Experience life as a groomer to the full!
Domaine de la Dombes offers an exclusive 3-hour private tour to learn about the fascinating job of animal caretaker and discover what goes on behind the scenes in our animal parks.
Take part in a unique, fully immersive experience in our animal parks, as an apprentice animal caretaker for the duration of a visit.
What is Soigneur en Herbe?
The activities :
Taking good care of our animals
During this visit, you will experience the daily life of our animal caretaker and his various daily missions:
- Preparing food buckets for daily feeding
- Traditional feeding and hand-feeding of certain species: Mouflons, fallow deer, wallabies, etc.
- Cutting and feeding branches
- Enriching the animals, brushing the donkey toys, cleaning the pens…
- EXCLUSIVE: Donkey toy rides by the pond!
This list is not exhaustive, of course, and other activities can be added according to the needs of the groomer.
Our carers
The visit will be accompanied by one of our 2 animal handlers. Passionate about animals, they are above all happy to share their knowledge with children.
ENZO
hired as an animal caretaker on a permanent contract at Domaine de la Dombes
His background before joining us :
- School organizer
- Internship at Biotropica
- Internship at the Parc animalier d’écouves
- Internship at Branfère zoo
- BAC PRO CGEA in Nantes
- BAFA
LAURA
begins its second season at Domaine de la Dombes
His various previous experiences:
- Internship at Center Parc Bois au Daims
- Internship at the Tichodrome care center
- Internship at Mervent Zoo
- IFSA training (Institut de formation des soigneurs animaliers) 2022 2023
More information
Activity available on reservation and accessible to all children ages 8 and up.
Reservation of the activity for one child only during the 3-hour period, no parents present during the time slot.
3-hour slot: 9:30am to 12:30pm
Only on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays during the Domaine’s opening hours.
Price: 90 euros for the activity.
Reserve your time slot by contacting us by e-mail or telephone, or when booking your stay.