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You raising the brine shrimp for the cichlid ?Originally Posted by Altair
Other pets/livestock
What else do people raise besides poultry? I currently have two Maine coon cats, a parrot cichlid, and as of tonight, sea-monkeys (childhood was calling). I should marry Noah for all the other animals I'd wish to have, but for today this is all I have aside from hens. I'll post some pictures later.
Last edited by Altair; 08-09-2010 at 05:34 PM.
You raising the brine shrimp for the cichlid ?
It didn't cross my mind, but if there's any overpopulation I know the cichlid wouldn't object!
lol good catch Evy.
By the way we have 2 dogs(vizsla and a german shorthair) and as of last friday a potbelly piglet. At some point in the fairly near future we will be adding either a guard bred donkey or a guard bred llama as a first line of defense from big predators.
Good luck with the donkey / llama guards. My neighbor had both in his 1 acre pasture that borders my back yard. A fox took an adult tom turkey from in front of the shed door & couldn't get it through the fence. Maybe the llama & donkey didn't like the turkey or it was after their shift had ended, but neither, judging from tracks in the new snow, made a move to help poor Tom. The llama did do some serious damage to my cat a few years ago.
It is good to hear those stories. I have heard good and bad. I figure if I get something to graze the pasture to keep it down might as well have something that might help in another way.
^ Their hair also sells pretty well, at least around here. My aunt has had llamas for about five years with the goats but they aren't really used for guarding because they're all in at night. They do make for good attractions for her store, I'll tell you that.
Since you asked - I have three German shepherds, but don't "raise" them. One is a rescue, one was adopted as a three year old from a breeder, and the third was bought as a pup. I've had GSD's for a number of years and adopted all but the pup as adults of one year old or more. I much prefer adopting dogs that are beyond the puppy stage!
I raise hair sheep with my neighbor. 5 years ago we had lambs killed by coyotes within 50 yards of my living room (9 in about 2 weeks). We got a couple of female llamas and have not lost another lamb to predation since. We still see coyotes but they know which pastures to not go into. They will go the long way around rather than cross the fence. The llamas do well at guarding sheep if they are separated. If there is more than one llama in a pasture they will ignore the sheep. Llama's (at least ours) dislike dogs and will chase them out of the pasture. I doubt anyone knowledgeable about llamas would recommend them for guarding poultry even though they may coexist..
Tosakin goldfish! More work than the chickens, but beautiful creatures.
A Jack Russell 'terror', 2 Persian cats, a 100 gal. aquarium of tropical fish, a lily pond of goldfish, several breeds of wild waterfowl, an elderly Yellow Golden pheasant, a pr. of Bob-whites, Call ducks, Sebastapol geese. Just adopted a neighbor's 2 abandoned mutt cocks.
I want some of Richard's Tosakins!
Last edited by Evy; 08-18-2010 at 11:30 AM. Reason: addition
KS Zoo
We have a range of creatures... Let me see.
Besides birds, we have two golden retrievers Remington and High Kalibur aka Remi and Kali, three cats, Mirage, Ethel and Mousetrap (don't let the name fool you, he's really lazy, only eats mice that are pre-caught.)8 parakeets (which could leave anytime...if someone wanted them.) One mini lop rabbit that is actually my son's. And there are two turtles in our fish pond...but no fish.
K&S
My menagerie is pretty streamlined these days: 2 housecats, a geriatric-puppy Pit Bull and the 53 chickens.
How embarrassing - I forgot to mention my elderly oriental shorthair cat!
Of course, I have birds too - one black and seven blue seven week old standard orpington chickens, and two pairs of fourteen week old (dewlap) grey toulouse geese.
Llama alert
Advisory: if you face the risk of feral dogs; get two donkeys and immunize them against rabies. Llamas will confront a predator but will fall to a pack as small as a pair. Keep the number of donkeys low - because too many donkeys (or too many llamas) and they'll leave the stock alone and hang out with each other.
There are also come good guard dog breeds; as a rule they must be raised with sheep and then they bond and see them as part of their pack.
Jacks are not good for guarding since they have the sexual attitude of, well, Jacks, and have been known to attempt to make girlfriends out of other species.
Feral dogs die in our area before they can pack up. Our Amish neighbors won't stand for any stray dogs around livestock. I think their motto is shoot, shovel, shut up.
About donkeys. I have seen too many people try to use the miniature donkey to guard livestock. They are not aggressive or large enough to protect anything. And larger donkeys are no fun to deal with. Donkeys are like horses in that they can be tough on gates and fences.They eat lots more than a llama and require different care. Llama's need the same wormer as sheep and are much easier to feed all winter. They are also better and safer around newborn lambs.
Besides poultry, let's see . . . rabbits, four dogs (great pyrenees, lhasa apso, shih tzu & a rat terrier/heeler mix), and five cats - two of which are actually ours and three who adopted us. I think they were some of our neighbors barn cats but they decided to live at our house because we feed them better!
I keep saying "NO MORE ANIMALS!" but everyone knows what a sucker I am for them and they can talk me into taking them. We even had a couple of ducks dumped one year. We had some that free ranged and one day I went out and there were two more there that were different colored than any we previously had. Apparently someone didn't want theirs so dropped them off at our pond and we gained two more.
Other Livestock
Red deer. For restaurants and snack products like venison sticks, jerky, pepperoni, and more.
mmm... you know that might be a good fit for out back pasture.
I have 2 Border Collies, Tahoe and Lulu. A Chihuahua/Yorkie, Nick.
3 cats, Doodle, Jack and Moto. Jack and Moto are excellent hunters bringing home a couple of mice on almost a daily basis.
Love them little mousies,
Mousies what I love to eat.
Bite they tiny heads off,
And nibble on they tiny feet.
Moto actually caught a hummingbird. One of the only birds I thought would be safe. I took down the feeder... They do not bother my chickens though.
I have 3 Easter egger hens, 2 Lakenvelder hens and 4 Silver Campine hens.
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