Contributed by, Nicola Gothard
Leaf Cake
Ingredients
- Lots of Leaves
- Honey or Jam or Marmite or Peanut butter
- Dry dog food or peanuts
- A large plastic container e.g. a bin/trash can
Serves: 2 sunbears
Instructions
1. Start by putting a layer of leaves in to the container. Compact them down dense.
2. Sprinkle bits of dog food
3. Add more leaves and compact
4. Drizzle honey over the leaves
5. Add more leaves and compact
6. Repeat this process until the container is full
7. Take to the enclosure and gently turn the container upside down and shake out the cake
As you may have guessed this cake is not fit for human consumption but I know a couple of sun bears that enjoyed it muchos. The leafcake is excellent environmental enrichment and could be adapted for other species. It allows the bears to express their motivation to forage and use their senses of touch and smell to find the food. It also prolongs the feeding process and gives them something to do. Animals in captivity can become very bored and it is important to provide environmental enrichment that allows them to express their natural internally motivated behaviours. These bears spent ages delicately sifting through the leaves to find the food and licking the honey coated leaves. They really seemed to enjoy themselves.
Tuck In!
I think I had a bit too much honey
