The Wonders of Ethiopia...

So there are possibly a few things that come to mind when one thinks of Ethiopia. However curiosity has lead me to spend a lot of time looking into and researching one of their rarest creatures. The Ethiopian wolf doesn't look much like a typical wolf, they aren't grey or black but resemble more fox colours.

Ethiopian Wolf Pups

The wolves have been declining over the years and there are roughly only 500 left in the world in small groups scattered over Ethiopia.

There are various groups trying to help these wolves such as the Born Free Foundation. One way they are trying to help these wolves are by finding ways to protect them from rabies. The local dogs are passing illnesses to these animals which are killing them off. Rabies being such a contagious disease has caused the numbers to decline dramatically. These wolves have also been found shot and worse where the humans are protecting livestock. The habitat is also disappearing where humans are trying to give themselves more land and also because of this increase in land it has been found that hybrid wolves have come into existence. It seems this is mostly just in one area at the moment.

Ethiopian Wolves Social Behaviour

It pains me to hear about animals like these that a lot of people haven't even heard of are needing drastic help to survive. Of course it isn't just animals, insects and birds as well. Wolves have always had superstition and myths surrounding them, especially the grey wolf. In so many myths the wolf is seen as a bad omen, and of course other things have come from that such as stories of werewolves which are common theme at this time of year. The grey wolves that run wild still are under threat by farmers who wish them all to be very much dead. Yet we all keep dogs, including those farmers and would we really have dogs to play with and cuddle at home if it wasn't for these magnificent animals?

The Ethiopian wolves are less known by many but yet are so beautiful. There is on-going conservation work to help these beautiful creatures and I hope so much that they will be saved. I want to go out there and watch these animals at some point, I wish to study more about them and plan to. Animals as beautiful as these should be saved.

Apple Festival - Middle Farm

So today was the day of the Apple Festival at Middle Farm, Firle, East Sussex. Mum working at the primary school in Firle managed to get two free tickets and so we all payed a little towards my ticket as you have to pay £10 to get in. I haven't decided whether or not it's worth £10 yet though I did enjoy the afternoon.

There were a range of activities, a fair for those young and small, animals that you could pet along with the sheep and chicken races! Lots of cider and apple juice and obviously lots of apples! There were stalls that were taken by various people, meat from Middle Farm, various people in Firle had stall's where they were selling what they had made. You can have easily spent a fortune on food, ranging from meat to veggie bites or bread and cakes!

Near where they were selling the apple juice in a tent they were pressing the apples so everyone could see the apples being pressed before they bought them.

Apple Press

After they pressed the apples they then poured them into the barrels through a sieve so they could get  out any lumps that was still in the juice before it went to the public to drink it.

Sieving the Apple Juice

There were other things going on, like the sheep and chicken races where you could bet on which animal you wanted to win. This attracted lots and lots of people! For younger children you could go and watch the cows being milked, they all went in and were all attached to the machine. This seemed a hit with the children who found it rather fascinating.

Being filled with milk

It was possible to see the cows being milked and fed and then moved on so that the other cows could come and eat and have milk taken from them. The cows waiting to be milked looked so sad that they weren't being milked, guessing it was because they were hungry!

Waiting their turn

Being an apple festival and being at Middle Farm, there was of course a lot of cider going around. Personally I would say this is a festival for adults more then children as there seemed much more drinking and smoking going on then anything else. I found the farm a good place for some photos and have enjoyed the afternoon. I also signed up to the Sussex Wildlife Trust as a member where I found out about the different courses they do including some in photography! I would happily go again, it was a good afternoon and was nice to see the different stalls and the things for sale.

More photos can be seen here.

Guess what this is?

England And It's Love/Hate Relationship

For some living in this country is dull and boring and maybe for them it is. It is also possible that they can't see the beauty in front of them! Our country due to it's climate has the craziest mood swings and I am lucky enough to live by the sea and so see these mood swings on a daily basis. The sea is something that I have always lived next to and took for granted. It was only when I was traveling into Brighton everyday that I found what it was I really loved about this country.

Unlike some I have never holidayed abroad with my parents. I went to Spain with friends and a friends family and I went to Kenya on a church mission trip during the drought. All my holidays with my parents though were in the caravan in some random field in the middle of no where. My sister grew to dislike the holidays turning into a city girl through and through but I had already gone way opposite to that.

