For some people, feeding a crowd is a holiday ritual, but at the Tennessee Aquarium, animal caretakers raid the pantry to feed the furry, scaly and feathered masses year-round.
From high-quality seafood and fresh produce to thousands upon thousands of insects, animal care specialists prepare species-specific meals tailored to meet the dietary needs of hundreds of species of fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and more.
With over 12,000 animals in the Aquarium’s care, there are a lot of hungry mouths to feed.
So, as you sit down this Thanksgiving to enjoy your heaping plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, cranberry sauce, and dressing — or stuffing; we won’t wade into that particular food fight — rest assured the animals are enjoying a smorgasbord of their own.
Granted, several items on the Aquarium’s annual grocery list may seem like off-putting additions to your Thanksgiving menu, but one person’s cricket is another’s honey-baked ham.
Here are some noteworthy selections from the Aquarium’s food budget in 2024:
- 120 pounds of peas
- 3,072 ounces of frozen ocean plankton
- 2,304 ounces of bloodworms
- 15,000 mice
- 8,352 heads of romaine lettuce
- 900,000 crickets
- 1,500 pounds of scallops
- 60 pounds of blueberries
- 3,000 nightcrawlers
- 7,128 pounds of smelt
- 156,000 mealworms
- 198 pounds of zucchini
- 1,161 apples
- 2,217 oranges
- 12,566 pounds of capelin (a small cold-water fish)
- 260 pounds of fish pellets
- 665 pounds of carrots
- 1,692 pounds of krill
To help with the Aquarium’s food costs, last year, horticulturists began growing a selection of fruits and vegetables in-house, raising high-quality, organic produce to supplement the diets of animals such as Red-ruffed Lemurs, Desert Tortoises and Amazonian Pacu.
The Tennessee Aquarium is thankful for the husbandry and aquarist teams who see to the well-being of the animals every day and for the hundreds of thousands of guests who visit the River Journey and Ocean Journey buildings each year.
The Tennessee Aquarium and IMAX 3D Theater will be closed on Thanksgiving to visitors, but animal care experts will still be hard at work serving up well-balanced feasts and tending to the other needs of the Aquarium’s many residents.
To learn more about ways to support the Aquarium’s animals and its nonprofit mission, visit tnaqua.org/donate/.
