New arrivals and fun visitors!

Meet Andy sloth!  Andy is our first three toed sloth to arrive at the Toucan Rescue Ranch.  He was found on the ground after a couple of males were fighting over a female, his mom, who lost him in the fight and took off from the males and the area.  Very sad, but fortunately someone found him and he is now safe and doing well here with us.  He is so different from the two toed's it's like having a completely different species.  Very slow, only eats leaves and is more awake during the day.  We will keep you posted on his progress.  Initially he was very weak, but with some good formula he is now really doing well.

Ty is really climbing and doing well, he has an obsession with his blankets and tries to take them with him when he climbs!  Twili also just started to climb the perch, so they are learning to share some space!

This poor keel billed toucan was found on the ground in the town near our farm by some of the children.  The mother called us, and we transported him to the Toucan Rescue Ranch.  He came in totally blind from the lacerations on his face and eyes.  We are not sure what these were caused from.  Initially it looked like someone had trapped him in chicken wire (I have seen similar cuts like this from the thin wire) or maybe he was in a fight with another toucan.  After a long recovery period, I am happy to report that he has gained his vision back in one eye.  The other eye keeps changing daily, and he might be able to see something now.  We are waiting for the next vet visit to confirm his progress.

If he recovers sight in both eyes we will happily take him to the farm to release!  Keeping our fingers crossed.

We have many wild birds that live and visit our property, this is a young blue grey tanager.  We found her on the ground, the parents would fly around and come feed her, but it was obvious that she was getting very tired and weak, so we found this abandoned clay colored robin nest, and put her in it near the parents, up off the ground.   They came and fed her for two days, and she left flying with them!

Our good friends, Frank Todd (of penguin fame) Jerry Jennings (famous toucan breeder and conservationist) and Paul Bratescu, professional photographer all visited.  They were here with us for several days, traveled around and returned and now it is weird that they are gone!  We had some great late night conversations about birds, breeding and conservation, I always learn so much from them we enjoy the visits.  Here are some photos of them at the farm and of some of the animals on the farm, that I took.  We had a great few days, monkeys, sloths (5 in one day) toucans and more!



Find the sloth hidden in the bromeliads!



Frank Todd had some photo sessions with Quilla the porcupine and Georgie our sloth!  They posed very nicely for him.  Quilla needed some kisses in between shots, take a look!  Enjoy the blog!  Remember, your kindness and generosity with funding keep us going and able to received these  injured animals, please consider adopting an animal or bird in our program.  On the blog you will find a tab for adoptions.  Thank You!!

Construction Update!

Jou Jou, Kinkajou's Enclosure is finally done!!! It's been very busy here, we don't have many guests in the Bed and Breakfast now, as it is green season, but we are always busy with the animals! Jou Jou was very shy about her new enclosure, at first she had to smell everything, then hide in her box, then come out for her favorite banana, then she got comfortable with me sitting on a wooden stump for an hour playing with her and she is now a happy camper. The first night out she had a stand off with the whistling ducks, they surrounded her cage and she was paceing back and forth, then the ducks got bored and left her alone. She did get a few minor sores on her feet from the cement, but we have fixed that now by adding hay to the bottom of the enclosure. We still need to decorate it with bromeliads from the farm...I'm sure she will love to destroy them!




Charley the Scarlet macaw is now staying out all the time!! She is loving being outside and as you can see, although she is severly handicapped she enjoyed taking her first rainbath!



Our little terror Georgie has been enjoying the sunny days and now can reach out to the almond trees we planted next to the outside climbing gym and can have a snack when he wants!

