Zookeeper experience for kids?

[bonnemaman1990]

Has anyone done a zookeeper experience with their children? Any in particular you would recommend?

i don’t know where you are, but Colchester zoo offer a wide range of these and shorter experiences , they are really great.

DD did one at Chester Zoo (bat keeper experience) and loved it!

Edinburgh zoo did a brilliant one- we combined it with a city break there and it was wonderful.
Also did an ‘experience’ ( shorter with just one animal) at Longleat which was also great with really knowledgeable keepers. My children loved both .

New Forest Wildlife Park certainly used to do fab keeper experiences which were more hands on than you tend to find in zoos.

Sorry should have said- based in Midlands but willing to travel for a good experience.
thanks for your suggestion - off to have a look!

Have a look at West Midland Safari park. I’m sure they used to do them, not sure about now

how about flamingo land nr yorkshire ...great zoo and theme park and you can book holidays on the site also....

We’ve done them at Colchester zoo which was great both times and have also done a red panda experience at Longleat which was also great.

My dd did one at Marwell zoo, she really enjoyed it.

I’ve looked at few for my DD. Dudley zoo do one for £100. Then there are a few smaller places, the Rodbaston Animal Experience, Burntwood Alpacas and Hoo Farm.

Drusilla’s has an excellent zoo keeper day, well worth it. It’s a full day and they get to get involved with loads of animals.

It’s a bit far, but The Isle of Wight zookeeper experience was incredible.

A friend of mine’s child did one at twycross zoo for the whole day and thought it was amazing. Thats probably not too far from you?

Mine have done pretty much all of them

by far the best were
Linton zoo

BCA college

linton was the best with bca a very very close second.
we also did a fish keeper for the day which was fantastic (or fintastic!)

My daughters have both done one at Drusillas near Eastbourne. It’s a small scale zoo, no big tigers or anything. It’s a solo experience so no big group and best of all my daughters were 7 and 8 when they did it (individually) so an adult got to accompany for free each time.

They cleaned and/or fed. Capybaras, meerkats, bats, penguins, lemurs, rabbits, guinea pigs. Cannot remember what else. You also got a t shirt / sweatshirt and certificate etc.

you also prep the food for them at the start of the day. My oldest did porcupines as well however you were not allowed to take discarded spines with you anymore after someone took one and injured themselves. I seem to remember they may have taken it to bed!

I thought it was absolutely great. Probably more for under 12’s than teens though given the smaller animals.

My daughter has just done one at Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire for her 10th birthday. It was brilliant - the zoo keeper was amazing with her and she got to feed/look after 6 different types of animal over 3 hours. We went to loads of backstage areas and they only have one child at a time so it's a fully personal experience. Highly recommended!

Mine had a day at Blackpool which was ace. We warned him that it was probably going to involve a lot of mucking out, and sure enough the first time we saw the group they were all marching off with rakes in hand 🤣. He came back telling us all about the giraffes, camels and otters in particular, and really loved the day.

We have done Edinburgh it’s really good. Expensive though

@Sherunswithwolves I've just looked at the Blackpool ones and it says children have to be accompanied by a paying adult - DS would need an adult too as he has some SEN and epilepsy - but I'm interested to see if your DS did a different one with no additional adults as maybe DD would like it for a birthday present.

Another recommendation for Blackpool zoo.

Mine did the 3 day keeper academy course which she really enjoyed and she then applied and got on the conservation camp the following year this year which gave her lots of experience, a reference and good stuff for her ucas statement. Plus a T-shirt and a great raincoat. Hopefully I’ve linked to the course pages - these sell out so quickly so worth following the zoo and their education page on Facebook courses www.blackpoolzoo.org.uk/education-and-conservation/education---conservation/keeper-courses

DD has SEN and some disabilities and was well looked after.

My son did the Keeper Apprentice day which included a free adult ticket. The pages I've just checked all still show free entry for one adult for the three younger age groups. We attended a discussion for the first 20 minutes or so and then the children just went off with the group and we wandered around for the day.