Cheetah Experience - Arabella the Baby Bengal Tiger

I am sad to have left Cheetah Experience !!! Being home is very different from the past 3 months..... It's winter here in NZ but nothing like the coldness I experienced in Bloemfontein!

My sleeping and eating habits are back to front and I'm finding this difficult - luckily it's the weekend so I have time before I'm back at work Monday.

It brought a sadness to my heart to receive a note about one of the baby Bengal Tigers - Arabella who has gotten sick - she is a beautiful, beautiful baby that you can't help but adore.

Please if you haven't already donated take a look at this video clip  Arabella the baby Bengal Tiger.....

Click on the link and let it grab your heart into donating to a baby that needs all the help she can get. These costs are in addition to my last blog on the Cheetah medical costs..... :-((

Cheetah Experience Fundraising

For my last project at Cheetah Experience in Bloemfontein I have used the last of the fundraising to 'adopt' Pepsi who is pregnant and due to give birth in September so needs to be looked after and fed extra carefully.

So thank you to all of you who have given and enabled me to have enough for this awesome project!!!!

In addition, I've also given some towards the vet bills that accumulate very easily!! Even before the expense of treatment is factored in, the costs of tests are in the thousands. They use a Cheetah and Wild Cat Specialist Vet who is 500km away from Cheetah Experience but is the best in the country so they very much need his expertise.

Currently the medical bills are R30,000......
The biggest scare when a cat is sick is 'Amyloid Amyloidosis' which is a deadly disease that results in kidney failure and death if left untreated. 70% of captive cheetahs die of this each year. Unfortunately because the survival rate of cheetahs in the wild is only round 10%, the only way to increase numbers is through captive breeding.... The disease resembles "Mad Cow Disease" so needs to be treated with care. It is uncertain how the disease spreads from cat to cat - research has shown that the abnormal proteins can be found in the faeces of affected cheetahs, and they suspect the disease is spread when the cats groom their fur, hence great care needs to be taken when a cheetah becomes sick.

Cheetah Experience also goes through volumes and volumes and volumes of food. This is the red meat given to the lions every week and this is the chicken which goes to all the cats daily. And yes I have gotten my hands dirty many times with cutting up the chicken in the meat room and feeding the meat to the cats.

As Cheetah Experience is a non-profit organisation they rely on donations, adoptions, volunteers and tours to continue operating.

If anyone would like to donate further please feel free to donate directly at: http://cheetahexperience.com/donate.php

Cheetah Experience - Abby & Apollo

This is Abby and Apollo snuggling up in their little house.... I've also scrubbed the floors in there to keep them clean!!  

Conservation of Cheetahs

Wow, my first week at Cheetah Experience has been amazing!! To come this far from New Zealand to see these beautiful and magnificent cats up close and know I'm part of the conservation of cheetahs through an inspirational dream that Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen has made come true with the constant help of her team, and with the support of people like me volunteering in Africa....I feel very privileged to have had a share in this dream with Riana.

Pardus

Today, between cleaning duties in one of the enclosures and taking a group on a guided tour, I played with our gorgeous 10 week old baby black leopard (Pardus). You can still see her rosettes through her dark fur quite clearly in the sunlight. When she grows up hopefully she will be accepted as a mate for our other resident black leopard (Panthera) who is 12 months old and still very, very playful and cheeky.

As you walk past Panthera's enclosure he likes to follow you as though he's stalking you. All you see are his big golden eyes staring after you as he sneaks round his enclosure watching you.
I definitely don't look anything like his favourite meal of chicken!!

Then there is our baby Caracal, Max who is 10 weeks old, and is the cutest little thing ever! With his big gorgeous ears which seem too big for his body but make him look adorable....and to think it'll only be another 6 months before he can climb up on the roof like Jack, the fully grown Caracal, and be able to jump 3.5 metres high to catch birds flying over his enclosure. 

Another cutie and sweetest is Arabella, our 9 week old Bengal Tiger which Cheetah Experience is raising along with her brother till they're 6 months old when they'll have to go to another home which we're currently looking for! 

My day was all babies today till the very end when I fed 8 month old Apollo and Abby their delicious chicken drum sticks which they devoured and ate totally clean - well at least Apollo's were. These two are the first babies from the conservation of cheetahs breeding programme Riana has started. 

Apollo

They still have their fluffy 'mantels' of fur on the backs of their neck and are gorgeous to cuddle. You wouldn't believe anyone could harm them but poachers kill them for their pelts so some people can decorate their homes and adorn themselves with coats.....  :'( 

Volunteering in Africa and being part of the conservation of cheetahs has changed me forever in how I view these beautiful creatures that remind me of an elegant sphinx.    

To think I helped to make a difference albeit only for 2 weeks which doesn't seem long enough now.....     

Only 10% of cheetah babies survive in the wild and with only around 1500 left in the wild:  

Cheetah Experience NEEDS your help!!

Adopt: www.cheetahexperience.com/adopt

Volunteer: www.cheetahexperience.com/volunteer

Donate (Paypal): donate@cheetahexperience.com
Facebook: www.cheetahexperience/facebook
Twitter: www.twitter.com/cheetahexp

Subscribe: www.youtube.com/cheetahexperience

By viewing the above links and doing what you can - you too can be part of this amazing experience. Or even better, pack your bags and come volunteering in Africa.

Cheetah Experience - Babies

It is so cold here some days my fingers feel like falling off in the mornings and evenings!! It's been in the negatives for the past few nights.....brrrr. I don't know how our baby cubs, serval, black leopard and Bengal tigers survive...

They're so small and such furballs - here's Max the Caracal (2 months old) and Max the Lion (3 months old).

Cheetah Experience - Big Wild Cat Feeding

My days are very full here with:  lions, cheetahs, leopards including a black one, caracals, servals, and Canadian wolves which they have a couple of. Feeding, cleaning out the pens, checking fences and general maintenance makes up my day. Feeding is interesting as I'm physically in with some of the animals giving them meat....

The main focus here is on the breeding of cheetahs - the mission statement is: To promote and fund the conservation of the cheetahs and other endangered species through captive breeding, behavioural research and public awareness.

Check out the website of where I'm working.... http://www.cheetahexperience.com/

Here I Come Bloemfontein

Long bus trip from Pretoria to Bloemfontein today....all is good at the project and I've already petted cheetah and lion cubs!! Amazing!!

Baggage didn't arrive till a couple of days later to Johannesburg but all good now and I can finally change my clothes - thank god.

Short Holiday Over

Lying in the sun is over.    :-(   I've enjoyed the days off and have the tan to show it.

Work in Bloemfontein, Sth Africa here I come.....

Hopefully there is easy access to the internet and I can keep you all uptodate on how my last weeks go!!  :-)