Dr. Matt has spent 19 years designing, performing, and reporting nutrition-based research. He has authored multiple peer-reviewed manuscripts, is a reviewer for 5 separate journals, and has presented his findings in the U.S. and internationally.
- Advise on nutrition related research projects including help with planning, experimental design, protocols, troubleshooting, and analysis of results
- Review manuscripts before submittal to journals to ensure all nutrition related aspects meet the reviewer standards for publication
Educating the public is the duty of any zoo animal facility. It is of vital importance that the message gets to the public about how your work is providing the best care for the animals. Getting this messaging right means making sure you first are educating your staff. Dr. Matt has worked extensively with providing training for keeper staff, marketing departments, education departments, docents, and zoo teens to make sure that the ones interacting directly with the public are always providing accurate scientific information.
- Training presentations targeted to your designated audience that can cover any nutrition related aspect including general zoo nutrition, diet preparation, facility design, daily operations, research, species specific digestive morphology, and more
- Working directly with the curatorial and marketing staff to review any signage or marketing campaign material for accuracy or suggestions for species specific facts or data
- Provide “fun facts” regarding diet details of any diets analyzed by Dr. Matt, such as “how much food does the animal consume in a day/week/year?”; “how much does it cost to feed this animal?”; “This animal’s diet is unique because…”
