CockadoodleMoo.org

A farm animal sanctuary located just north of Reno, Nevada near Pyramid Lake

Help us help the animals

1. Volunteering at CockadoodleMoo: For info on volunteering at our little farm sanctuary, which is always a huge help, click here.
2. Cash donations: Donations through PayPal go toward animal food and medical care. 3. Link from here when you buy from Amazon: An easy way to help is to click this AMAZON LINK any time you plan to buy from Amazon.com. Doing so gives us a 6% referral fee, which is a huge help — and easy too!
4. Non-cash donations: For our wishlist of non-cash donations that would really help us help the animals, see the wishlist box lower in this column.
5. Best way to help all animals: Click here for the absolute best way you can help all animals today.

Get occasional email updates from us

A few times a year, we will send out email updates — generally only for really big news. We will never share or sell your email address. Just put your name and email address in the form below and hit send.

Wishlist — most-needed items

The following non-cash items would be extremely helpful. Used but good condition is fine. (For less pressing but still needed wishlist items, click here.)

* Chain-link panels — These would be used to build isolation pens. When new animals come to the sanctuary, they must be kept separate from the others for about 30 days to determine if it's safe from a disease standpoint to introduce them.

* Feed, straw, hay — Any feed, straw or hay will be put to good use. These may be broken bags from stores, straw bales left over from decorations or hay no longer needed if animals die.

* Old towels — These are used for cleaning up and for bedding material, especially for sick animals.

* Horse panels — These allow us to quickly put up temporary pens almost anywhere.

* Bird seed — We feed hundreds of wild birds year-round at CockadoodleMoo and seed is always appreciated.

Copyright notice

All images and text, including recipes, that are not cited as belonging to others can be used for not-for-profit, vegan-friendly purposes. Give credit to CockadoodleMoo.org if you can but it's not necessary.

RSS feed for blog entries

Disclaimer about medical comments

We are not veterinarians or even vet techs. Do not consider medical comments we write as professional advice. Your animals' lives are at stake; consult a vet if your animals are sick and BEFORE trying anything we discuss. The purpose of our comments is NOT to give advice but merely to share our experiences as people who sometimes find themselves caring for sick and injured animals. Use anything we say at your own risk and your animals' risk.

Roosters, fighting, crowing and losing one

January has been a very eventful time in the upper coop.

First I went to feed one evening and found Curtis and Fritz involved in a battle through the 2" holes of the inside wire fence. Both birds were bloody and furious. I spent the next hour adding a new layer of 1/2 inch fencing to prevent this from happening again.

When it is below freezing, I leave a 60 watt bulb on inside the coop for extra heat. Apparently this is very confusing to roosters who follow the sun for wake up and sleeping times. I woke up at 2 am one evening and was shocked to her a cacophony of crows coming from the shed. By 6:30 the next morning, there were some pretty hoarse crows from the boys and a shellshocked Ginger.

During a wind and snow storm, the kennel that is the outside play area for Miyagi, Fritz and Buster moved, and a gap was left about 3 inches wide between it and the tunnel into the coop. Before we had a chance to fix it, another crazy storm hit and Buster disappeared. After days of searching and crowing for him (he loved to respond to our calls), we have resigned ourselves that he is gone for good. I hope that he just snuck out the gap to explore his world but I know that more than likely a predator snatched him, but Buster was a fighter so I am sure he got in a few pecks and spurs first. (The gap is now fixed.)

— Dianne

Jan 30, 2010 11:28 AM