Our Favourite Animal Encounters!

Farmer Hayley & Farmer Katie’s top-tips for picking an Animal Encounter!

Hello everyone! I’m Farmer Hayley and I’m here to help you make the tough decision of which animal encounter to choose, to enhance your day at the farm! we have so many encounters with a wide range of animals from cuddles with our Guide Pigs to making an Armadillos lunch (see Farmer Katie’s section for more information on exotic encounters). So let’s get started!

Small Animal Encounters

I love the small animal encounters because we get to go in with the Giant Continental Rabbits (and see my favourite Angus!) to feed them lots of veggie treats, we then get to cuddle some slightly smaller rabbits, guinea pigs and don’t forget the mice and gerbils!

Wallaby Encounter

I love spending time with the wallabies and we hope by the end of your encounter, you will too! We go in with their breakfast and some veggie treats, whilst you get the opportunity to hand feed them, whilst learning about all of their weird and wonderful traits!

Goat Encounter

Goat Encounters are the G.O.A.T of the encounters! (I’m so funny…). Depending on the time of year, we can go in with the goat kids and play/cuddle them, and trust me, you won’t want to leave! As well as this, if you would like a bit of chaos in your life, you can walk our hand reared goats, Giggles and Gargantua!

Alpaca Encounter

Get your walking boots on for this encounter, as you’ll be leading our gorgeous Alpacas on the field walk, whilst learning all about them (and giving them lots if treats along the way!).

Pony Encounter

I love seeing the ponies have fun on their encounters! Here we will take them on a loop of the farm (to help them stretch their old legs!) and then give them a really good groom, which is definitely Charlie’s favourite part!)

Now onto our more exotic encounters…

Hello it’s Farmer Katie here. At the beginning of the year, I swapped the Our Favouritesection I worked on at the farm and I joined the Exotics team! The Exotics team care for all the reptiles as well as the more “zoo” animals. Just like the other sections at the farm, we have animal encounters where visitors can have a more up close and personal experience with the animals we work with. The exotics team are responsible for four of the animal encounters that the farm offers. This includes: Reptiles, Armadillo, Sulcata and Meerkats!

Reptile Encounter

The reptile encounter allows visitors to touch, hold and learn about some of the scales animals that live on the farm. This includes snakes, lizards and tortoises. We usually show the visitors some invertebrates whether that’s the bugs the lizards like to eat, or the ones we look after at the farm. My favourite part of the reptile encounter is when a visitor who is a little unsure of one of the animals, usually the snake, plucks up the courage to hold it! The visitors reaction is always great to see because they are usually relieved it isn’t as bad as what they thought it would be!

Armadillo Encounter

My favourite encounter to do with visitors is the armadillo encounter. In this encounter, you get to make Ahmed, our daddy armadillo, lunch and take it up for him to enjoy. When you join him in his enclosure, he is happy to see visitors, but even happier to that it’s food time! Visitors can hand feed and touch Ahmed to see what he feels like. I am a big fan of our armadillos at the farm and I love to share my passion and all the facts I know about armadillos whilst Ahmed enjoys his lunch!

Sulcata Encounter

The Sulcata encounter is our newest encounter. We have four Sulcate tortoises at White Post Farm. Laura, Libby, Rosie and of course our impressive male Sulcata, Hulk! Sulcata’s are the third biggest tortoise species in the world! In the Sulcata encounter you get to give the giant tortoises a wash. They love being scrubbed clean by the visitors. We also hand feed them food like carrots or even cactus (I bet you didn’t know that!). We love to teach visitors about how we look after the tortoises and we give them a quick lesson on how we forage around the farm for our tortoise’s food. An easy food we can find for them is dandelion leaves which we can pick and give straight to the sulcate’s in their enclosure.

Meerkat Encounter

Our most popular encounter is the meerkat encounter. Everyone loves our cheeky meerkats we have at the farm. In this encounter we learn about, and make, some enrichment! Enrichment is a bit like toys for the animals. It’s an item or activity that keeps our animals stimulated and it is very important for their welfare. The enrichment we make for the meerkats during the encounter is a box that we can hide some of their live food in. Once the box is made, we can go into the meerkat enclosure. We usually save the box until last and do the best part first… have the meerkats climb all over you! We use some of their favourite food to entice them on to your laps, but most of the time they don’t need any encouragement, as they love to explore their new climbing apparatus (you guys!). When it’s time for the enrichment box, the meerkats get very excited and it doesn’t take them long to figure out how to get the tasty treats from inside!