Zookeepers are beginning to wean some animals off fruit because it's too sweet for them. Cultivated fruit has been genetically modified to be much higher in sugar content than their natural, ancestral fruit. Genetic engineering has helped farmers to use technology to speed up the breeding process of crops, making them more resistant to viruses and pests, but these processes have made a variety of fruit much different than they were when grown naturally. For example, peaches are 64 times larger than they once were and 27% juicier. The sugar has caused animals who have developed a liking for the modified, sugary fruit to gain weight and even show signs of tooth decay. Zoo vets say that pretty much all cultivated varieties of engineered fruit today is sweeter than fruit that grows in the wild. Animals are now being transitioned from fruit to nutritional pellets sweetened with pear, as well as green, leafy vegetables that are rich in nutrients.
