After lunch in the cafe, we went to meet some more animals. I was surprised that no-one in the cafe took any notice of a rat and a guinea pig sharing a table with a human but then, Kevin sometimes walks around the grounds with a snake so perhaps it was not so odd. Algernon had a dish of rat food from the animal food store and I had a salad. Kevin had his sandwiches from home.
Next to the cafe is the Small Animal House. Kevin opened the heavy door for us and in the first cage we saw a beautiful rat!! He came over to his door to say " Hello".
Kevin lifted Algernon up to see him and then took the rat out of the cage. They had a great time running around on Kevin's fleece.
Whilst they played, I went to look in the other cages. There were mice, gerbils and hamsters in huge tanks but when I tried to take some pictures the flash reflected off the glass front and I did not know how to avoid that. Guinea pigs are not renowned for their photographic skills. The degus were too fast for me to get a photo and Kevin said that they were rather skittish and if he were to take one out of their home, he could be frightened by the visitors. Human children are much noisier than baby piggies. It would have been better to have visited next week, when the children would have been back at school.
We reluctantly said goodbye to the rats. I know that Slave would love to have them all at home but probably has enough to do with all of us Piggyfriends, not to mention her birds and mice.
There were some chinchillas across the way. They had such beautful coats and whiskers to die for. Algernon was allowed to go inside a cage to meet some and they were very interested in him too.
Outside, in the grounds again, we went to the aviaries. These are home to all sorts of exotic birds, macaws, parrots, conures, cockatiels and others. Most of the big birds were neglected in their previous homes and were kept in small, unsuitable cages with nothing to do and, out of boredom, they had plucked their feathers.
They will probably never be rehomed but have a home for life here and bring a lot of pleasure to visitors, who are warned not to put their fingers through the bars. Not all of the big birds are sociable due to their earlier mistreatment and those big beaks could cause some serious damage.
Kevin introduced us to a cockatoo called Ice Cream. He has lost a lot of feathers due to self mutilation. Kevin was careful not to let Algernon too close to the cage bars just in case but all was well.
Last of all, we donned our hard hats again to go through the building site for a visit to the goats. Goats will eat absolutely anything so Algernon was careful to stand far enough back from the wire.
Toffee and Badger came over to see us but DJ watched us from his shelf.
We came home very tired after our busy day.
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