Don't Feed the Animals!

Don't Feed the Animals! — they don't want your packed lunch

Every animal in this book has a mouth cut clean through the page, lined with felt teeth. Poke your fingers through and you're feeding them. Little ones work this out in roughly two seconds and then do it for twenty minutes.

The rhymes explain what each animal actually wants to eat, which turns out not to be your sandwich.

😋 The felt mouths are the whole thing

It's a simple, brilliant bit of design: a die-cut hole, felt teeth around it, and a child's own hand doing the feeding. Nothing to lose, nothing to break, and it puts your little one inside the story rather than just looking at it.

It also gets small hands doing something deliberate — aiming, pushing through, pulling back — which is decent practice dressed up as a game.

🌍 Made with London Zoo

The Zoo Crew range comes from Make Believe Ideas' partnership with ZSL, the conservation charity behind London Zoo. Every purchase supports ZSL's conservation work around the world.

There's a nice thread here too: a book about what wild animals really eat is a gentle first step towards caring what happens to them.

✋ What's inside

• Die-cut mouths with felt teeth, right through the pages
• Playful rhyming text about what each animal really wants
• A cast of zoo animals to name and feed
• Sturdy board pages and a compact 186mm square

📏 Book details

• Format: interactive board book with felt mouths
• Pages: 10
• Size: 186 x 186 x 19mm
• Suitable from: birth+
• Written by: Alexander Cox
• Illustrated by: Stuart Lynch
• ISBN: 9781836426516
• Features: die-cut felt mouths throughout, rhyming text

❓ Frequently asked questions

What age is it for?
From birth. The feeding game really starts working once your little one can aim a finger on purpose, which is usually somewhere around nine months to a year.

Is it a touch-and-feel book?
Not quite — it's the interactive one. Instead of silicone touches to prod, it has felt-lined mouths to put your fingers through. If you want the bumpy silicone kind, that's Never Touch the Zoo Crew!

Does it make any noise?
No — silent. No batteries, no buttons.

What's the ZSL connection?
It's made with London Zoo, a ZSL conservation zoo, and every purchase supports ZSL's conservation work internationally.

Does it make a good gift?
A very good one. It's more unusual than a standard board book, and the feeding game gets an immediate reaction — which matters when someone's watching them open it.

📚 More Never Touch books

This is the interactive one, with felt mouths rather than silicone touches. Close relatives:

• Never Touch the Zoo Crew! — the other Zoo Crew book, bumpy silicone zoo animals, also supporting ZSL.
• Never Touch a Noisy Monkey! — the noisy one, where every animal makes the wrong sound on purpose.
• Never Touch the Farmyard Friends — the counting one, five silicone touches and a countdown.

See the whole range in our Never Touch books collection.

Our guides to why sensory play matters and the best toys for babies under 6 months go into more detail.

❤️ From our family to yours

Carefully chosen products for babies, toddlers and parents. Browse more baby books and the rest of the Make Believe Ideas range — free UK delivery on orders over £25.