Wow! On our first day at work at Roo Ranch we bottle fed 4 little joeys, then were taught how to feed the zeedonks, llamas, a horse, and the adult kangaroos, wallaroos and wallabies! After that we got to scoop roo poop in the inside pens for awhile and put out fresh bedding hay for them. We watched the owners herd the roos from their night quarters out to the large day-time pens where people can see them. At the end of the day we helped cut up donated apples and other fruits and put it in bowls for the roos to eat when they returned to their night pens. We were exhausted, but happy at all we got to do and see. These two old coots are not as young as we used to be! We walk everywhere on the 13 acre property; no more riding in our "mule" like we did at Bear Country!
Day 2—we helped feed the New Guinea singing dogs, coatimundis, hedgehog, possums, sugar gliders, chinchillas, bettong, kinkajoos, as well as all the animals we fed on day 1. So far we have not fed the emus or the miniature zebu. I hadn't heard of some of these animals, like the bettong or the zebu or the singing dogs or the zeedonks. Had to look them up on Wikipedia! We are getting an education!
The tricky part of this job will be learning the names of all the hopping critters so that we give them the proper feedings. Is that Matilda, or is it Shadow? Is this one Yabba, or is it Gizmo? Yikes! Guess it'll take a little time learn them all. They all have personalities.
Day 3—we did get to feed the miniature zebu and the emus today. Also we raked and cleaned the zebu's enclosure and we cleaned out the inside automatic watering pots for all the roos, in the process leaving one running which flooded part of one room! We are learning!
Picture #1 is a swamp wallaby baby, S'Mores, very sweet and cuddly.
Picture #2 shows how the 4 joeys are kept. They get to spend their time in the flannel pouches or they can hop around the room. Showing are Axile, an Agile Wallaby, Gator, a kangaroo, and behind them is an albino Bennett's wallaby.
Picture #3 is an adult swamp wallaby. I think they look like outer space creatures when they are grouped together all looking at us.
2 comments:
Fascinating! But I bet you really are worn out after all that! :) I really enjoyed the pictures, and I'll be looking forward to seeing more as the season progresses. You will be experts in no time, I'm sure!
Wow - that sounds like fun! I've never heard of a lot of those kinds of animals. Very interesting!
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