« WEBINAR : introduction to Zoo Diet Navigator »
in collaboration with Nutrioo
On June 19, 2025, we hosted our very first webinar in collaboration with the company Nutrioo,
based in France. This event aimed to present the Zoo Diet Navigator v.2.5 software (in French)
and to demonstrate a sample ration live, in order to showcase ZDN’s features to our French-speaking audience.
Zoo Diet Navigator is a free software developed by Heidi Bissel (zoological nutritionist for The Walt Disney Company, USA) to help nutrition professionals (agronomists, animal keepers, and veterinarians) formulate, evaluate, and monitor the feeding plans of animals in captivity.
🎯Goal of the « PREPARE RATIONS » section :
To enable nutritionists and animal care managers to create, modify, adapt, and monitor the feeding plans of each animal or group, in relation to their nutritional needs, feeding behavior, and health status.
Main function : formulation and evaluation of feeding plans for a wide variety of exotic species. Creation of individual or group rations.
- 🧮 Secondary function : management of sustainability reports of your ingredients. Also helps with inventory, ordering, cost estimation, and budgeting.
- 📚 Built-in Data base : contains nutritional composition data for hundreds of foods commonly used in zoological parks.
- 🐾 Adapted to specific needs : allows monitoring of nutritional intake compared to recommendations (NRC, AZA, etc.) for various species and physiological stages. Automatically calculates nutritional values (energy, proteins, minerals, etc.).
- 📊 Monitoring tools : ration analysis, comparison with requirements, quantity adjustment, report editing, food substitution, supplement integration.
- 🛠️ User-friendly interface : simple interface with species profile management, ration history tracking, and data export options.
- 📌 Comments and notes : ability to annotate rations with observations, recommendations, or specific instructions.
- 🌍 Collaborative : designed for shared use within an institution, with regular data updates.
Hands-on demonstration :
This is the heart of the software — where rations are scientifically and individually built before being handed over to the kitchen for preparation.
🐾 Practical ration analysis cases : marabou, lion and gorilla.
🎯Goal of the « PREPARE RATIONS » : To provide zoological kitchen teams with a clear and precise tool to produce daily rations based on plans established by nutritionists. Designed to optimize kitchen speed and reduce errors.
- 📝 Daily preparation list : automatically generates the exact quantities to prepare for each animal or group, depending on the day, the feeding plan, and any seasonal adjustments.
- 🐒 Organized by species, enclosure, or area :helps keepers/cooks with a clear presentation sorted by facility logic.
- ⚖️ Adjusted doses : integrates individual specifics (weight, preferences, medical needs) for personalized rations. Also allows batch preparation for group rations, for example.
- 📦 Kitchen preparation :shows foods to weigh, total quantities to prepare, and allows printing of practical worksheets for production. Staff can prepare diets using paper books, daily stickers, digital touchscreens, or a combination, depending on your practices.
- 🔁 Tracking and repetition : rations can be prepared over several days using an automatic repetition system based on feeding cycles.
It is a central tool in modern zoological nutrition, combining scientific precision with practical field usability.
Noémie Marcos, zoological nutrition consultant.
Nutrizio 