Impressive, informative, entertaining, and easy on our budget. We'll be back!
Knowing that The Catty Shack is a large cat sanctuary in Jacksonville, we prepared for our excursion as we would a trip to the zoo. This is not a zoo.
The Catty Shack offers 3 ways to experience their sanctuary - 1. Guided Daytime Tour, 2. Enrichment Tour, 3. Nighttime Feeding. This visit we enjoyed the Guided Daytime Tour.
There is not much more I can say other than this is a "must go if you're in Jacksonville" comment. They have a tiny gift shop with reasonable prices for stuffed animals and various souvenirs. They have a snack truck that sells sodas and water for only $1 as well as snow cones and various other things. Hot dogs maybe? I'm not positive on that. Best time to go is their weekly night feedings which (at the time of this writing) is on Fridays. You'll first get a tour then they'll end the evening with the feedings. We got there at about 6:30. They start new tours periodically and we missed the first few minutes, but we could have started over with another tour to get what we missed. Everyone there is very kind and knowledgeable. Be sure to donate a little extra though. 400 lbs of food every day is quite a bill.
Tours start at regular intervals or when there's a large group. Tours are led by volunteer tour guides who also volunteer to work with the cats. It is a walking tour on mostly flat, even, hard- packed sand or cement with regular benches available along the way. The tour lasts a little over an hour. You are close enough to the tigers to get marked by their spray (apparently, it smells like buttered popcorn). Tour guides are knowledgeable, informative, and personable. Tours are adapted for the audience within a structured speech. All of our questions were thoroughly answered. A picnic pavilion, air-conditioned porta potties, and gift shop are available at the entrance. It is dusty. It is mostly shaded. Wear bug spray; bring an umbrella. Kids under 5 will probably roll in the dusty sand, make sand angels, and snap back into rapturous wide-eyed adoration when the lions ROAR.
Such a cool experience! Get up close with big cats and enjoy a leisurely walk with guided tour. Glad to see these cats are well-cared-for and loved.
This is a great little Sanctuary for large cats and other animals. The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable. The animals are well taken care of. This is a great place to bring kids to have them experience animals in a controlled environment. Also a great place for large groups. This place is a sanctuary that runs off of your donations, so please don't skip. These people do a great job volunteering their time and effort keeping these animals safe.
The animals were so big and beautiful, I was surprised by how well they were taken care of, they were very active and present for the guest to see. The thing that annoyed me the most was during the entire tour they kept preaching not to taunt the animals but while feeding them they did that same exact thing. Making the tiger act up for food, putting chicken in their face then pulling it away, It was pure ignorance. The director was inside the cage feeding them, He was way to comferable and super cocky about it. It wouldn’t surprise me if a “accident” happened to him in the future. He was teasing every single tiger with food. I understand they want to put on a show for the guest but I think there are other ways to do so. I would recommend taking the last tour of the night, otherwise you will be standing around till 7:30 when they do the feedings. The cages aren’t lit well so it’s kind of hard to get a food picture.
The Catty Shack Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary is a US Park based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Catty Shack Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary is located at 1860 Starratt Rd, Jacksonville, FL 32226, USA.
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