Are you looking for a fun day trip for kids and adults over the summer? If you live in Arizona or plan to visit the Southwest, check out Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch, the nation’s largest ostrich ranch, located in Picacho, Arizona, off I-10 and exit 219, 75 miles East of Phoenix.
The Attractions
At the ranch you can see ostrich face-to-face. You can feed them, learn about their habits and habitat, and try products they produce. Besides ostrich you can see, pet, and feed miniature deer, donkeys, and lorikeets, noisy and colorful members of the parrot family, and learn about them.
After you’re done feeding the animals, you can go on a 40 minute monster truck tour of the ranch to learn more about the land, plants that survive in the desert, the creatures that live here, and how the ostrich fit in. You can also go ostrich fishing, an experience you won't forget!
Get your tickets
My good friend Don and I purchased tickets for the monster truck tour. We each received a 32-ounce cup of green alfalfa pellets to feed the deer, ostrich, and donkeys, and a tiny custard cup of nectar for the lorikeets.
The deer
We proceeded to the deer pen where at least 100 small deer greeted us with open mouths and a noise that sounded like a cross between honking geese and braying donkeys. They stuck their cute little faces over and through the railing on the fence, ate what we offered, and licked our hands. We decided to save some food for the ostrich and donkey pens.
The ostrich
I wasn’t as attracted to feeding the ostrich, although I did briefly. We noticed the warning that they can bite. Don put his hand out flat and let then eat from it. I dropped pellets into a chute to let them feed themselves. We didn’t stay as long at their pen. (I actually preferred feeding them more later in the day when we went Ostrich fishing on the Big Truck Tour.)
The donkeys
The donkeys were our next stop. They were friendly, eager to eat, and be petted. You could feed them out of your flat hand or put the pellets in a chute for them. I grew up around horses so I wasn’t afraid of letting them eat out of my hands. Don did the same. We found them endearing and fed them the last of our alfalfa pellets.
In the Aviary we met the lorikeets (aka Brushed Tongued Parrots). They flew onto our hands and shoulders and slurped the nectar we brought them. They literally licked the cups clean. We went back to get a second cup of feed and nectar so we could feed the deer, donkeys, and Lorikeets a second time.
Strange but true
We learned that these tiny birds each eat the equivalent of a 150 pound person. There metabolism run 100 times faster than ours. Adult Lorikeets burn approximately 250,000 calories a day!
Lorikeets enjoy being hosed down with water like kids playing in the sprinklers. They screech and fly around excitedly and chirp constantly. They require huge amounts of liquid and a special and expensive diet. They make a mess and they don’t take well to confinement. So they make poor house pets.
The Big Truck Tour
Next was the truck tour. We entered the truck on a ramp (see right) and listened attentively to our guide, the daughter of the couple who started the ranch. She told us things we never knew about the deserts, the plants, and the animals that liver here, and the history of Picacho Peak. We also had a chance to go fishing for ostrich, something you’ll learn more about if you go on the tour.
Here is a sampling of what I learned:
There’s more but I don’t want to give away everything.
* Ostrich are prized for their feathers, their leather, and their meat.
* Ostrich don’t have teeth.
* One ostrich egg can way 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds.
* One ostrich egg = 24 chicken eggs.
* In the wild an ostrich will lay as many as 20 eggs then sit on them to incubate.
* If you take away an ostrich’s egg, she will lay another one to replace it.
* If you keep taking away her eggs, she will lay an egg a day during her fertile season.
* One ostrich can lay 60 to 80 or even 100 eggs a year.
* Ostrich males and females take turns sitting on the eggs.
* An ostrich has a brain the size of a walnut (a bird brain!)
* Ostrich can run 35 to 40 miles an hour and for 30 to 40 minutes straight.
* Australian Shepherd guard dogs protect the ostrich from Javalina at night
* It will take 1½ to 2 hours to hard boil an ostrich egg.
I bought an ostrich eggs as a sounvenir. I’ll share more with you about how I cooked in another day.
To visit this family owned and operated ostrich ranch, buy ostrich meat, jerky, eggs, feather dusters, leather wallets, and more go to www.roostercogburn.com
You can also email them at <fun@roostercogburn.com>
To find out more about the annual ostrich festival, Google Chandler Ostrich Fest to learn when the festivities will begin.