Please consider a donation to the Teresa fund!! Teresa mottled owl was dropped off here about a week ago, friday night. I was just settling down to dinner and TV (I know it's a bad habit, but relaxing) and I received a phone call from La Condessa hotel in San Rafael. They had our brochure and were trying to identify an owl that their driver had picked up on the side of the road. They said the wing was "bad" and they wondered if they could bring her down. So, I said, yes and at 9pm they arrived with Theresa, a juvenile mottled owl. She was in shock and not feeling very well with her broken wing. She was very dehydrated and in pain. I gave her electrolytes, pain medication, antibiotics, and basic first aide treatment for the wing, it was not severly mangled like the other wings I have seen, but the point of the bone was sticking out. The next morning I was trying to figure out what to do with the broken wing, I thought maybe it could be saved.

I had had a visit from the vet who works at the downtown zoo just a few weeks ago. He was telling me about starting a Raptor Foundation and about the various surgeries he has performed (bone grafts, pins, complicated orthopedic surgeries) to save wings. My first thought was to call him and see what he could do for Teresa. I have a vet on staff now, but she does not do orthopedic surgery like this, so for us it was the consideration of a "double expense". After talking it over with my vet, we decided to take her into the zoo and meet the orthopedic surgeon. He said it would be complicated, but gave her a 50% chance of recovering the wing.

We have so many owls with amputated wings that we felt that if we can give Teresa a chance of keeping the wing we needed to do this for her well being. So, a very long surgery ensued and she is now back with us. She has two internal pins, a outside fixator for the pins and a small bone graft. In two months we will know if she will regain use of the wing...it's going to be a long wait.....and of course expensive...so please consider a Teresa donation to the Toucan Rescue Ranch!!! She will need another surgery to remove the pins once the wing has healed.

My good friend Carol has volunteered to give Teresa flying lessons if and when we get to this point!! She will need to have daily exercise in hopes of release...but for now we are in intensive post opps.

Coco and Lulu are now weaned and in a small cage learning to eat fruits on their own, they had a few setbacks, but are now doing really well.

Millie, Milo and Georgie love hibiscus flowers and we have planted an entire hedge of them so that we are sure there are no chemicals on them!! Yummy treat!

I took this photo of Jorge helping with the construction of Issy's enclosure...note his constant companion and supervisor Josie the goose!

The enclosure will be completed this next week. Very exciting!

Isadora Issy, and I had a fun play afternoon in Jou Jou's enclosure. Before we moved Jou Jou in, I took Issy over there to see her reaction and to start getting her used to being away from the porch. For the first five min. she would not let go of me, but after some coaxing and encouraging she would leave me for a few seconds, and 10 min. later she was having fun exploring. I think she will love her new huge enclosure. It is 8x7 meters. We are going to have a decorating party when it is complete!!

Still trying to get the perfect photo!! Here is the Scintillant, smallest hummer in CR in our front yard!

Our good friend Rita, from Casa Bella Rita Bed and Breakfast donated this display case for our store! Now we have eveything in one place and it looks great on the porch.

Thank You Rita!!

The official greeters, the ducks have taken over the railings.

Another visitor-Collared Aracari

Another unexpected visitor. Every morning I wake up to the songs of the various toucans, the macaws vocalizing, the group of parakeets being really loud, the roosters and my African Grey talking, this morning it was " Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas ho ho ho..."we always start that in Nov. and he readily remembers it and starts saying it for Nov. and Dec! Anyway...I sort of do a mental check half asleep that I hear everyone and that they sound alright. It would be horrible to wake up and not hear any bird noise! But this morning the Aracaris were particularly noisy and they have a very high pitched song. I rolled over and that was it.

Later on when I was up I walked outside to do the morning rounds there was a Collared Aracari in the tree near our flight cages. Again, like yesterday, I quickly checked that it was not one of ours (we have 4) and then realized that he was visiting. They are not from this zone, so he has to be an escaped pet. He looks older and is not very afraid of us. He also lands right on top of the cages and came to the feeder to eat. So, that is good that he is eating. That is the most important factor, that he now has found some food that he recognizes, we will keep the feeders full of fruit for him.

This is one of ours that we raised from a small rescued baby.

Will keep you posted!

New Blog up and Running!

This is a test to get the new blog up and running. We have been super busy here at The Toucan Rescue Ranch