Happy Birthday, Sajani!

If you follow us on Facebook, you'll know that Tuesday, May 19th, was Sajani's 17th birthday! Sajani is one of the many Bengal tigers (sixteen to be exact!) residing here at the sanctuary. She arrived here in August of 2011 after she was rescued from an Animal Orphanage in San Antonio. There the owners were more than $400,000 in debt and were eventually shut down. Luckily for her, despite the tough economical times at that point, Sajani was able to make the move to IEAS into her new forever home. She is now able to enjoy a natural, spacious habitat with pools, perches, enrichment toys, and her own house to protect her from storms and that nasty Texas heat.




Sajani is an extremely affectionate girl who loves attention from her keepers and visitors. We say that her habitat is perfectly suited for her personality because, being right next to the Ed Browne Nutritional Center, she is constantly in the middle of the hustle and bustle here at the Sanctuary.











She is also a tiger who really enjoys her seasonal enrichment items. These enrichment items can be items such as recycled Christmas trees in the winter, pumpkins in the Fall, and blood-cicles during the Summer.







Adoptive parents of the animals here provide a monthly donation in the name of their animal and, in return, receive the privilege to come "sit" with their animal escorted by an intern or keeper. This past Sunday, Sajani got a special visit from her adoptive parents to wish her a happy birthday! During their visit, we were told how "Sajani" means "beloved" in the Indian language, which is perfectly fitting for her!

Enjoy this video of Sajani with her Christmas tree from last year and join us in wishing her a happy 17th birthday!!

Big Cat Scat: The Making Of

Are you having trouble with deer in your yard or garden? A natural answer to your problem is Big Cat Scat. Made right here at the sanctuary by our very own residents, with a little processing by the trusty interns, our Big Cat Scat can be scattered wherever you need to keep the deer away. It works because it makes the prey animals think there are predators around! 
Have you always wondered how Big Cat Scat is made? Well, look no further because today the interns at IEAS are giving you a step-by-step guide to what goes into every bucket of Big Cat Scat: 


1. Well, let's start at the very beginning. We feed our big cats very well - in fact,  our big cats all eat between 8 and 14lbs of Triple A meat (1/3 bone, 1/3 muscle and 1/3 organ) 6 days a week. 



2.  In return, the cats leave unprocessed Big Cat Scat.


3. We pick up the scat when we clean their habitats. (Fun fact: all of the cats have their favorite places to poo, ex. Big John mostly poops in the same corner of his habitat and the three white tigers love to poop in their pool!)





4. The scat then gets left out to dry at our scat processing station for a few days. 

5. The interns prep themselves for processing the scat.

6. The scat gets grated into a powder so that it can be easily spread around your yard as needed. 

7. We transfer the scat powder into buckets for you to take home. 


8. After the scat is at your house, just sprinkle the powder along the perimeter of your property, around a garden, or anywhere you want to keep those pesky deer away. 

And that's how Big Cat Scat is made! If you're interested in our Big Cat Scat you can read more about it here. 

Big Cat Scat can be purchased in:

1 Gallon Bucket - $15.00 plus shipping and handling

2.5 Gallon Bucket - $35.00 plus shipping and handling

5 Gallon Bucket - $50.00 plus shipping and handling

(One gallon of Big Cat Scat should be enough to cover 100 square feet)

You can call in your order at 940-433-5091 or email us at richard@bigcat.org. Please contact us to determine shipping and handling costs. 

Interns: A Day in the Life

Welcome to the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary's blog! For something new, this blog is going to be focused more on IEAS interns, who we are, what we do, and any unique opportunities that happen here at the Sanctuary. If you would like to know a little more about those behind the blog, you can read all about us here.

During tours, a common question we get is what goes into a workday here at the sanctuary, so this week we thought it would be cool to give everyone a run down of what we do from start to finish. An intern's day starts bright and early around 5:30 or 6 AM in the nutrition center where we prep all the meat that gets fed to our cats that day. After that, we split up with the keepers and our morning feeding routine begins. The morning routine can vary and we rotate between cleaning the habitats and the houses the cats sleep in.

After the morning routine is over, we split up again to get our multiple morning jobs done. Two interns will go to pick up produce at Brookshire's in Bridgeport, Lowe's Marketplace in Boyd, and Dunn Produce right up the street from the sanctuary. Along with  our daily produce donations, we also receive donations from Walmart and Costco in Fort Worth twice a week. Once we bring the produce back we take it up to our produce fridge and sort it out into different crates. 

Other morning jobs that will also be done at this time include cleaning the nutrition center, taking the trash out, and taking care of the compost. After all the morning jobs are finished we can take lunch before we head back out for our afternoon projects. IEAS offers guided tours at 11 AM seven days a week. Depending on the number of tours we're giving that day, some girls will go down to the gift shop to lead the tours. After lunch and tours, our afternoon projects begin. Afternoon projects can vary from things such as prepping diets for the next day to gathering  maintenance equipment for habitats. After we're all done for the day, we have the opportunity to learn how to do a "drive through." A drive through is a safety check done twice a day by the keepers to ensure the grounds, habitats, and animals are all safe and secure. The very last thing that is done each day is pulling the meat from the freezer. The meat is placed in the nutrition center to thaw and be ready for tomorrow's diet prep.

Although everyday is tough and we work hard, the animals here make it all worthwhile.

(Can you guess who this beautiful girl is? Come take a tour and you can find out!)


Until next week - your IEAS Spring 2015 interns.