Looking to deepen your expertise in zoo animal nutrition? Our Knowledge Base offers practical insights, research findings, and feeding advice—covering everything from digestive systems and diet composition to enrichment strategies and sustainability.
Created for zoo professionals, this resource helps you make informed decisions and optimize animal welfare through science-based nutrition.
Raw meat and prey animals contain natural bacteria. For healthy animals these bacteria are harmless. For people, especially young children, elderly and people with a weakened immune system, the bacteria can cause problems. Therefore it is important that raw food products are handled in the right way.
When formulating a diet for an animal, it is important that vegetables are used that meet the needs of the animal. The definition of vegetables is: 'all edible parts of plants that are not fruits or seeds'. This broad definition ensures that vegetables have very diverse nutritional values. Vegetables can be divided into four categories: leafy vegetables, root vegetables, fruit vegetables and other vegetables. The last two categories are occasionally also grouped together as watery vegetables. Table 1 shows examples of the four categories with associated vegetables. The nutritional differences per category are explained below, supported by various bar charts from table 2. Table 1. Different vegetables divided over four categories Leafy vegetables Leaves are the parts of plants where most photosynthesis takes place. As a result, these are the parts of the plant that often contain the most nutrients. For example, leafy vegetables are often rich in vitamins and minerals. In addition, leafy vegetables are one of the few natural sources of folic acid (vitamin B11), which is important for the production of red blood cells and the proper functioning of the nerves. Leafy greens are low in available carbohydrates but relatively high in protein, fat and fibre. Table 2 shows the nutritional values of some leafy vegetables. Root vegetables Based on their properties, root vegetables can be divided into true roots or modified stems. Sweet potato, carrots and cassava are examples of true roots. While potatoes, radishes and beets are examples of modified stems. Root vegetables mainly grow below soil and function as a storage space for starch. As a result, they often also contain a high content of fibre and available carbohydrates, which mainly consist of starches instead of sugars. On the other hand, the amount of water is also on the lower side. Table 2 shows the nutritional values of some root vegetables. Fruit vegetables Fruit vegetables include tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers. These are all characterized by having a fleshy and seed-rich texture. Fruit vegetables are relatively low in protein, fat, fibre, available carbohydrates and minerals. However, they contain a relatively high amount of water and vitamins. The available carbohydrates in fruit vegetables mainly consist of sugars and hardly any starch, which means that the total amount of sugar is also relatively high. Table 2 shows the nutritional values of some fruit vegetables. Other vegetables As the name suggests, the other vegetables category is suitable for vegetables that are more difficult to place in one of the other three categories. Because this category is quite diverse, it is more difficult to make general statements. A remarkable feature of many of these vegetables is that they mainly consist of a stem. These vegetables also often contain a higher content of proteins, fibers and vitamins. On the other hand, the amount of available carbohydrates is often lower. Table 2 shows the nutritional values of some vegetables within this category. *Graphs are based on the average values of the different categories in table 2* Table 2. Nutritional composition of different vegetables divided over four categories Source: Food composition and nutrition tables, Souci, Fachmann and Kraut, 7th revised and completed edition
In the wild, tarantulas often eat large insects or small reptiles. So they are quite capable of digesting animal food. In principle, day-old chicks could also be suitable for this purpose. However, feeding day-old chicks to a tarantula may involve risks. These risks are related to pesticides that can be used in the laying poultry sector. A common parasite in this sector is the bird mite, also known as blood lice. Blood lice are a danger to humans and animals because they can transmit diseases but can also lead to weakening of the animal. To control blood lice, pesticides containing permethrin as an active ingredient can be used in the laying hen industry. Permethrin affects the parasite's nervous system, causing the parasite to die. Mites, like ticks, belong to the class of arachnids. They are thus related to the spider and have a similar body structure. This means that the nervous system of the (bird) spider is also affected when it comes into contact with permethrin. Our day-old chicks come from different hatcheries. The hatcheries themselves usually do not use blood lice control. However, it cannot be guaranteed that the hens have never been treated with it. Especially the first eggs laid by a mother animal may therefore contain a small dose of permethrin. In this way, it is therefore also possible that the first chicks may have a small dose of permethrin in them. For the chicks, this poses no danger, but for a tarantula that subsequently eats the chicks, it can pose a great risk. We therefore strongly advise against feeding day-old chicks to your tarantula.
Most people know that variation in an animal’s diet is important. But what does variation mean and why is it so important? The right variation With Kiezebrink’s BARF products and their minced meat mixtures variation is necessary to form a balanced diet. This is because these products on its own are not considered to be a complete diet. This means they must be varied to form a balanced diet. There are four categories of meat: white meat, red meat, game meat and fish. During the week when at least one sort of each meat category is fed, then it can be assumed that a balanced diet is fed. In the following overview the sorts of meat in each category is illustrated. Red meat BeefLambHorseDuck White meat ChickenTurkeyQuailRabbit Game HarePheasantPigeon Fish SalmonFat fish Why variation? Dogs and cats are in need of all kinds of nutrients. When only one sort of meat is fed, it’s likely that certain nutrients will be lacking in their diet. This is because different categories of meat have differing nutritional values. Fish for example contains a high percentage of omega 3 fatty acids and selenium. Red meat contains high levels of vitamin B12, while white meat contains more vitamins B3 and B6. Also, the structures of the protein in meat (the amino acids) vary by the type of meat. Therefore it’s important to feed all the different categories of meat, to make sure the dog or cat receives a wide range of nutrients. BARF diet? When feeding the BARF products from Kiezebrink it is not only important to vary with different types of meat but to also include muscle meats, organs and meaty bones. More information about this can be found via this link .
We use animal by-products for our raw food products. These raw materials consist of all kinds of parts such as organ meats, backs and necks. With some raw materials there is a risk that the thyroid gland is still present, such as necks and throats. The risk of this is that thyroid hormone may still be present in the tissue of the thyroid gland, which can cause health problems in dogs and cats. To make sure that these raw materials do not contain (remnants of) thyroid tissue, we have them analyzed for iodine content. The thyroid hormones T3 and T4 consist mainly of iodine. If the amount of iodine in the diet is low, there may not be much T4 in it. These analyzes showed that throats contain a high iodine content, which is why we do not use them. Other raw materials such as chicken necks and duck necks contain little iodine (less than 0.1 mg/kg), so these are used in a number of products.
It has long been known that feeding whole prey animals to felines has a positive effect on gastrointestinal health. A study was recently conducted to find out more about what causes this. For this, a group of cats were fed two different diets: ground mice or whole mice. For the study, the cats were given extruded kibble. To measure different things, urine and faeces were collected. It did not matter in the results whether ground or whole mice were fed. Both diets had a positive effect on intestinal flora. The ratio in fatty acids produced by the gut bacteria was better, and fewer harmful fermentation products were produced. So this study showed a clear positive effect on gut health by feeding both ground and unground mice. Unfortunately, current legislation does not allow feeding mice to domestic cats as it does not fall under category 3a or 3b of animal by-products. Nevertheless, it is likely that this effect also applies to feeding raw food, similar effects have also been seen in other studies. D'Hooghe SM-TJ, Bosch G, Sun M, et al. How important is food structure when cats eat mice? British Journal of Nutrition. 2024;131(3):369-383. doi:10.1017/S0007114523002039
