Feeding animals at Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park

Back in February, while in the Phoenix area we decided to check out the Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park in Litchfield Park based on the recommendation of my brother. According to the park’s website, this place has “Arizona’s largest collection of exotic and endangered animals, with more than 600 separate species, rides, a petting zoo, and daily shows.” We didn’t have a lot of expectations for this zoo as we are spoiled by living near the San Diego Zoo for so many years but we were pleasantly surprised. This place turned out to be definitely worth the visit.

First off, we really liked two things about this zoo: There were so many animals to feed and the petting zoo. We were able to feed ducks, fish, giraffes, monkeys, goats, llama, deer, and even a stingray! Unlike some other zoos, feeding the animals was inexpensive - most cost $0.50 and you didn’t have to show up at specific times for the animals we selected. You do need quarters for the food pellet machines, but you can get quarters at the park entrance and the park worker at the giraffe’s exhibit also had quarters.

Feeding Times

For most of the animals, you could feed them whenever but there were set feeding times for a few including:

Penguin Feeding. We watched the zookeepers feed the penguins some fish. The zookeepers track and make sure each penguin gets some fish.
Sea Lions Educational Show and Sea Lion Feeding. This feeding was $5.00 per serving but we missed this show.
Lory Parrot Feeding. We missed these feeding hours too.

For a complete list of shows check out the zoo’s activities page.

Feeding the Stingrays

The most expensive animal we fed was the stingrays. It cost $3 for a little cup of food which turned out to be shrimp tails. Out of all the animals we fed this one scared me the most. I held the food as they described but I was nervous they were going to eat my whole hand because they were so excited and flapping about. They totally knew the drill! Even though I was nervous the whole time it was an experience I won’t forget. Check out the video below of me feeding the stingray.

Feeding the Giraffes

The giraffes were the most fun to feed. You are on a platform about head height, and the giraffes come up to it one or two at a time. At first, I was confused as to what to do with the food pellets in my hand but the park worker said the giraffes know what to do, and boy do they! They lean forward with their long neck and head, stick out their tongue, and fold it just perfectly to make almost a bowl so you can drop some of the food in a little at a time. Check out the video below.

Feeding the Monkeys

Another unique thing about this park was that some of the monkeys were not in cages. Instead, they were on islands surrounded by shallow water, and I guess they do not like to swim or cannot because this seemed to keep them contained. The zookeepers have little rafts or canoes they paddle out onto the islands when they need to. While walking past some of the monkeys on one of the islands, I noticed them running over to the island edge as we walked past. I swore they were trying to get my attention and wanted something from me. I was so confused until I saw the food pellet machine just a little bit over from me. They wanted food! I purchased some pellets and threw them to the monkeys on the island. You can see me tossing pellets below.

Petting Zoo

As for the petting zoo, it was quite a different experience than the one at the San Diego Zoo we are used to. For one, there are a lot more animals and a variety of them. In addition to the usual goats, they had some small pygmy goats that like to jump around, a couple of baby deer, even a young llama. They are very excited to have you come in, again probably just because you probably have food for them. They jumped all over me and Penguin until we had nothing left. Penguin sat down on a bench and some of the goats just jumped right into his lap for pets. Too much fun!

Save Money with Groupon!

We purchased a Groupon to save some money on our admission. Here is an affiliate link to the Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park Groupon deal. If you time your purchase with a Groupon sale you can save even more!

RV Camping

Another great thing about this zoo is if you happen to Boondockers Welcome members there is a great host just a few blocks away. Or the Family Campground at White Tank Mountain Regional Park is only 9.5 miles away, and we really enjoyed our stay at that campground also.