Feeding a red panda is fluffytastic

You’re not going to get a giant panda experience in the UK. The only giant pandas here are at Edinburgh Zoo, and there’s a waiting list just to look at them. To touch one, feed one, or cuddle one, you’ll have to go to China, and even then you’d probably have to be a special panda scientist or something.

So you’ve got two options if you love pandas:

• you could adopt a giant panda – you can see our adoption page here
• Or you could buy a red panda experience – and I’d vote for the red panda experience.

What are red pandas?

These aren’t the giant black and white pandas. Red pandas are like a mixture of a raccoon, a fox and a teddy bear. They’re really cute, docile and friendly. If you leave a red panda to it, he’ll sit up in a tree and not come down, but if you’ve got some food they’ll follow you round like you’re their mum or dad.

Which zoos are best for a red panda experience?

There are a few, but our favourite is the Paradise animal park in Hertfordshire. You can’t get the experiences any cheaper if you book direct, and you’d need to know dates, so it makes sense to buy the experience through an experience company like buyagift.com.

Review of the red panda experience

You don’t get to cuddle them, but you do get to spend a nice half hour feeding them by hand and learning all about them. I haven’t been on this red panda experience myself, but I know all about it from when I visited the animal park in Hertfordshire. And boy was I jealous of the girl that was doing it while I was there!

Watch out for the fun feeling of being an exhibit too, with lots of envious people watching as you get close up to the pandas.

If you’ve been on a panda experience, please leave a review to let people know what you thought of it.

There’s a nice enclosure in the zoo in Hertfordshire. One of the red pandas had a poorly back and he wasn’t as agile as the others, but that just made him even more adorable. They live in a cosy box up a tree, and come out when they hear their lunch is ready.

After you’ve finished your experience, you can have a nice walk around the animal park and look at all the other animals – it’s a nice park too, with all sorts of animals, and don’t forget this park also does feed a lion experience and lemur experience days.

If you’ve bought this experience for yourself or someone else, come back and leave a review to tell everyone about the panda-related goodness.

And here’s a video of an experience we had recently. Those red pandas are just amazing!