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Firey Trails

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The animals of Firey Trails are always a hit with our visitors.  Our animals consist of 5 goats who love to be petted and fed (4 Pygmy & 1 Nubian), a miniature horse (who also can be fed), numerous ducks on and near the pond, three overly friendly dogs and a cat (who is not seen on our grounds since he lives in the house)  We will introduce them to you on this page.

The Goats

Part of our preparation for each event or series of events is what we call The Parade of the Goats, where we lead them from their corral down below to the lit petting and feeding area.  We usually just put leashes on Bossie and Gabby and the others follow along from their corral to their pen.  They seem to be accustomed to The Parade of the Goats since they know they're going to be given special attention by our guests in short time after we transfer them.  Okay, let's introduce you now,  first there's:

The Pony

The Ducks

About the Baby Ducks at Firey Trails  We usually purchase a batch of 10-12 baby ducks every year or so.  They grow rapidly, have their feathers and are nearly adult size at only 6 weeks of age or so (though not fully mature until 6 months or so).  We keep the babies in an outside pen but need to wrap the chain link sides with chicken wire and small opening between the gate and pen with plastic mesh  every night so big, long black Rat Snakes will not enter the pen and eat several.  (We had this happen once a couple years ago  -  a 6 foot long snake was able to enter, ate three good size baby ducks and then couldn’t get back out of the pen because of the bulging “duck” evidence in his belly.)  We let the beneficial snake go later after showing him to a group visiting that day and loaning him out to a nature minded friend who’s a leader of a scout group.  (The baby ducks didn’t agree with the snake by the way, and he regurgitated them up in a few hours.)

When it is time to let the very messy and slopping ducks out of their pen after about six weeks, we box them up and take them out in a boat before letting them loose in the water.  Otherwise it’s challenging to chase them into the new world of the pond they are terrified of at first.  For all they know, water (and lots of it) is just for drinking and slopping their beaks in and not for swimming (something they have not even experienced yet).  It takes only a minute or so before seeing the obvious elation of the ducks as they start diving, bobbing their heads and splashing, suddenly realizing this is the world they were created for.  In just a day or so, they go from paddling in a clumsy fashion to being sleek swimmers on the pond.  It’s always a wonder and a lot of fun to observe.  If they can band together as a group and stay on or near the safety of the water for the first night or so, they have a good chance of surviving hawks, owls and coyotes thereafter (but we still lose a few here and there).  We also have gotten their joyful reaction to the water on video and hope to put it on our website at some point.        

The Dogs & Cat

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Thanks for visiting the Animals of Firey Trails

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Last Updated: 10/27/2011 12:36 PM

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