LA
That's Liz in the background locking her gate. Her llamas like to
sniff visitors. No spitting allowed.January 15, 2008. Not much above zero today, but we packed
up our camera and headed west to Furry Kritter Farm. In spite of
the fact that Liz Stucker cannot spell critter correctly, we buy most of
our rats and mice from her. Since she reports she has 350 rodent
cages, we wanted to see her USDA-approved operation in action. As
you'll see, she has more than a rodent ranch going for her.
We'll start from the beginning where she invited us into her house. LA
LA
Right next to her living room, Liz keeps a variety of snakes.
Here's her amethyst python.
LA
She removed this fox snake from a glue trap with peanut bitter.
LA
Another fox snake caught in same glue trap. Both Iowa species will
be released in the spring.
LA
Ditto this red and yellow Iowa garter snake.
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leucistic rat snake.
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Corn snake.
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Much larger corn snake.
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Strangely colored corn snake.
Rescue Operation. There were several other snakes and a large
iguana in her "snake room." Liz says she gets many of her snakes
as part of her Rescue Operation. She also rescues raccoons and
other Iowa critters. Let's go outside in the "cool" weather and
see some of her outside critters.
LA
Liz keeps numerous llamas and every critter has its own name.
Nanny goats in the background.
LA
Here's just a fraction of Liz's goats. One thought our camouflage
pants were his special lunch.
LA
Numerous adult pot-bellied pigs and piglets abounded.
On to the Rodents. After carefully strolling thru the gaggle
of animals and their spoor, we went inside her barn. Each of the
outside animals had its own name. The chickens inside did not.
She introduced us to her senior (15 years old) pot-bellied pig before we
got to the rodents. His name and most of the other names escaped my
memory banks.
LA
When you see something like this, you know the rats can't be far away.
LA
Then you see these and you know you're in a rodent ranch, but you can't
see the rodents.
Convenience. Hardware cloth covers the top of each cat pan.
This enables the rodents to feed at will on the rodent blocks on top.
The multiple water bottles on top enable Liz to limit cleanings to once
a week. Then she brings in two adults and a kid or two to speed up
the process. Numerous cats inhabit this area. Still, she
says, some rats get out. She says she should never have built the
one rack against the wall.
LA
Lots of extra cat pans to simplify the cleaning process.
Transport Containers. Liz moves her rodents to consumers in
the escape-proof containers to the right. They are built to allow
maximum air circulation.
LA
You get an idea of her layout from this nearly empty section. Lots
of water bottles for each colony.
LA
Pull out the "cat pans" and discover lots of mice in each one.
LA
Lots of fuzzies. The entire room was 50 F.
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And pinkies all living in one big furry family. Cat pan after cat
pan of multiple mice.
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And cat pan after cat pan of various sized rats.
LA
Escaped rats love to punch holes in water bottles. Not these.
Pop bottles are rat proof.
LA
Standard lab rat boxes like the ones on the right have considerably less
capacity.
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Liz has about eight private rat control specialists.
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Some loaf on the job
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Some are more serious.
LA
After an hour, we bade the rows and rows of rodent racks adieu and headed for the goat barn.
LA
Where we picked up this little guy and brought him indoors for his lunch.
Darn Kids. You see why they call children "kids" when you see
a real kid in action (except he was quiet). He was more interested
in showing off and bouncing around like a super ball than he was in
drinking his lunch. He really enjoyed cavorting in Liz's living
room. Then he took a nap.
LA
Then it was lunchtime for the horses. Liz got out her pitchfork
and this guy ate like a horse.
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The ponies and donkey held back on the chow line.
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Hard for these little guys to elbow their way to the front.
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Even a couple of the horses were shy about eating in front of us.
LA
Some ten or so head pretty much ignored us as they ate their lunch in
the close to zero temp.
On the Road Again. So we headed north to the non-bustling
city of Earlham and had lunch. We ate at the Master Grillers
Homestead where they serve field hand portions. LA
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LA Productions
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