For my birds, I decided to build an outdoor aviary so the parakeets and finches could have a dedicated space. It gives them more freedom than I could possible offer in my home, since I have both cats and dogs (among other things).
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The dogs and cats have the run of the place, except for the goat pasture and chicken area. I will let the dogs into the goat pasture under supervision. They know that the goats are not to be messed with, but my lab is an idiot, so she forgets her manners sometimes. Daisy, our head goat, has to remind her that goats don't like to play chicken.
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This is Daisy. She is a sweetheart, but mess with her herd and you get the horns. Fortunately, our other dogs have more sense. Like my doberman, happily soaking up the sun in the goat pasture, like a good doggo.
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The dogs have also been trained to leave our free-range chickens, ducks, turkeys, and peafowl alone, so they will not bother them as they roam about the property. The "chicken area" is a fenced-off space that is "poultry only." It is where all the food, water, nest boxes and shelters are located for our flock.
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The birds can fly out, if they want, but the older and less agile birds rarely do. This helps keep the birds safer and prevents my dogs from eating all the eggs before I gather them. They love eggs.
I will sometimes bring the dogs into the chicken area, but only on special occasions and under direct supervision. This photo was taken after we got our newest dog, Bear the Anatolian shepherd. I brought him in to introduce him to the flock. He spent the whole time chewing on a bagel.
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He was such a cute puppy and so tiny! Now Bear lives up to his name.
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Our cats are mostly indoor only. They are allowed to go outside, but rarely do so. Too domesticated for farm life.
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This is likely because we used to have a small dog named Max that would chase after the cats when they were outside. He generally didn't bothered them in the house, but we used a baby gate to keep the upstairs "cat only" while he was alive, just to be safe and to give the cats a space of their own.
With Max gone, the cat vs dog war has resolved, so they coexist together without issues.
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Even so, the cats still stick close to the house. This is probably for the best, since we do have coyotes and other nocturnal predators around.
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Our cat Neo was the most adventurous. He would sometimes follow me around to see what I was doing. Explorer kitty!
I also have terrarium for my poison dart frogs. They spend all of their time inside of the terrarium for obvious reasons.
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It is quite large and they are very tiny, but beautiful. And despite the name, not that dangerous.
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