Each type of animal has its specific time to eat. Some more intelligent animals are trained with a clicker. When the keeper uses the clicker, the animal knows that food is coming. Sometimes, zoos offer opportunities for the public to feed some animals. One person teaches people about the animal. If an audience member answers a question about the animal correctly, he or she can get a chance to feed it. However, if animals are overfed, they can get sick. Therefore, visitors at the zoo should not feed the animals without permission.

Different types of animals eat different things. The zoo must order food from different places or use the different vegetation it contains to feed the animals. A special expert determine the amount of nutrient each animal needs and plans out its diet. Different animals also need food cut into different sizes. The primates for example, can have larger pieces because they have hands to hold the food and eat it bite by bite. Turtles however must have food cut into small pieces. A few animals need to eat live animals in order to survive. Some animals can even eat dog food and cat food. Baby animals are mainly fed milk and formulas.

Here are the four main groups of animal diet:

Omnivores: eat meat and vegetables

Carnivore: eat meat

herbivore: eat plants

insectivore: eat insects

Sometimes, keepers will hide the food from the animals and encourage them to look for it. This type of method, called enrichment, stimulates the animals to behave like they do in the wild. Animal can spend up to half an hour working to get its food.

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