I have a wildlife zoo

Chapter 115: Chapter 115 Going Out to Play with Ice Cake

However, spiritual water isn't some kind of miracle cure-all; it just helps Fang Ye instantly recover his energy, while for the animals, it simply makes their condition a bit better.

As Fang Ye fed them spiritual water, he stroked Mingming, comforting her, "Grandma Mingming, just a few more days of quarantine and then you'll move to your new home, wow! The environment is definitely going to be nice!"

The other red panda is a female named Lingling.

After comforting a few red pandas, Fang Ye moved on to the raccoons' isolation enclosure.

The raccoons introduced this time were the common northern raccoon, also the most familiar image of a raccoon to people, with their gray and white fur mixed, and black mask-like patches on their faces, resembling bandits in black masks, which gave them a very funny and comical appearance.

In fact, there are quite a few different species under the raccoon family Procyonidae, and their appearances vary a lot. For example, the South American coati, also known as a long-nosed coati, has a slender head, which could easily be mistaken for an anteater; and the cacomistle has big eyes and protruding ears, looking like a relative of the tarsier.

Incidentally, the red panda is a species of the Ailuridae family, not related to the raccoons.

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Raccoons are quite a bold species; even though they are scared, they don't cry or cause a fuss.

Upon hearing the sound of someone coming, a few plump raccoons crowded together in the corner — two underneath, two pushing down on their friends, their upper bodies against the wall, and their paws clinging to the wall, resembling a stack of acrobats. One of the bolder ones even turned around to glance at him, creating a scene that looked like a bust at a brothel.

The remaining two seemed to have hidden inside boxes.

Completely still, not making a sound.

Silence, silence was the Camberwell tonight!

Such a scene made Fang Ye chuckle out loud, and with the Eye of Observation, he checked the raccoons' condition, which was fine.

After making his rounds and checking the condition of the animals, confirming that there were no issues, Fang Ye left.

...

He then went to the nursery to see Ice Cake.

When he pushed the door open, Lan Li was feeding Ice Cake and greeted Fang Ye as he entered.

Ice Cake could no longer keep up with nutrition by just drinking milk powder. During the first few days of starting to feed meat, milk was still mixed in to give it time to adapt because its teeth hadn't fully developed yet, and the meat fed was ground into a fine mince.

Now, it had been completely switched to little strips of veal, placed in a bowl. Lan Li gently stroked Ice Cake's head, while reaching out with a handful of the meat and bringing it to Ice Cake's mouth, coaxing, "Come on, Ice Cake, eat!"

However, seeing Fang Ye come in, Ice Cake got so excited that he tried to run toward him, but Lan Li quickly caught the cub's soft scruff and pulled him back, seriously lecturing, "Ice Cake, if you don't eat your meal nicely, you're not being a good child."

Ice Cake looked at Fang Ye with mischievous excitement, its paws tapping the floor incessantly, and its front paws even scratched the rim of the iron bowl, nearly flipping over its feeding bowl with one kick.

With his scruff gripped by Lan Li, he couldn't move an inch forward and burst into loud cries, "Wahhh, wahhh!"

As if saying, "Daddy, I've missed you so much! Play with me!"

"You want to play with Daddy but won't eat your meal properly?" Fang Ye squatted down, smiling as he scratched Ice Cake's nose. "Eating half-heartedly, there's something wrong with that attitude! If you don't eat up, how will you grow up to be a strong big White Tiger?"

If there were a little left in the bowl, it might be that he had eaten his fill and didn't want any more; but with so much still remaining, it was clear he was just playful and didn't want to eat properly.

The artificial rearing environment was too good, with full meals provided every day, and never a moment of hunger.

Ice Cake's belly was always round and plump; just missing one meal would make a child understand how delicious meat can be.

In fact, the tigers fed in the zoo don't receive meat every day, and it's best to stop feeding for one to two days a week, and offer live prey once.

Because animals and humans are different, tigers in the wild don't catch prey every day. It's possible for them to hunt and feast and then go several days hungry. A cycle of hunger and fullness is normal, and this helps keep tigers in a more active, healthy and natural state.

Fang Ye now also stops feeding Jiaojiao once a week, but attempts at offering live prey failed. When a chicken was thrown into Jiaojiao's cage, the chicken, sensing the presence of the tiger, was so frightened it was about to pee itself, flapping around incessantly and desperately trying to fly to the edge of the cage.

However, Jiaojiao seemed utterly baffled by the jumping and hopping chicken because the meat she usually ate was hairless and bright red, and she had no idea the chicken was her food.

There was no helping it, captive tigers are like that, without the opportunity to hunt and no lessons from adult tigers when they are young. So, Fang Ye contemplated when to give Jiaojiao some extra lessons to teach her some of the wildness a tiger should possess.

Ice Cake blinked her blue eyes, making a humming and chirping sound in her throat, as if she was cooing at him.

Normally, young tiger cubs have water-blue eyes, but by this age, they usually fade to a pale yellow or yellow, with black pupils, like Jiaojiao's bright amber yellow eyes.

However, White Tiger's eyes remain a beautiful blue or turquoise color, usually pale blue, and they don't turn yellow as they grow older.

Lan Li supported Ice Cake's chin with one hand and stuffed meat towards her mouth with the other, speaking softly, "Good girl, Ice Cake, finish your meal and then the director will take you out to play."

Ice Cake still twitched restlessly, trying to bite Lan Li's fingers. She quickly withdrew her hand, "You little naughty Ice Cake! No biting people."

The little one now has teeth and loves biting, nibbling clothes, pants, and shoes. Lan Li's sleeves had been torn by bites, and the rubber soles of her sneakers looked as if they'd been repeatedly pierced with a needle, the deeper puncture-like holes made by Ice Cake's canine teeth marked where the rubber's elasticity had bounced back.

Being bitten on the hand was quite painful indeed, and in another month, a bite could result not just in pain but in two deep bloody holes.

If bitten, there was nothing to be done. Being an animal keeper looking after these little ones, it's inevitable to get some scars on hands and legs.

The netizens found the little tigers adorable, loving them to bits, all wanting to have one. But behind the cute animals, the keepers have to put in a lot of blood, sweat, and indeed, sometimes actual blood.

Of course, the little tigers didn't mean to hurt the keepers on purpose. They were too young, still a bit wobbly walking, let alone capable of controlling the strength in their mouths. Like Jiaojiao biting Fang Ye's arm, which looked quite scary but actually left no wound at all.

Lan Li looked toward Fang Ye with a helpless smile.

Fang Ye laughed, "Here, let me feed Ice Cake this time!"

As he took over, although Ice Cake seemed a bit reluctant to eat, she still decently lay down and took a bite. She chewed, her little tongue licking her lips, and then looked up at him with her blue eyes.

"Eat more! More! If you don't eat well, you won't have the energy to play!"

Fang Ye grabbed a few more pieces of meat and held them to Ice Cake's mouth. After reluctantly taking a bite, she started chasing Fang Ye's fingers, her front paws attempting to cling to his hand before she tumbled and sat down with a plop.

She got up and moved toward the door, looking back at Fang Ye and started to cry, "Woo waah ahh ahh!"

It was as if she was urging, "Daddy, let's go! Time to play outside!"

Fang Ye stroked his chin, "Seems like she really doesn't want to eat anymore! We'll feed her after she exercises. Come on, you little rascal, let's go out and get moving!"

Ice Cake: "Waah ahh ahh!"