Animal Lovers Web Blog

As extensive animal keepers and all round animal lovers some of the highlights of the summer for us this year have been attending the various agricultural and horticultural shows. This is something that we have done occasionally before but this year we have made a point of attending as many as we can.

The latest show was the Sedgefield Show 2008 which we attended yesterday and despite the dreadful weather with frequent heavy rain we still managed to have a fantastic time.

As is usually the case at shows I spent the majority of my time looking at the wonderful sheep on display. While the Sedgefield Show cannot compete in numbers and varieties on display with the larger shows it does have the advantage of being more personal, which allows you much more time with the animals and a better chance of speaking in detail with the owners and breeders.

At this year’s Sedgefield show one breed of sheep particularly caught our eye which was a rare and special breed sheep, the Oxford Down. These are a pretty rare breed of sheep with only 70 small flocks in the whole of the UK, but they are totally adorable and apparently have a great temperament and for those who consume their animals I’m told that they produce excellent meat.

I certainly plan to look into this breed of sheep in more detail and would be very interested in possibly getting some of our own, as pets but with the option to possibly breed on a small scale and some point in the future. You can see an Oxford Down sheep ewe and lamb in the pictures.

I did manage to move on from the sheep eventually to see some of the other animals on display which included some lovely cattle, poultry including game fowl, guinea pigs, rabbits and dog trials. The rest of the family spent much of the day in the dog section and watching the fascinating dog trials on display. The lovely brown and white Border Collie above wasn’t in the show but was gorgeous nonetheless and the owner was good enough to let me take a picture.

As well as the animals there were a whole host of other activities including prize vegetable, flower, cake and crafts and tasting sessions from local farm shops with many delicious meats and cheeses to sample. It was certainly not a day to be watching the waistline.

Other interesting activities were a demonstration by some fox hounds and horses, fun run and a fancy dress competition for horses and you can see one of my favourites in the picture at the top of this post.

All in all the Sedgefield show was a fantastic day out and is already in the diary for next year, as I just check what is next in line for this year!!

John

Animal Lovers Web

We wrote a couple of weeks ago about our 3 male rabbits who have been castrated and the problems we were having trying to get them to live together. We have had one more attempt at introducing them to each other as we are getting worn down rotating them around the cages and runs and cleaning out 3 rabbits living quarters. Not to mention, it is just much nicer to see them together and having some companionship.

We are, however, very pessimistic now about our chances of success in ever getting them to happily co-exist. Other than through the wires of their cages, and even then, they sometimes try to have a nibble at each others noses.

Our last hope after researching the forums and internet generally is to try the introductions to each other on neutral territory, where none of our rabbits have been before. Up until now we have been rotating the rabbits around the 3 living areas, with the hope that with all 3rabbits scents in all 3 areas, none of them would be too defensive over it. Clearly this hasn’t worked. Many people have suggested a bathroom as a good venue for it, for some reason.

What we are not clear about is, even if it works on neutral territory, how long for? and how many times? Before it is safe to try them together again. We are going to have a go this weekend and will update the blog with how we get on with our male rabbit integration attempts.

John

www.AnimalLoversWeb.com