Thanks for the gifts

I shared last month how frustrating package delivery has been. Thank goodness that has been worked through, as today, packages arrived with gifts for the critters! (Last week a couple boxes arrived with snacks for the humans– thanks Betsy!) Such a nice treat. Mocha and Latte were given a chew toy immediately, and look: And we’re now set on goat treats. We use these treats during operant conditioning, for relationship building, and for treatments. Our goats are trained to walkRead more

Browse for the Farmyard Animals

I mentioned a few days ago we did some pruning in the bear yard and were able to gather the clippings and have a browse-fest in the Farmyard. Check out the pictures Shayna shared. Enjoy. Even the pigs and chickens get browse:Read more

Successful Enrichment

Our interns’ owl enrichment project seems to be a success. We (they) haven’t watched all the footage yet, but we got some video of the barred owl engaging with the nesting box that Dakota and Lauren worked on. Another one of our favorite enrichment items is an old car wash brush. We had hoped to order another one this year, however, we’re just going to have to make due with what we have. Yona seems to claim the brush asRead more

Engineering Project follow-up

Our two student teams from Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering are in their final push to finish their projects. Both teams are focusing on enrichment feeders for the bulls, Dallas and Dusty. One team is making a scatter feeder, while the other team plans to have hay boxes open for feeding when motion sensors are set off. It will be exciting to see how everything fleshes out!Read more

Flashback Friday- Reptile Enrichment

I try to take a little time on Fridays and reflect. Sometimes it’s about the past week and other times I go further back. I came across these two videos looking through old emails. The moss for the snake, and tomato for the turtle were given to the animals, then the following was captured:Read more