Listening to Burrito food squeak never gets old.
Food
Negra loves corn on the cob
Watch and listen:
St. Patrick’s Day
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!
Burrito’s 34th Birthday Bash
Burrito is so easy to shop for. All he ever wants for his birthday is food.
The other chimps were more than happy to help him celebrate.
Of course, it’s not a real party until someone gets upset. Even when there’s more than enough to go around, someone (ahem, Jamie) has to take more than their fair share.
Thankfully, Jody was mature enough to extend an olive branch to Jamie and move on. Jody should be awarded some kind of medal for what she puts up with.
Burrito managed to avoid the camera most of the day, but rest assured, he ate enough to last him until next January. Now, it’s time to sleep it off. Happy 34th, big guy.
Christmas in the Chimp House
What a day!
Thanks for giving these chimps a reason to celebrate. It is such a joy for us to see your support transformed into pant hoots, food squeaks, and hugs. Happy Holidays!
Hanukkah and Christmas Eve
Anna and I decided to give the chimps some treats today to celebrate both the first night of Hanukkah and Christmas Eve. You may have noticed that we are pretty strict with the chimpanzees’ diet – nothing with added sugar, very little salt, and rarely any processed foods. Most of their diet consists of raw (sometimes cooked) fruits and vegetables, seeds, nuts, and a bit of commercially made primate chow, which is like a protein biscuit.
Even when we treat the chimps to something they don’t get very often, we try to stick to our dietary goals. It keeps them healthy, and they still love the food they get everyday!
In celebration of Christmas Eve, we set out “milk and cookies” (watered down warm almond milk + primate chow). I’d say it was a hit:
Burrito:
Jamie:
Foxie:
Missy:
Negra:
Jody looking pretty happy:
For the Hanukkah part of the celebration, Anna made some delicious looking (and delicious tasting – we had to try them for ourselves) salt-free potato latkes and I made some sugar-free chunky applesauce to go on top.
The chimps ate the latkes so fast, we weren’t able to get many photos.
Foxie brought France Dora to the meal, because she’s cosmopolitan like that:
Jamie being served by Anna with Burrito on the right:
Missy being served with Burrito looking on (I promise Burrito got at least his fair share too):
Annie took her latkes to the doorway to savor:
Definitely a win for fun food today!
In between the treats we humans came up with, they found some of their own…
And made some time to rest too:
Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and holiday wishes to everyone! There will be even more treats for the chimps tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who supports the sanctuary – you make EVERY day a celebration.
The Best Enrichment, From Burrito’s Point of View
Each and every day, the chimpanzees are given various enrichment objects, including dolls, boots, hard plastic and wooden toys, blankets, paper and a slew of other items for them to use at their own will. Each of the chimps prefer different items, say for instance, Foxie loves her dolls, Jamie loves her boots and Negra and Jody love their blankets. But, for Burrito, food tends to be the best enrichment of all!
Check out Anna’s great blog post for more about how we use food in different forms as enrichment for the chimps.
Burrito
And here’s a bonus picture of Annie that I couldn’t resist adding to the blog.
