CLEMSON — After her six 500-pound white tigers complete a trick, Vicenta Pages rewards the cats with beef brisket. To keep herself from becoming a snack, Pages jogs two to three miles following each of her performances.

“There’s six of them and one of me, so I need to keep my agility and stay quick,” Pages said.

Born into a family of circus performers, Pages grew up amid filigree and fur. The family’s traveling show, Jorge’s Circus Pages, dates back to the 1960s. She spent most of her youth on the road, making her first public performance at age four in a trampoline act with her parents, Jorge and Frieda Pages.

At 14, her grandfather, Fred Logan began schooling her on the care and training of big cats. Pages was already seeing stripes.

“I like tigers better; lions are lazy,” Pages said.

By the time she was 16, Pages’ tiger talents were already turning heads. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey officials saw her act and asked about Pages joining the legendary circus. Four year later, “when the time was right, and I was ready,” Pages made the leap to the “Greatest Show on Earth.”

Now 22, Pages describes her colorful vocation in weary, seen-it-all tones. Perhaps a jaded outlook was unavoidable after a youth filled with camels and costume changes, instead of station wagons and sleepovers.

“I like the constant change,” she said of her transient lifestyle. “I have a very short attention span and get bored really easily.”

Her costars are nothing to yawn at: six white-striped Bengal tigers — Spirit, Fiona, Cia, Mikayla, Mohan and Taurus — four females and two males ranging in age from three through seven years old. Pages has been working with each of the cats since they were year-old cubs. There is no hierarchy among the tigers, at least as far as their trainer is concerned.

“I’m mom, so I can’t have a favorite,” she said.

The majority of Pages’ daylight hours are spent feeding, training and cleaning the tigers. Each cat has its own personality and quirks.

“Sometimes they wake up on the good side of the bed and sometimes they wake up on the bad side of the bed.” Pages said.

In fact, Pages’ act is shaped by her off-stage interactions with the tigers. Tricks range from rolling over and laying down to jumping hurdles and slapping high fives. Taurus sits atop a turning globe and Spirit hops backwards. The latter maneuver is “very difficult,” according to Vicenta. But the trainer knew Spirit could nail the move because as one of the group’s feistiest females, Spirit was “always looking to pick a fight by standing on her hind legs.”

Pages still talks to her father and mother on a daily basis. The conversation could be for advice on her act or just directions to the next gig. (Pages travels in her own motor home, which is decked out with photos of her family, tigers and horse.) Her parents still run Circus Pages from January to October.

During the off-season, the Pages live in Sarasota, Fla. — which gives them proximity to Florida’s quintessential family attractions, like Walt Disney World. Away from the big top, Pages said circus performers are not all that different from less glamorous folk.

“You have your professional relationships inside the show and everybody is in work mode,” Pages said. “Then you have personal relationships outside; we go to the movies or have barbecues.”

If Pages finds herself with any off time, she spends much of it at the mall. She’s a voracious shopper, with a penchant for Victoria’s Secret.

When a white tiger mauled Siegfried and Roy star Roy Horn in 2003, big cat acts came under intense scrutiny. Ringling Bros. maintains an offstage spotter to assist Pages if things were to go awry. But the foxy performer — Pages’ exotic beauty is the collision of Cuban, American Indian and Canadian genes — doesn’t lose any sleep over safety.

“My job is to keep everything in control,” Page said. “As long as I go in there and keep things positive and treat them with respect, they treat me with respect.”

In the future, Pages hopes to increase the number of tigers in her acts to 10 or 12. That should keep her interested — at least for a little while.