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Babiekins Magazine

A Trendsetting Magazine & Online Community For The Trendsetting Child + Parent

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo’s New Veterinary Center

By Gina Munsey, Senior Editor Leave a Comment

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

What’s there to do in Nashville with kids? Plenty! 

[Disclosure of material connection: the kind folks over at the Nashville Zoo provided us with complimentary passes.]

Our whole family loves the Nashville Zoo. On a hot summer day, it’s a welcome diversion from the hustle and bustle of downtown, taking you instead through balmy oases with stunning botanicals, winding paths, and — oh yes — gorgeous animal habitats.

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

During our most recent excursion, we toured the Nashville Zoo’s incredible new HCA Healthcare Veterinary Center. And wow. Seriously impressive.

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary CenterFor starters, it’s huge! The center boasts modern architecture which compliments the rustic and wild natural surroundings, and spans over 20,000 square feet. Examination rooms, incubators and nursery space, an intensive-care unit, radiology facilities, and an in-house laboratory are all staffed by a team of highly-qualified staff and technicians.

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary CenterNashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary CenterPlus, there’s a full veterinary operating theater. And since one wall is glass, surgeries are viewable from the Veterinary Center’s impressive outdoor (but covered and climate-friendly) observation deck. Even if the operating theater is not active when you’re there, you can pause and watch an educational films recounting the Zoo’s ongoing conservation animal care endeavors. Did you know some animals at the Nashville Zoo even get acupuncture?

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center
Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

You can follow the @NashZooVet Twitter account to find out which animals are currently viewable at the center, and see the daily treatment schedule so you can catch feedings, exams, operations, animal acupuncture, and so much more.

If you’re local to the area, this is a particularly good reason to get a season pass — there is so much to observe each day at the Veterinary Center!

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary CenterNashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

And I love this — since the Nashville Zoo is an integral part of the Clouded Leopard Species Survival Program, you just might catch a glimpse of some absolutely adorable leopard cubs through the observation windows.

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary CenterNashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary CenterThe head veterinary doctor at the zoo is one of the nation’s premier experts on clouded leopards, and lends her specialized expertise to the successful collaborative breeding program — right here in Nashville. During our visit, there were about half a dozen bundles of fluff tumbling around in the nurseries. And you can often watch bottle-feeding up close, like we did, from the observation deck windows.

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary CenterNashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary CenterWhat a magical experience!

Going inside the HCA Healthcare Veterinary Center at the Nashville Zoo isn’t a regular part of zoo admission, but super-exciting behind-the-scenes guided tours are available as part of the backstage zoo pass options. (The Nashville Zoo kindly extended a complimentary tour for us, so the scope of your backstage pass might differ a little.)

My little science-lover was in seventh heaven in the lab, which allows technicians to complete time-sensitive diagnoses in-house, rather than outsourcing.

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

The day we visited, the Veterinary Center had clouded leopards, Amazon tree frogs, and just-hatched lorikeets in the viewing area — they’ve since added binturongs (AKA bear cats), too.  Of course, the animals vary depending on when you go, but the @NashZooVet Twitter feed lets you know what animals you can expect to see from the observation deck each day, so be sure to check it before heading over to the zoo.

Remember, viewing from the observation deck is always free, and included in zoo admission!

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

We already loved the Nashville Zoo — where else can you walk with kangaroos, ride a zip line, explore a historic mansion and gardens AND see amazing animals? —  but the launch of the HCA Healthcare Veterinary Center has given us so many more reasons to head back again…and again and again. There are 365 different species represented at the Nashville Zoo, so you really won’t run out of awe-inspiring encounters anytime soon.

Plan your visit to the Nashville Zoo!

Visit the Nashville Zoo website for the latest information on exhibits, events, and admission.

  • Follow @NashvilleZoo on Instagram
  • Follow @NashZooVet on Twitter
  • Follow@NashvilleZoo on Twitter

You can also keep up with our family’s Franklin and Nashville adventures by following me on Instagram @oaxacaborn. Leave a comment letting me know you saw this post, and I’ll follow you back, too!

Happy summer adventuring!

Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center
Nashville with Kids: Nashville Zoo's New Veterinary Center

Filed Under: Editors' Lifestyle, Family, Fun Tagged With: middle tennessee, nashville with kids, nashville zoo, nashville zoo veterinary center, travel, travel with kids Posted By: Gina Munsey, Senior Editor


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Copyright © 2023 · Babiekins Magazine | A Trendsetting Kids' Fashion Magazine and Online Community for Parents and Children Alike · Since the Southern California birth of Babiekins in 2010, the magazine has grown from into an internationally-recognized print publication with a global circulation and now a thriving online community. We are more than a kids’ fashion magazine. We search everywhere for inspiration, and go beyond trends to bring you fashion, style, decor, design, books, DIY, parties, and playthings. Our readers look to us to keep up with the best and most up-to-date concepts in the children’s market worldwide. We have an eye for quirk. We’re high-fashion, but we value whimsy over tradition. Playful childhood is more important to us than making kids into copycat adults. We believe life is beautiful, life is valuable, and life changes when you see it through the eyes of a child. We seek to transcend skin color, language and zip codes and bring out the real, wild, magical creativity inherent in every child. And behind Babiekins is an optimistic team of mothers-turned-editors, working from home, often with our own little babiekins climbing on, under and around the desks. We want to encourage you, and challenge you to see something different — something special — in yourself and in this world we all share. Welcome to Babiekins!

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