Meet Kashia Stragey - Toby’s very own animal keeper

She has been at the Houston Zoo for two years and now gets to start every day with an early morning cleaning and feeding of Toby.

One of Kashia’s favorite things about Toby is how friendly and receptive he is, especially when lunchtime comes around. Toby is a very gentle eater and his favorite foods are bamboo, biscuits, blueberries, and grapes.

He spends a lot of his time using his specially adapted, semi-retractable claws to climb around in his tree branches. Kashia has a daily afternoon training session with Toby, where he learns take food from keepers, get exercise in the trees, and mimic the lifestyles of red pandas in the wild.

More on Toby

He is a superb climber with a red coat and white to reddish-brown facial mask. Like his counterparts in the wild, Toby is usually curled up in trees with his long, bushy tail wrapped around his head.

Toby’s new indoor home near the Houston Zoo’s award-winning Natural Encounters Building includes natural log climbing features, natural substrate flooring, a small pool, a waterfall, skylights, and air conditioning.