Ostrich Ranch - and more!

As busy, responsible adults we sometimes forget to capture moments of joy like we did as children. Jason and I had one such opportunity when we visited the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch. Touted as “The Darnedest Place You’ll Ever Visit” the experience moved us to moments of giggling like schoolkids. One may guess the main ingredient of the adventure would be ostriches – but you would only be partially correct! While I love aggressive, goofy-looking, non-flying birds as much as the rest of you, it was the additional “critters” with whom we interacted that really made the visit memorable.

The animals and birds available at Rooster Cogburn include ducks (including diving ducks), Boer goats, miniature donkeys, fallow deer, Nigerian dwarf goats, bunnies, St. Croix sheep, parakeets, rainbow lorikeets, and stingrays! Oh my!

When we arrived, we purchased two stacked feed cups each – blue in color. Included in the cups were green feed pellets, a seed stick for the parakeets, a small cup of nectar for the lorikeets, and tokens to obtain bunny and duck food from dispensers.

Okay, enough of the details – let’s talk about the experience!

As soon as you walk out into the “ranch” field, the miniature donkeys immediately know what’s coming. They very noisily begin moving in their pen toward the humans holding blue cups lol! The pen has slots where the donkeys are to politely poke their heads through to eat the pellets from your hand. Of course, there is always that one critter who is a bit cheeky! This little guy felt he could just tilt his head back and have you toss pellets into his mouth! Which, of course, we did. 😊

From the donkeys, we moved to the parakeet cages. Having owned parakeets (and not necessarily a big fan) I was a bit less excited about this stage. However, it proved quite fun. We put the feed sticks through the cage and the birds happily converged around the stick to eat the seeds attached. I even had one smart little bird figure out how to monopolize the feed from my stick – he perched directly on top of it!

It was a nice respite to move from hectic birds to docile deer. These deer are native to Europe but are often found in zoos in the US. Some of the deer seemed more interested than others, but Jason was able to get two deer to feed from his hand at the same time. In the group were also a fawn and a buck. The buck, however, was NOT impressed with the food offerings and pretty much just stared at us.

Next up were Boer goats. These funny critters had multiple places to obtain their food – even from within a “Goat Penthouse” lol! You put the food in little trays and crank a handle to send the food up a conveyor belt where it drops into the feed bucket. Signs at the Ranch indicate the penthouse is a coveted location and the goats vie to be the first to enter in the morning! Which makes sense – goats prefer high locations for viewing! The second location for the goats is to participate in the “Hole in the Wall Gang”. As soon as you get close with food, their lips start quivering in anticipation!

From the goats we moved on to the ranch namesake – ostriches! They too were highly anticipating our arrival. One goof was not-so-subtly working to get my attention. While ostriches do not have teeth, I can attest to the fact that they have STRONG pecking ability – one nabbed my pinkie and it didn’t quit hurting for quite a while. We noticed one male being somewhat aggressive with the others and another kept staring at me and seemed to be pointing to his tray as if saying “Lady, you put the food in HERE”. Regardless, there is something about interacting with goofy birds that elicits a giggle now and then.

Next up were the St. Croix sheep and the Nigerian dwarf goats. The sheep were pretty tame but the same could not be said for the dwarf goats! The goats had access from an upper and lower row. There was one point I was pretty sure a silly one on the upper level was gonna come plopping out onto the ground! From there we interacted with chickens, ducks, and bunnies.

Now to the best part of the ranch (in our opinion) – the Rainbow Lorikeets. These beautiful birds (relatives of parrots) were quite noisy and knew EXACTLY what to do when we walked in with containers of nectar. The tip of their long tongues is outfitted with a tuft of very fine hair to collect pollen and nectar. These birds were professionals - they even take the lids off themselves!

Finally, we exited the outdoor ranch area and entered into the space where guests can feed Cownose Stingrays. These rays do have venomous spines, but only sting when threatened. Since we were there to feed them little bits of fish, we weren’t concerned with being stung. 😊 They are incredibly graceful swimmers and very gentle when sucking the fish from our fingers.

Overall, we were very pleasantly surprised by our time at Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch. It was truly an adventure – they even entertain guests with interesting signage onsite and in the bathrooms.

We have definitely put this on our “places to take the grandkids” list! If you’re in the Picacho Peak, Arizona area – stop by. It’s easily off I-10 and well worth the trip!