Nutritional Center!

If you've been on a tour at IEAS, you may have heard your guide refer to the Ed Browne Nutritional Center as the "heart of the Sanctuary" or the Sanctuary's "home base." Well, they were right! The Nutritional Center (NC) is a very busy (not to mention IMPORTANT) place. A whole lot of stuff is done here and even more is kept track of here. This building is where IEAS staff and interns start and finish every day and where the diets of both feline and bear residents alike are made.

When you enter the NC, the first thing you can't help but notice is usually the smell - and it's not bad! In fact, it will always smell CLEAN! After the feline diets are prepared in the morning, the NC is very diligently cleaned and sanitized in every necessary way. You won't find messes here!

Once you start checking the place out, you'll notice a few dry erase boards with a TON of information on them. These boards help keep everything very organized. The biggest board is home to our diet preparation information. Depicting medications, special diets, meat poundages for each feline, and much more, this board is constantly changing and having it all right at our fingertips is the best way to ensure that we will be providing the PERFECT diet for each resident, every day.

Another important board, though slightly smaller, is found on the other side of the NC. As you can imagine, there is always PLENTY that needs done in a Sanctuary such as IEAS. Constant maintenance, upkeep, and much more keep staff and interns very busy. How do we keep track of it all? The Daily Assignments board! Each day, we have a list of things that need to get done and each one is written on this board so it is not forgotten! It is the perfect way for us to organize our week!

Other things you'll see in the NC? Lots of pans and refrigerators/freezers! We have lots of stuff to keep cold and animals to feed, so plenty of storage is definitely a necessity!

Come see the Ed Browne Nutritional Center for yourself! As cool as it is, what lives right outside its doors is even more incredible! The importance of this building to the amazing animals at IEAS is definitely worth a stop on your tour!

Hope to see you soon!