Nutrition science for zoo animals has advanced dramatically but significant gaps remain between evidence-based requirements and actual feeding practice in many institutions.
Zoo nutrition welfare has improved substantially as wildlife nutritional science has matured, but legacy practices continue to cause preventable welfare harm in many institutions. Metabolic diseases rooted in dietary imbalance are entirely preventable with appropriate nutritional management, yet they remain common in facilities that have not updated their practices. The challenge is partly knowledge and partly economics: feeding wild-type diets that accurately replicate nutritional composition of natural prey is more expensive and complex than feeding commercial substitutes. The welfare consequence of dietary inadequacy may not be immediately visible, as conditions like iron storage disease and metabolic bone disease develop gradually over months or years before causing overt illness. Regular nutritional assessment, access to nutritional expertise, and willingness to update practice based on current evidence are the foundation of zoo dietary welfare.