Ended up at Rooster's after my visiting sister had her fill of beautiful desert scenery and the spectacular sunsets. Had driven by Rooster's many times previously thinking it was some Vaudeville schtick for kids under 10, but was pleasantly surprised when we entered the almost-cavernous building that housed a gift shop, some carnival type rides, like a carousel, and a large plastic pool full of stingrays. On the particular day we were there, however, the rides were not operating.
The ticketing line was pretty short on a weekday, despite there only being one cashier. After paying the $15 (full access, including food for stingrays), we entered the huge compound which had various corrals full of mainly farm animals and aviaries of budgies and lorikeets.
The entrance fee included some plant pellets intended for the four-legged creatures, but it was difficult not to feed them all to the mules, several of whom were bullied by the feistier ones, and stood around listlessly, like little Tommy who was always the last to be called to join a team of his school buddies for a game of dodgeball.
Moving clockwise from the mules, we came upon the fallow deer, which were basically walking around in a flat, boring enclosure, the focal point being a large pit filled with muddy water from recent rains.
Next stop: several goats high up on an enclosed raised platform with their heads sticking out of cardboard cut outs waiting for our pellets, which we had to deposit into a cup and then crank the cup up to the goats via a hand-crank pulley system.
Keeping with the theme of goats sticking their heads through cardboard cut outs, next to the goats on a platform are the Hole in the Wall Gang - a motely crue of ten goats desperate for our food pellets. And while the goats are super food motivated, with some of them in various stages of climbing out of the hole, there was probably more food on the ground than there were in the goats' bellies. So, in case you run out of pellets, this is a good place to stock up on more pellets for free.
Next came a large outdoor pen of ostriches, which are evil personified. Up till now, the mules and fallow deer hadn't warranted NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ACCIDENTS signs. Unlike my imagined stereotype of ostriches sticking their heads in the sand at the first sign of trouble, ostriches are screechy and big and wouldn't think twice about batting their long eyelashes while pecking your eyes out in search of pellets, or attempting to eat your fingers as they snatch the food from your hands.
***NB: If you feel the need to *get back* at the ostriches for stealing all of the pellets you had left, or swiping your baseball cap from your head, then attacking you with said baseball cap, one of Rooster's side businesses is selling ostrich feathers and other ostrich-related merch***
The rest of the fun farm was filled with your typical animals, such as cute bunnies, geese, ducks and chickens - all vying for your delicious treats, available at dispensers for an additional fee. The pellets we get with the entrance fee only feeds the four-legged creatures, stingrays and lorkieets while some of the other animals require other food which costs extra.
We had spent so much time with the first few animal displays that by the time we reached the lorikeet aviary, we were pretty exhausted. My sister had misplaced her token to exchange for the lorikeet food - nectar in a small plastic vial, but the staff was kind enough to provide her with another little pot, which was slurped up by the lorikeets in 1.3 seconds. Lorikeets are basically ostriches in smaller and more attractive packages. Given the opportunity, they will also peck our eyes out for a vial of nectar, then sing a little lorikeet ditty afterwards. At least with ostriches, you know where you stand.
The grand finale were the stingrays held in a huge temperature-controlled, above ground plastic swimming pool, which took up half of the Rooster Cogburn gift shop. After seeing your run-of-the-mill farm animals, it was difficult to wrap our minds around dozens of stingrays swimming around in a large, temperature-controlled above-ground pool. And unlike a few of the farm animals who appeared to be withdrawn and quiet, all the stingrays were exuberantly swimming around their enclosure. They also came willingly to eat the food out of our hands - the sensation similar to a pleasant spongy vacuum.
A rare, inexpensive and educational outing for those who are not of the PETA mindset. read more