How to Feed Stingrays at Sea World
Stingrays are gentle creatures, and quickly tamed to feed from your hand. This is a great experience. Saltwater stingrays need a lot of room and special care to stay healthy, so they are not recommended as pets--not unless you have a 500-gallon aquarium at your disposal. There are smaller freshwater stingrays in the pet trade, but they are fabulously expensive. The next best thing is to meet the friendly and ever-hungry rays at any Sea World. If you forget the instructions here, don't worry. They will be all around the stingray pool to remind you.
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Instructions
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Come and Get It!
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Go to Sea World with lots of money and a willingness to get your hands slimy.
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Go to the Stingray Lagoon and buy a cup of fresh squid, fish or shrimp from the concession stand.
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Pick a hand to hold the food. Pretend this hand is inside of a puppet. Keep the "mouth" of your hand shut and pick up one end of the stingray food.
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Place the hand gently into the Stingray Lagoon, so that the back of your hand is resting on the gravel and the food is sticking straight up. Keep that hand completely still.
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Wait until a hungry stingray swims over your hand. Their mouths are on the bottom of their bodies, so you won't see them eating, but will feel the gentle "kisses" of their mouths as they munch.
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Very gently stroke the stingray's body (but not the tail) with your free hand.
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Remove your hands only after the stingray glides away.
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Repeat as long as the food holds out.
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Tips & Warnings
If you only have one working hand, a Sea World employee or even a kindly passerby will hold the food still while you take your turn petting the stingrays.
Don't pet the animals' tails. That's where the stings come from.
Don't move your hand when they begin to feed, or they will be frightened and not come back to you.
Don't spend all of your time at Sea World at the Stingray Lagoon--although it's really tempting.
Don't tap the side of the tank. Stingrays hate that.
Resources
- Photo Credit Image from Wikimedia Commons
