Billy & Bunter
Billy and Bunter our Barn Owls have been with us for just over 2 years. They came to us very young after being abandoned and are very tame. They live on a diet of chicks and are fed daily.
Barn owls do not hoot they make a screeching sound. Barn Owl feathers are super soft! This helps them to hunt silently, but they are not very waterproof and get soaked if it rains
Ferrets
Our ferrets are fed twice a day on wet cat food and sometimes dried biscuits too. The average ferret lives to be 6-7 years old.
The majority of “working” ferrets are used to eradicate vermin, but they have other less obvious purposes. Their ability to worm their way through confined spaces has led several institutions to use them for running wire.In the 1960’s, aircraft manufacturer Boeing used ferrets to string wire through planes!
Our ferrets love to play in their large tunnel tubing and, be outside as much as they can, they also like to dig holes in the soil. They can be quite mischievous!
Our ferrets are called Slinky, Bandit, Rascal, Eddie and Nibbler.
Guinea Pigs
Guinea Pigs are great small pets as they are good natured and easy to care for. They are the most popular small pet in many countries
South America (Peru) Guinea Pigs were kept by the Incas and were found in houses when the Spanish conquistadors conquered South America.
Our Guinea pigs you can handle in our Hutches and Aviaries corner. They have their food given twice a day, along with fresh vegetables such as carrots and broccoli. Also, the farm staff will go on the hunt for some fresh dandelion leaves for them to munch on.
The Guinea pig was first domesticated as early as 5000BC for food by tribes in South America. Even to this day they are still considered a source of food in some countries and cultures. It was the Spanish, Dutch and English that first introduced them into Europe as exotic pets among the upper class and royalty, including Queen Elizabeth 1.
Guinea pigs have a similar diet to that of rabbits, grass is their natural diet but pets are fed on soft pellets and hay. Dietary wise Guinea pigs are like humans are require Vitamin C in their diet or they will develop scurvy.
Guinea pigs shouldn’t be raised as a single they are a pack animal and are prone to loneliness so they like to have company, in Switzerland owning a single guinea pig is considered harmful to its well-being and forbidden by law.
Meet Boris
Then we have our Bearded Dragon; Boris, and no they don’t breathe fire…. well not yet anyway
The name "bearded dragon" refers to the "beard" of the lizard, the underside of the throat which turns black if they are stressed or see a potential rival. They are adept climbers, spending time on branches and in bushes and near human habitation.
They have the ability to change color during rivalry challenges between males, in response to ambient temperature changes such as turning black to absorb heat, and other stimuli. Males grow up to 60 cm (24 in) long, and females up to 51 cm (20 in). Bearded dragons also produce a mild venom originating from primitive venom glands. Although generally harmless towards humans, it is effective towards smaller-sized animals.
The Beard dragons are like our other animals and do eat daily, they mainly eat insects and have a mix of plant based food, mainly leafy greens and they love dandelion leaves which we pick of our village green for them. Also a key element of their diet is calcium which we have to supplement for them as none of the food we feed them contains enough of it, so to do this we coat the insects in a calcium powder before we put them into the enclosure, they also require UVB light to process this calcium so we have UVB blubs in the enclosure to help aid them in digestion of the calcium but to help them even more, when it is sunny we take them outside to the ferret park and let them have a run around in the sun, where they absorb the natural UV light from the Sun which is much more effective than that from the bulb.
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