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Dental Care Continued

Above: An animal care specialist examines the inside of the mouth of an eastern black rhinoceros.

important for our herbivores because it allows them to “Our rhino dentist saw vast improvement in our rhinos’
chew on twigs and leaf stems they wouldn’t normally get teeth after we started the ComEd program,” said Watts.
from hay or pellets,” said Watts. “The fresh fiber is good In creating a custom diet for each animal, Watts and
for the gastrointestinal tract. Chewing on the branches is her team take factors such as an animal’s age into account.
good for dental health and allows our animals to engage Animals in managed care settings typically live much
in natural browsing behaviors.” longer than their counterparts in the wild. Tooth loss can
Since 2010, ComEd has been the zoo’s primary source cause feeding difficulties. “They might not have enough
of donated browse during the summer months. Crews teeth left to masticate the food to the point it is easy to
deliver truckloads of tree and bush cuttings they trim digest,” said Watts. “We make alterations to the
away from electrical lines. The browse program has been diet to make it softer and more nutritionally complete.”
credited with improving the dental health of zoo animals, This includes pre-soaking and steaming food to make
particularly the eastern black rhinoceroses. it easier for geriatric animals to chew and digest.

28 GATEWAYS | DENTAL HEALTH