Farm Animals

13 species listed on Pet Listings.

13 pages written

A

AlpacaBred for fleece rather than meat, and the fleece carries no lanolin, so it does not need scouring. Alpacas hum to one another and share a single dung pile.

C

ChickenThe pecking order is literal, and it settles who eats first. A good layer gives hundreds of eggs a year, and the flock has a call for most things.

CowFour stomach compartments and about eight hours a day spent chewing cud. Cows form real friendships and get stressed when they are separated from them.

D

DonkeyBred in desert country, so it thinks before it moves, which reads as stubbornness and is really caution. It remembers ground and company for decades.

DuckWaterproofing comes from a gland at the base of the tail that it works through its feathers. Ducks need water deep enough to dip a whole head in.

G

GoatA browser rather than a grazer: it wants leaves and bark, not lawn. The rectangular pupil gives it a field of view most of the way around its own head.

GooseGeese bond in pairs or small groups and both parents raise the goslings. They graze grass rather than grain, and they will announce a visitor before the dog does.

H

HorseIt can doze standing up because its legs lock, but it has to lie down to reach deep sleep. A horse is a herd animal first and does badly kept alone.

L

LlamaBigger than an alpaca and bred to carry rather than to shear. Llamas are used as guard animals for sheep, because they will face down a dog.

M

Miniature HorseMeasured under thirty eight inches at the withers, and built to horse proportions rather than pony ones. Often kept for driving and for therapy work.

P

PigIt wallows because it has almost no sweat glands, and mud is how a pig manages heat. Rooting is a need rather than a habit, and pigs work out how to reach food.

S

SheepA sheep recognises and remembers individual faces, both sheep and human, for years. Most wool breeds have to be shorn, because the fleece never stops growing.

T

TurkeyThe bare head changes colour with mood, from pale to bright red. Only the males gobble, and wild turkeys roost in trees and fly well over short distances.