This is a recent post on the subject of anteater enrichment from my group I did.
While Pua rarely will swim in the river she loves to play in mud or play with and rub on clay which to her would be mud but sometimes she wants to eat the clay so mud is better.
I bring her rotten logs to play with if they have bugs in them all the better.
A list of enrichment a member posted that I replied too
> peanut butter - ew no neither of mine would look at that like food and Stewie would eat anything
> ketchup - loves it
> fruit baby food - not Pua but Stewie liked fruity things
> mashed banana - sometimes
> spray cheese - always
> whole orange - rarely but stewie loved them
> whole tomato - hmm haven't tried it with Pua but Stewie like them
> whole avocado - yep both love(d) them
> whole melons - yep and any gord or squash too
> mealworms, small crickets and superworms - not so much but loves ants and earwigs I get for her. Silkworms are pricey live but great for them.
Pua likes BBQ sauce and sparkling juice. She only gets a thimble full of juice to avoid to much sugar and potential diabetes issues and any fruit is extremely rare and not a part of the diet due to sugar. She now gets sparkling juice with a bit of joint supplament mixed in since she has always favored one leg since getting her when running and want to avoid issues later in life if we can. That is really it for sweets.
I have let them take lids off of containers for treats before. They will open the fridge to get blue cheese. I put treats in bottles or rubber squeaky toys with squeaker removed and squirt cheese into the squeak hole. Works great like an anteater kong. She claws at it but her claws aren't sharp so she rarely tears them open but cheap to replace when she does.
Potting soil or dirt from the woods is fun to dig and rub in too is best if it's moist.
Pua will target and come to a squeaker for cheese so they can be trained some too to help them keep busy.
Pua's not to big on climbing but will clib up the shelves and will play with me hanging from them. Wont go on ropes or moving objects, to them is like a moving branch could break and instincts say to stay off but I've seen others use ropes. I think walkways up high and some poles along the ceiling would be used more than the rings.
Pua's not that interested in things but Stewie would open drawers and cabinet doors so a puzzle feeder should work good for most.
Pua love apples especially wormy apples but again rare and seasonal to boot.
There's one blend of essential oils Pua likes on the occasion I put a drop on my shirt but I don't know if that is good for them due to it not being good for cats.
Pua loves roses big sweet smelling ones. She really tears into those. Home grown here so no worries.
I avoid pellets and kibbles. They all have to much retinol. Hundreds of times more than they get in their wild diet in some mixes that use cat food. It is just under 3PPM (2.something) of retinol in their wild diet based on stomach contents. It's not uncommon for older anteaters on kibble/pellet diets to come down with spinal lesion and hind end issues, a sort of MBD.
Pua gets a beef diet that I do not mix with water. This also help with enrichment as she claws bits off to eat as they would claw into logs and nests for food and not just sit and drink. It's mushy sort of dough like constancy. Others have also switched to it and seen higher and more stable weights and just healthier in general to before they were on it. It's true it's most common to feed either insectivore or leafeater biscuits(more common than insectivore) often mixed with cat food. But it is not all the other zoos use. Dortmund zoo feed beef heart mix.
For scientific info on diet.
From the anlaysis of stomach contents of wild tams.
51% protein
31% fiber
11% fat
14% ash (minerals)
0.11% Ca
0.41% Phosphorus
2,748PPM Fe(iron)
4.58 kcal/g GE(gross energy or carbs)
0.10% magnesium
0.52% potasium
0.29% sodium
2.52 PPM retinol(vit A)(inectivore alone is 4.62 PPM)
44.3 PPM a-tocopherol(vit E)
190PPM zinc
82PPM manganese
28PPM copper
4PPM selenium
In my mix though some times I vary like adding thyme or using mushrooms sometimes
3 cups 75% lean beef, 3 cups silkworm pupae(or other insects fresh, give less if powdered/pelleted dry pupae), 1/2 cup flax seeds ground to a meal, 1/2 cup wheat bran, 1/3 cup spinach, 1 cup beef heart, 3tbls unsulphered black strap molasses, 2tbls nutritional brewer's yeast(am now using 1 cup wheat bran and a 1/4 cup flax for solid dog like poops and ups the fiber)
41.42% protein
7% fiber
36.54% fat
4.98% ash
0.09% CA
0.44% Phos
72.373 PPM Iron
(from here down data is lacking on the silk worms, but the trace vit and minerals in them wouldn't effect it much)
0.13% magnesium
0.78% potassium
0.13% sodium
2.57 PPM retinol(vit A)
8.13 PPM a-tocopherol(vit E) I mix some Wheat germ oil with her blue cheese to extra E and E also help inhibit retinol absorption but it's not calculated here.
59.90 PPM zinc
11.07 PPP Manganese
6.98 PPM copper
0.27 PPM selenium
82PPM manganese
28PPM copper
4PPM selenium
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if you use lean beef instead of regular
3 cups 95% beef, 3 cups silkworm pupae, 1/2 cup flax seeds ground to a meal, 1/2 cup wheat bran, 1/3 cup spinach, 1 cup beef heart, 3tbls unsulphered black strap molasses, 2tbls nutritional brewer's yeast
56.46% protein
8.33% fiber
18.20% fat
6.28% ash
0.09% CA
0.59% Phos
But add Thyme and it fixes the phos to cal ratio
2 tbls thyme added(to 95% lean beef) 0.1ca 0.44phos(use this more often but don't have the whole run down at hand, thyme also ups the iron a lot) or thyme replacing brewer's .11CA .39phos
Anyway any of those combos is closer to wild than kibbles/pellets
combination of Masuri foods each feeding - insectivore, big cat, and primate(equal parts for the compiled analysis, as this was a diet that has been used and most others similar)
33% Protein
10.5% fiber
7% ash (almost half the natural diet above)
14% fat
3.12 kcal/g GE
1.33% CA(about 10X the natural diet)
1% phosphorus (aqlso above natural diet but worse is the ratio being off)
0.14% Magnesium
0.76% Potasium
0.39% sodium
508 PPM Retinol(vit A)
290 PPM a-tocopherol(vit E)
360PPM Fe(iron)
150PPM zinc
80PPM managanese
26PPM copper
0.45PPM selenium
