March 6 2018

Lauren Buckingham’s Coordinator notes for Monday, 3/5/2018

We had a great day today with a good number of volunteers.

It was cooler this morning so all of the cats took their ivermectin.

We managed to get food prep finished before lunch so that the interns could all go out on tours this afternoon. We also had a private, education and kids tour at noon.

Operant sign offs were done for Steph and Lisa.

Bab’s and a tree crew are working out in the rehab cages. They got a lot done today moving trees but will be back first thing tomorrow to continue.

Picky cats ate well. Cameron really likes his food dipped in liver juices.

We got a new intern today, her name is Paz.

That’s it from me!

Big Cat Rescue welcomes 3 new arrivals to the sanctuary. Meet Hutch the serval, and our two new rehab bobcat kittens, Lucky and Clover.

Have you ever wanted to walk along with a keepers as they feed the lions and tigers? If so tag along with Keeper Devin and his GoPro as he feeds the tigers. This is a different kind of Wildcat Walkabout video.

The cats get a big breakfast every morning. However, when they don’t eat it all keepers pick up up, take it back to food prep and weigh it and it is noted on the cat’s chart how much they left. Then later in the day another keeper will take that amount of a different kind of meat out to the cat. Keepers repeat that process throughout the day until the cats eat their entire diet. Most of the cats eat all their breakfast but when one does not, it goes on the chart that the vets check every day.

Keeper Devin has started a YouTube channel and it posting his BCR GoPro videos there.

NOTE TO VIEWERS: Let me know in the comments if you want to continue to see Keeper Devin’s video on Big Cat Updates.

CamOp Kristine submitted an update from last night about Noel:

Noel was very active last night and ate her rat and chick. She was out almost all night watching things and playing. She even batted her ball around a bit! She also sat on her coolaroo for a while. She didn’t eat the rat right away, she took it to the other side of the enclosure and tried to bury it in the grass, lol. Later, she went back and ate it.

She had a ball, flipping the chick or a small rat in the air for a while, madly playing with it and then she ate it too. So cute.

She’s still trying to dig her way out, under the feeding tube, lol. I though you and the Rehab Team would want to know that she ate and was very active overnight.

Have a wonderful day!

Warm wishes, Kristine Metzner

PS. I attached a few photos. The first one she was sharpening her claws on the log, the second photo she was eating the chick that she was flipping in the air, the third she was playing with the ball and the fourth she was sitting on the coolaroo bathing.

A few viewers from Explore.org have sent in photos of Noel Bobcat in the rehab enclosure.  You can find the Bobcat Rehab cam link at BigCatCams.com

Many of you are familiar with the web page Carole recently created BigCatRescue.org/top5/. I would like to take the questions and links from this page BigCatRescue.org/quick-links/ and add them to the bottom of Carole’s /top5/ page.

It would be a great help if those of you who help respond to questions on Carole’s live videos and around the internet could take a look at the BigCatRescue.org/quick-links/ page and let me know if there are other common questions you think should be added to this list when moving it to the bottom of the /top5/ page.

Think about the kinds of questions about Big Cat Rescue or big cat issues you sometime need help finding answers to or that you sometimes need the links for helping newcomers learn.

This page is being made FOR YOU, so we are interested in YOUR thoughts.