Saw Siegried and Roys white tiger this weekend and the question came up in my twisted mind- I noticed there was no dirt in the cage for the big cat to bury his business in. Is there like a huge ass litter box in the back?
Also, does lion and tiger cat pee smell as bad as my house cats does? It’s very importnat that I know the answer to these questions.
Having been to several animal facilities, and done shows with animals:
In their own cages or habitats, the animals use the floor, whether it be cOncr*te, dirt or lawn grass. Simple - shovels and garden hoses to clean up the mess.
Also, animals used in some show performances can be given an enema several hours before the show or just taken for ‘walkies’ before the performance. There is always someone assigned to the animal to clean up accidents.
IIRC, probably one of the most nororious cases was an opera performance that required the lead tenor to ride a horse on a treadmill (illusion of running across the fields). Well, evidently, the horse had not entired evacuated after the pre-show enema, and, with the conveyor belt at full speed, took a dump on the stage. Not pretty, for anyone in the wings or the first few rows.
I’m trying to imagine giving an enema to a Bengal Tiger. It doesn’t strike me as a procedure conducive to the operator’s continued existence. :eek:
And I’m trying to imagine the actual enema. How big are those bags?
“If he misses hit litter tray, just rub his nose in it”
Hmmmmm, not gonna work for tigers, is it?
from Uncle John’s All-Purpose Extra-Strength Bathroom Reader, page 234; the article states that the information is from the book Why Do Cats Sulk? by Arline Bleecker.
Anyway, seems like “great cats”, with no predators to fear, don’t bother to bury their stuff, unless one animal establishes dominance.
That does it – in my house, I’m not flushing the toilet anymore.
I’ll have to get the approval of Mrs. Sauron, of course.
There once was a lady of Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside
And the smile on the face of the tiger
I worked for a number of years at an animal park with lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) and I can attest to the fact that these animals usually “go” where ever they happen to be… they’re not too picky. There is no cat box for the lions… only domesticated cats use those. And yes, male tiger pee which is sprayed all over the place is as fowl as you might imagine.
We used tons of sawdust on the floor of all of their cages so that excrement could be removed easily. The cages were also hosed out every day when the cats were being trained in the main arena.
In the main show cages they had a green indoor-outdoor carpet that the big cats occasionally soiled. As soon as it happened the “tamer” would make a joke about it and some poor soul would reach through the cage with a shovel and remove the stuff… pretty disgusting… tiger doo doo is almost like black tar if I remember correctly.
As far as avoiding the problem in the first place I know they trained our elephants to “evacuate their bowels” prior to a show but there were still accidents. The cats were probably trained not to go in the main cage but that doesn’t mean it never happened…