There is so much of our country that is beautiful! The wildlife, the scenery and the history! We are blessed to be living in a country of such history. I have ever since I can remember been a member of the National Trust. These have also got to have been some of the best days out of my life. I practically grew up at Stourhead we went there on holiday so often. I learnt to walk there and had my first birthday there! It is also it's most beautiful at this time of year as all the leaves on the tree's start to change colour. It is stunning and breathtakingly beautiful. The same can be said for many places, if you actually take a moment to stop and look you can see how beautiful this country truly is.

Of course like many I can also dislike this country, though that is completely down to people and politics. I work with children and I know what they are like now and I do not want to bring my children up in school's where seven year old's talk about having sex. Then I know that in a village school the innocence of childhood still remains safe, so maybe there are still places of refuge in this country.

I have thought many a time about leaving the country and moving somewhere else. My heart would take me to Africa any day. However I would miss this country, I would miss the seasons and the animals that come with them. The foxes that are seen out on the downs along with all those rabbits! I would miss taking my dog for a walk and being able to show my boyfriend a green woodpecker and explain how you can recognise it by it's flight pattern. I love this country so much, I love the wildlife so much and though sometimes it seems that the big cats of Africa would be so much more interesting... I look out the window and something will catch my eye. I have found working in Firle some mornings this happens more often then not when the crows start making a noise there is always a buzzard or a red kite.

There is so much in this country we take for granted but sometimes all we need to do is go outside and look up and there will be something enough to make one appreciate what they have. Our country isn't all that bad, if you ignore all the politics and everything. Just admire the gift we have been given and realise how privileged we are to live in such a beautiful country.

The Wheel or Saucer?

What a strange question you may ask? It is indeed an odd question to ask but one that I had to make in the last couple of months. As previously explained I have ten degu's and these animals need and love their exercise. Get them out the cage and they will run off happily and these animals know how to move!
So I had the choice between a Flying Saucer Wheel or a normal one that you see everywhere.

Flying Saucer

The flying saucer is a wheel that spins at a tilt. Of course the issue with these wheels is that they are plastic and so can be chewed and possibly detroyed. So you have to look at price. Getting a wheel like this being plastic you can get for less then £10 from an amazing shop on ebay. A metal one will set you back at least £80 and because of how they are made they are not easy to make yourself unless you work with metal and you know what you are doing!

The other option was a wheel. As you may have seen in the last blog post that in one of the photos a plastic wheel is visible. That wheel lasted exactly one day before they had chewed it so it no longer worked or stayed together. The wheel was useless and costs a little less then £10 per wheel. So I had to look at something else that maybe somewhat more useful and so I came across a guy called John Hopewell who makes cages and other bits. He makes metal wheels that can be easily attached to any cage.

John Hopewell Wheels

Now these come in two sizes as you can see. The smaller one costing £45 and the larger £55. Now these seem like fair prices possibly. However when looked in to it we found that actually it wouldn't be that hard to make a wheel like this for not much at all. So because of that I dismissed the idea of waiting for the large wheel in stock and then I would have to order at least 3 of them which would end up costing £165! I spend a lot of money on my animals but that for 3 wheels seems silly.

So I now had a choice to make, should I make a metal wheel or try out the flying saucers? Now I looked at various reviews and read many about how it is much better for an animal to not arch it's back while running and so I worked out how large a wheel I would have to make and whether if I put it in the smaller cages, would I fit anything but the wheel in them?

It was decided thanks to a company called Wundapets who I found on ebay that I would buy one flying saucer, see if the animals could use it okay and if so try all three cages before buying anymore. The saucer when it arrived in it's box was in two parts. The base and the saucer. The saucer attaches to the base by sliding on to the base. The photos below should show what I mean.

The two parts

How they fit together

Apologies about the photo quality, taken with my iphone and the light in here is appalling! As you can see the base on this one is chewed but the wheel still fit's perfectly and it works with hardly any noise. The animals of course find ways of creating noise by pushing it in to the side of the cage or something similar. I currently now own three of these, two of which are in the boys cage to stop arguments! I haven't tested the saucer out with Saphira and Houdini yet as they never took any interest in the wheel they use to have, other then to eat it. So the other two cages are being fitted out with saucers for now and they will get one at a later date.

