Animal Food is a recurring type of object in the Zoo Tycoon series, primarily used to fulfill the hunger need of animals.
Zoo Tycoon[]
In Zoo Tycoon and its expansions, food can only be placed by staff members. Zookeepers, scientists and marine specialists will feed standard, extinct and marine animals respectively. They will automatically place the appropriate type of food if it is missing from the exhibit, as well as refill it as needed. Maintenance Workers will clean up leftover food if there are no animals to feed on it.
Each animal species feeds on one particular type of food item, and nothing else. Food has three amount levels: full, half full and almost empty. Food appears to take up a 1 Ć 1 space, but in reality it takes up a 0.5 Ć 0.5 space. Objects and entities cannot be placed on the same space as food. The player cannot interact with food in any way, as it cannot be selected nor deleted.

Visual of an animal's feeding range.
Normally, the range from which an animal will eat food is up to 0.5 squares away from the food, but under special circumstances (e.g. the food being blocked by objects), the effective eating range is shown to be higher.
Maintenance Workers will sweep up food found outside exhibits or inside empty exhibits that don't have any animals in it.
Food types[]
Zoo Tycoon
Meat
Fish
Fruits and Vegetables
Grass and Branches
Hay
Bamboo Shoots
Dinosaur Digs
Marine Mania
Fish (tank version)
Krill
Marine Grass
Chum
Urchin
Zoo Tycoon 2[]

Different food containers for lettuce in Zoo Tycoon 2 (from left to right: terrain, food trough, food dish, substrate pile, hollow log).
In Zoo Tycoon 2, food can be bought from the animal food panel. It has four amount levels: full, 2/3, 1/3 and empty, and can be refilled by the player in guest mode for no cost. Zookeepers can also refill food containers, and will place new food and water dishes if there are none available and an animal has a pressing hunger or thirst need, respectively.
There are several kinds of food available, as well as types of food containers. Each animal eats at least one type of food, but most animals will eat several. They also need to drink water from food containers, with the exception of fully aquatic animals, and the Addax. Eating will satisfy the hunger need, while drinking water will satisfy the thirst need. Only some animals are able to use certain food containers.
There are also several food enrichment items available that are usually single use and satisfy the hunger need as well as stimulation. African Adventure and Marine Mania introduced Live Food as a type of enrichment item, as well.
Food types[]
Zoo Tycoon 2
Endangered Species
Marine Mania
Dino Danger Pack
Extinct Animals
Food containers[]
- Food on terrain: Basic food placed on the ground, which can only be visited by a single animal at a time.
- Food Dish: Food contained within a dish, which can only be visited by a single animal at a time.
- Trough: The wooden variety of trough can sustain multiple animals, but can only contain water and plant food for herbivores.
- Metal Trough: Like its wooden counterpart, the metal variety of trough can feed multiple animals and contain water, while it can also contain meats for carnivores.
- Substrate Pile: A pile of substrate containing food encouraging animals to forage through the pile, usually plant foods and insects.
- Browse Holder: Larger animals like giraffes and elephants approach the towering browse holders in order to get food while standing.
- Elevated Food Dish: Small climbing animals and tall animals will feed from elevated food dishes, with platforms at different heights to approach or climb, which also can contain water.
- Hollow Log: Another food container encouraging animals to forage for their food, the logs can contain plants, insects, and honey.
- Termite Mound: These termite mounds contain food for animals who can forage from the mounds.
- Lure Buoy: A container added in Marine Mania, the buoy floats at the water surface, luring animals towards their aquatic food.
- Food Box: A container added in Marine Mania, the box can be placed at the bottom of a tank or other body of water, with animals diving underwater in order to feed.
- Artificial Reef: A container added in Marine Mania, it resembles a reef and contains various aquatic food, encouraging the marine animal to forage for their food.
- Artificial Carcass: Simulating animal carcasses found in nature, carnivores will approach it to scavenge fish, meat or chum. Animals turn into a carcass as well if they are killed by another animal.
Zoo Tycoon (Xbox)[]
In Zoo Tycoon (Xbox), food is distributed in four types of purchasable feeding stations, which can be either manually restocked by the player or restocked by Zookeepers. Much like other objects, these food stations can also be upgraded up to two times. All feeding stations cost $250 and occupy 1 item spot in an exhibit. Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection adds a fifth feeding station type, being grass and leaves. Additionally, mini-exhibits have their own general feeder that cannot be upgraded, replaced, or removed.
Food types[]
Zoo Tycoon (Xbox)
Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection
Trivia[]

Animals "line up" and synchronize their eating animation.
- In Zoo Tycoon, bamboo shoots are only eaten by the Giant Panda, while urchins are only eaten by the Sea Otter.
- In Zoo Tycoon, if food depletes while an animal was walking towards the food, the animal will play its eating animation, regardless of distance from where the food used to be. This becomes quite apparent when a lot of animals walk to the food and line up and synchronize their eating animation. However, this does not refill the hunger bar of the animal.