Visitors to Edinburgh Zoo are being given the chance to feed a tiger – if they are brave enough and have a spare £2,000.

The park is the latest Scottish attraction to offer highly-priced private experiences that only money can buy.

High-end afternoon teas and tours of never-seen-before areas were offered for £150 at Balmoral Castle last year, selling out in 24 hours.

But Edinburgh Zoo has taken it to the next level to raise funds for its upkeep.

The hefty price for the Build Your Own Wild Experience includes lunch, a coffee and cake voucher, 30-minute sessions with four different animals and their keepers and the rest of the day to roam about the zoo.

Extra adults on the tour cost an additional £1,000 and children £500.

Participants can feed the zoo’s two Sumatran tigers – Dharma, seven, and eight-year-old Lucu – through a wire mesh fence from an area not accessible to the public.

The animals tug the meat, which is predominantly beef, deer, rabbit and horse, from a large pair of tongs.

“You don’t get to hand feed the tigers obviously,” said Lindsay Ross, Edinburgh Zoo’s events and experiences manager.

“You use tongs, which are similar to a litter pick and it’s bits of meat from a bucket.

“You go to where people wouldn’t be allowed because we have multiple stand off areas before the last fence but you go with the keeper so its supervised to make sure nobody puts fingers through the fence.”

She insisted the whole experience was secure and visitors would still be outside the main enclosure.

“It’s amazing, they are so majestic up close. It’s amazing just the size of their heads and things.”

During the tour, visitors can also feed Asiatic lions Bindee, eight, and Jayendra, 15.

The bespoke tours include meeting four different species of animals of your choice.

The tours for two also see visitors being able to go into some cages to stroke or feed the animals.

Although the high price tag is not within most people’s means, the zoo says it is answering a demand.

The idea came from the success of £5,000 private tours set up during the final year of the giant pandas’ residence in the capital city.

There were 17 private panda tours booked before Tian Tian and Yang Guang left the zoo in December 2023 to return to China.

The zoo currently offers packages to get up closer with some animals but they are in groups and do not include four different animals or feeding the big cats.

Another option on the bespoke tour is entering the penguin enclosure to feed them as well as stroke and possibly weigh a koala or hold an armadillo.

You can also feed a sloth – but only with tongs because they have sharp claws.

If the chimpanzee enclosure is your thing, you can feed the primates from a balcony.

“So you can throw treats to a specific chimp,” said Ms Ross.

“The way the balcony is architecturally designed they can’t climb up the building, you are higher up than them.”

Giraffes can also be hand fed.

Ms Ross said the experience was unique in the UK. It certainly appears to be the most expensive.

She said: “I don’t actually know of any other zoos that do what we do in terms of this. There are not any other zoos that do a build-your-own package.”

London Zoo offers “keeper” experiences with individual animals for around £95. Visitors can stay in a lodge in the zoo for around £200 a night.

At Chester Zoo, you can be a zookeeper for a day for up to £350 or enjoy a “Secret life of the zoo tour” for £70.

Even Longleat Safari Park’s most expensive VIP experience – where you can feed the big cats and wolves – comes in at £395.