Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch, Part 1

On our way from Stanfield to Tucson on Thursday, we stopped at the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch in Pichacho, Arizona. The camphost at Pinal County West campground (the same one who had recommended the Dwarf Car Museum that we visited a couple of weeks ago - https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/03/a-visit-to-dwarf-car-museum-warning.html) highly recommended this place to visit, so we decided to stop off and see it.

It is a "ranch" with lots of unique animals which you pay to go into and feed the animals. We are wondering if we are making a mistake documenting this on the blog because maybe my brother will start charging us for allowing us to feed the "beasties" and my sister-by-love will charge us for bottle feeding baby calves!

We took SO many pictures that I will split it into two blog entries -- I have greatly edited down the number of pictures that we took, but there are still a LOT!

Entry area where you paid and were given the feed to give to the animals...

First ones were the burros... they got the pellets of food that went to all the grass-eating animals.

For the parakeets, there was a stick with seeds stuck on one end that you stuck through the wire -- they would come and land on the stick and eat the seeds off.

Next were the Fallow Deer...

... flat hand, let them lip the food off your hand...

... they were *so* gentle.

The cups we are holding are what we got the food in - there were two cups inside each other - the top cup had the large pellets of food for the grazing animals, the bottom cup had a piece of asparagus for the turtles, lorikeet nectar, and 3 coins that we used in dispensers to get food for the chickens, rabbits, and ducks.

Next were the Boer Goats...

Some of the goats were in the "Goat Penthouse"...

As the sign indicates, goats like climbing -- to give these food, you would put food into a cup on a conveyor belt and then crank the conveyor belt up to the top where the cup would dump into a container that the goats could eat from. The kids enjoyed cranking the conveyor belt as much as they enjoyed feeding the goats!

"The Hole in the Wall Gang" - note what appears to be a two-headed goat in front of Carl.

Carl had put a piece of feed in his lips and acted like he was going to feed the goats -- and then he backed out... he showed me the sign that said that you could do that...

... so I did it! Carl said he wasn't going to kiss me anymore...

The Hole in the Wall Gang

Next were the ostriches...

I think Carl is getting ready to direct a choir of ostriches!

These needed more care as you were offering food - they could pinch...

... the sign told us to hold our hand low and raise it up to where the beak was - that way they couldn't get to more of your hand. Some of them (I don't think all) had something like a nose ring - it went through their nose and over the end of the top of their beaks, so they couldn't easily pinch you with their beak.

"Watch for Long Legged Chicks"!

Pichacho Peak beyond the Ostrich enclosure

Chickens...

... their beaks were trimmed (I think) to keep them from being able to pinch.

Sheep...

They were all anxious to get some feed.

Dwarf Goats

These reminded me of Belle, a miniature goat that we had when I was a kid.

There were some up high and some down low...

These two had their hind legs on the ramp going up and their front legs on the fence -- they didn't have their heads at a place that you could feed them with a flat hand, but they would take long pieces from your fingers.

That's all for part 1!