How To Become An Animal Nutritionist

If you have a solid scientific background and enjoy working with animals, becoming an animal nutritionist may be appealing to you. Animal nutritionists work with a variety of animals to improve their health and well-being. Learning more about this career will help you decide if it’s a good fit for you.
In this post, we will cover what an animal nutritionist is, how to become one, and what abilities are required for the role, as well as the salary, job prospects, and work environment.

What is an animal nutritionist?

An animal nutritionist is an animal scientist who develops meal recommendations for various sorts of animals based on their genetics and health status. They help to improve the lives of various animals.

They may assess the water temperature for fish, the space requirements for a lion at a zoo, or the quantity of chickens in a chicken coop. Animal nutritionists have a solid scientific background since they must understand how to collect data from a number of fields such as animal behavior, biochemistry, and physics.

Their responsibilities include formulating nutritional standards and lifestyle strategies for animals. Some operate as self-employed contractors, while others work full-time for farms, ranches, pet food producers, zoos, or pet stores.

Animal nutritionists are in charge of ensuring that animals’ dietary requirements are met. While their particular duties may differ based on the type of setting in which they operate, their key responsibilities often include:

• Developing nutritional programs and feeding plans for animals
• Researching animal nutrition
• Evaluating what an animal is eating and how its food intake affects its health, in addition to the health of its consumers
• Offering input on efficient ways to produce and process poultry, meat, milk and eggs
• Testing animal foods
• Assessing the nutritional value and the chemical composition of feed, grass, forage and supplements
• Evaluating animals in laboratory trials and summarizing the results
• Determining the caloric and nutritional needs of animals based on their condition and the type of physical activity they perform
• Educating farmers, zookeepers and other people on how to house animals more humanely, increase their growth rates and lower their death rates
• Improving the overall quality of livestock and monitoring them on a continual basis

How to become an animal nutritionist

1. Pursue an undergraduate degree

You can also consider minoring or double majoring in another academic area, such as biochemistry or biology, to develop additional skills needed to improve the health and life of animals.

2. Gain some experience

Employers typically prefer to hire candidates with at least some hands-on experience working in animal nutrition. Consider pursuing an internship or even an apprenticeship while working on your undergraduate degree to obtain experience in the field.

Many zoos and veterinary offices provide aspiring animal nutritionists with the opportunity to gain experience through an internship that involves working with a board-certified veterinary or a nutritionist. These positions may help you in eventually obtaining full-time employment.

3. Consider an advanced degree

If you wish to teach, particularly at the college level, or do research rather than work directly with animals, you might consider pursuing a master’s or doctoral degree in a relevant field.

Employers who house animals with special needs may additionally demand you to have a master’s degree in animal science or a related discipline. An advanced degree can teach you how to do lab work successfully and may give you with more options to specialize.

4. Obtain certifications

After you’ve completed your degree and gained some experience, you can start pursuing the credentials that your ideal employment requires. The American College of Veterinary Nutrition (ACNV) offers a credential for nutritionists who want to work in veterinary settings.

Nutritionists who want this qualification can obtain it after completing veterinary school and residency. If you’ve been working in the industry for at least three years, you can obtain nutrition certification from the Academy of Veterinary Nutrition Technicians (AVNT).

Skills for animal nutritionists

• Communication

Animal nutritionists require excellent verbal communication skills, particularly when dealing with veterinarians, zookeepers, farmers, and other stakeholders. These skills enable them to better explain why they chose specific ratios for an animal’s diet plan and to educate others on the necessity of proper animal care.

The ability to exercise active listening also assists animal nutritionists in understanding animals’ habits and levels of physical activity, which they can then utilize to design the optimum nutrition plan for them.

• Math skills

Animal nutritionists must have a thorough understanding of mathematical concepts in order to calculate the appropriate meal ratio for various animals. Furthermore, they frequently utilize arithmetic to compute the weight of various animals and compare their health to animals of the same breed. They may also use their mathematical skills to redesign spaces for animals in order to improve their safety and health.

• Critical thinking skills

Animal nutritionists utilize critical thinking to assess an animal’s activity levels and sorts of activities, allowing them to devise the optimum nutritional diet to support the animal’s overall health and wellbeing.

Critical thinking skills are frequently required for identifying and assessing potential animal health issues. This permits nutritionists to make appropriate recommendations to veterinarians and other animal professionals.

Average salary for an animal nutritionist

According to Glassdoor, animal nutritionists earn an average of $75,304 a year. The actual pay you may anticipate to earn in this profession will vary depending on the industry and area. Nutritionists with a training in veterinary science might expect to earn a higher pay because they typically have more specialized certifications.

Job outlook for animal nutritionists

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that employment for agricultural and food scientists, which perform comparable roles to animal scientists, would rise by 9% by 2030.

Agricultural and food scientists are frequently responsible for studying the nutrition of domestic farm animals. The Bureau attributes this growth to a greater requirement for farmers to find ways to improve their livestock’s diet.

Work environment for animal nutritionists

Animal nutritionists work full-time hours, yet their employer may require them to work nights and weekends. Animal nutritionists that work for farms or zoos, for example, may have to work odd hours or be ready in an emergency. They may also be required to attend animal nutrition conferences or other animal-related activities, such as fairs.