The Common Mommy Denominator: The Ostrich Farm

While in AZ, Mom and Dad took us to the Ostrich Farm at Picacho Peak. (FYI, for those who've been asking, yes, I use the terms Mom and Dad for both my parents AND Jay's parents, but if I'm talking about AZ, it's the Bradshaw Mom and Dad, generally speaking!)

OH MY GOSH.

Okay, first off, those ostriches are SCARY. No, really. They're enormous, very strong, VERY eager for the pellets you have to feed them, and they have a pretty long reach, even from well behind the fence.

But I digress. You pay $5 admission - which includes a big cup of pellet-style food to feed the ostriches, deer, (yes, deer!) and mini donkeys, and a little cup of "nectar" for the lorikeets - and enter facing the ostriches, which is inevitably where everyone heads first.

And they're huge. Did I mention that already?

So if you're a pansy, you dump some food into the funnels outside the fence and watch them peck like crazy at the feeding trough into which it the funnels empty. If you're as brave as Mom and Dad, however, you put a piece of that pellet stuff into your (VERY) outstretched palm as low as you can get their heads to go, and they peck at your palm to eat. And it hurts a little. Really, right now, open your palm and give it a good pinch with the other hand. It's not all that easy to pinch, but somehow those giant beaks manage to pinch your palm as they go for the food. It's not terribly painful, of course, but you may jump back a little in surprise. Seriously.

When you're done being wowed by the Scekzy/Big Bird crosses, there are deer to your left and donkeys to your right.

The deer are beautiful, of course, and it's a unique experience to be hand-feeding animals that you generally find prancing through the forest. Bambi's mom, of course, was shot by hunters, as I tearfully reexperienced while watching Bambi with the kids at Mom and Dad's, so she was not present at the feeding area...but 3 or 4 dozen other deer were! One of the most amazing things about the deer to me, though, was that their pens - part of which were long, plastic-coated wires suspended between posts - had given them a neck-shave; it seems that when they stick their heads and necks through the wire, over time they rub off the plastic coating, and then over time that bare wire rubs the fur off their necks. Beautiful animals, of course, but that made me just a little sad...and I expended the majority of my feed on them.

The donkeys were adorable. We're talking ADORABLE. Feeding them was like placing your hand under a live soft-bristle brush. And they had these sweet little faces...seeing them next to the sweet little faces of my children, well, it was wonderful. Unfortunately, though, I think they mini donkeys get shafted; they have to compete with the insanity of the ostriches, the "oh my gosh!"

factor of the deer, and the lorikeets. And when it comes to lorikeets, there IS no competition.

A lorikeet on your arm is like have a rainbow land on you: too cool.

You bring in these (capped!) little cups of liquid and just hang on, because the next thing you know, the lorikeets have landed on you and are using their beaks to flip the lids off! They lap that stuff up faster than me with chocolate, and that's saying something!

For some odd reason, they were particularly attracted to Jason's hair. I'm wondering if they thought the little gray bits were nesting materials. (Sorry, Jason!) They landed on his head, pecked at the side of his head, hung out around his collar...I don't know, maybe his hair just smelled really good. Either way, it was hysterical...more so when he got worried about them pooping on his head and tried to get them off.

Those buggers can peck!

The kids were impressed, Dad was inundated (primarily because he did a fabulous job FOOLING the birds into THINKING he had containers of nectar!) and it was all-around a very cool experience. Plus, the kids were free (we gave them our food), so all told for our little family of four, it cost about $10. I highly recommend it to you AZ'ers passing by Picacho Peak. (That, and the DQ on the other side of the freeway. YUM! Who knew you could fill up on half a basket of fries and fried shrimp?!)