When it comes down to wheels or saucers? I would choose saucers all the way. They come in three different sizes so you can get them for any small animal. They take up a bit of space but two animals can run on it at any time once they have worked out how and it causes less fights then the wheels did! It has also been nearly two months since the first saucer was bought and it is still in perfect working order! They are cheap enough to replace if need by but seem to last so much longer then the wheels ever did anyway.

Personally I would recommend everyone scrapping their wheels and getting saucers instead. If you know how to mess with metal then this would be a good way of making a lot of money! These are becoming more popular and anyone who can make metal saucers would defiantly get the customers.

The Wonderful Life of Degus...

I am currently laying in bed, enjoying the lazy morning I get off work before I have to get up, get ready to go and pick children up from school and possibly end up with some sort of headache. In my room I have three cages, most people think I am completely crazy and are quite possibly right. In these cages I have degus. I have five boys in a large cage and next to the large cage I have two cages, one on top of the other. The top cage currently has two females in it and the bottom has three females. I am also waiting for the postman who will hopefully bring me a flying saucer which I will explain in another blog - saucer vs wheel!

Degu Cages!

As you can see these are my cages, the red one isn't so empty anymore and many things in the cages have changed over time due to the fact that no matter how much I would like it, these animals have perfected the art of destroying things. I have many clothes and towels that I was silly enough to leave close enough to the edge of the cage, of course these now do now exist and were made in to a rather nice nest for them at the time.

I have had a few degu's over the years, the first two I owned I acquired at Raystede's they were both rather old though and one died not too long after I got them. I then had to buy two more, Saphira and Houdini who currently live in the cage with the green bottom. They are my oldest degu's and must be getting on for about 4 years old in February I believe, or January one of the two.  I then rescued Enigma and Allegra from pets at home - I can rant about them for days as well! - I got these two home to find that they were pregnant!

Allegra's Litter of six

  Allegra had her litter of six within a few weeks of me bringing them home. Waking up one morning to see the babies was something special! One had died during birth or was born dead and so she had birthed seven altogether. The youngsters were all lively and out and about very quickly.

Allegra with her six babies

Allegra had 3 girls and 3 boys they were all very inquisitive and due to the large size ended up swapping cages with Houdini and Saphira who were at the time in the large blue cage. They seemed to adjust in their new cages and Saphira and Houdini always seemed happier to have a smaller space to make a mess in.

It was only a few weeks later that Enigma had her babies, she had three of them, two boys and a girl. Salt, Pepper and Spice.

For a week or so there were eleven degu's in that blue cage as both Enigma and Allegra brought up their babies. Allegra's litter grew quickly but it was always nice to see them looking after the youngsters as well.

An eleven degu pile!

The boy's from Allegra's litter had to move out. They were getting too big and so the red cage was bought and the boys moved in. This allowed more space for their sisters and the new three to grow. As Salt and Pepper grew I had to make sure they had regular contact with the three older boys as they would all have to live together once the boys were old enough to leave their mother. It led to some rather cute meetings between the boys including a moment where I was able to get this photo:

They boys got on fine and it was a shame that sooner rather then later the boys all moved in together. Engima died rather suddenly and we still don't know why. What ever happened also left Spice with the end of her tail missing. She was checked by the vets before being put in with the boys. We needed to make sure there was no other reason for her being attacked and we believed her to be safer with the boys. Of course she couldn't stay in there and degu's can't be neutered until they are at least a year old. This led to her being tested out with Saphira and Houdini who I could easily compare to old people. They are seriously grumpy animals! They took in Spice though straight away and I don't think I have ever been so surprised!

Spice calmed the two old ones down and until last week she had lived with them. However as she is younger and fitter she wanted to be boss and it was creating problems so she has now joined the remaining females. Allegra died not long after Enigma did, we are pretty sure there are some health issues with them and that they both possibly had diabetes. Through what I was told when I picked them up and from what the vet can tell all the babies are inbred and are possibly diabetic as well. One of the sister's from Allegra's litter died though the remaining two seem more then happy and have welcomed Spice into their cage. They are all doing well together.

The boys, well boys will be boys. All the boys are as healthy as they can be, they love their food and they love a good fight or two. They never really hurt each other but they do like to fight over who is boss and who isn't!

So that is the story as to why I lay here in bed watching ten degu's running about and making a lot of noise. I wouldn't change it for the world, they are amazing animals who are incredibly intelligent and have proved to me several times over that they have a pretty good memory as well!