The time of year is upon us when greens and browse items are especially plentiful. Negra took advantage of today’s forage by eating her way through ample amounts of mini bok choy brought to us by Charlie’s Produce who delivers our weekly produce orders and a browse forage of cattails picked fresh from our nearby pond. If you want to help keep the chimpanzees stocked up on produce, consider becoming a Produce Patron. Many happy food grunts from Negra and her fellow sanctuary residents to all our Produce Patrons!
produce
Are Chimpanzees Picky Eaters?
People are often curious what foods the chimps like. The Cle Elum Seven as a group are not very picky – not nearly as picky as other chimpanzees I’ve known. The bulk of the food we provide for the chimps is raw (or sometimes baked or otherwise cooked) fresh produce, and almost everyone eats almost everything we serve. There are a couple of exceptions, of course.
Jamie, for example, eats almost everything, but really does not appreciate the skin of carrots, so we peel hers for her. She also will often turn up her nose if there’s raw spinach in the chimps’ morning smoothie, though I discovered the other day that cooked spinach (frozen and then thawed and blended up with some fruit and almond milk) is better than okay in her opinion. Foxie is probably the pickiest, and declines several different vegetables, preferring fruit. Surprisingly, she loves smoothie with either raw or cooked spinach, even though it’s doubtful she would eat spinach on its own.
Strangely (or maybe not so strange for those who agree with their tastes), as a group they don’t seem to care much for zucchini or summer squash, but they love pumpkin and they like spaghetti squash, so we’re always asking each other – do you know if they will eat this squash? This is what happened tonight when Elizabeth and volunteer Tania were getting dinner together. Elizabeth held up a butternut squash and asked if I knew if the chimps liked that variety. I really wasn’t 100% positive, but Negra gave us the answer with her food squeaks:
It turns out they all loved it. Missy was probably the most excited, but was moving far too fast to get photos. We’ve learned it is always best to give things a try, even if there’s a chance that one of the chimps might not like one of the foods we serve. Sometimes tastes change, and, because we provide as large a variety of produce as possible and always have three or more choices in a given meal, there’s always something for everyone.
Party for Love a Chimpanzee Day
We put the emphasis on delicious fresh food for Love a Chimpanzee Day 2011, brought to the chimps by Monica, who sponsored a day and sent some extra cash and goodies for us to throw a party. (Find out how you can sponsor a day by visiting our donate page or contacting us).
Here is the forage before spreading it out (and a few non-food treats for the chimps):
Here’s Negra traveling with a perfectly ripe avocado – a favorite among all of the chimpanzees:
Here’s Foxie picking peas out of the “garden” that volunteer Connie created in the sandbox
Negra even opened a present!
Annie seemed fond of this new doll:
Foxie did not seem fond of the same doll, though she did seem to enjoy taking it apart – it’s all part of the fun:
It was a beautiful sunny day in Cle Elum and all of the chimps really enjoyed the goodies today. Dinner ended with lots of nuts for Negra and figs. Little do they know they’ll be having another party tomorrow!