Perfect for pet lovers of all ages who dream of owning a pony or donkey or even a farm animal such as a goat, pig or cow but don’t have the time or space, Bucklebury Farm and Deer Safari Park’s new adoption scheme, is an ideal solution. The scheme offers adopters the chance to ‘share’ one of our animals for a whole year with the opportunity for ‘meet and greet’ feeding and care time, a lesson on looking after your chosen species with one of our keepers, your name on a roll of honour and selfie time with your adoptive animal…
Animal adoption packages
Silver: £40
- Day visit pass for one adult and child
- One hour one to one care and experience session with your adopted animal
- Personalised Certificate of Adoption
- Your name in ‘roll of honour’ by your animal’s stable
- A4 image of you and your adopted animal
- Print of animal footprint
- Letter from the animal
- Cuddly toy (in your species)
- Monthly farm team newsletter from each animal to adopter for one year
Gold: £70
- Two day visit passes for one adult and child
- Two one hour one to one care and experience session with your adopted animal
- Personalised care guide + chart for animal adopted
- Personalised Certificate of Adoption
- Your name in ‘roll of honour’ by your animal’s stable
- A4 image of you and your adopted animal
- Video of you with your animal
- Print of animal footprint
- Letter from your animal
- Cuddly toy (in your animals species)
- Monthly farm team newsletter from each animal to adopter for one year
Animals available for adoption:
Flower – 6 years old, American miniature horse
Flower is by far the cheekiest of our three ponies. She gets very excited in the field and often looks like she is practising for the Grand National the way she gallops around. She has a very close relationship with Violet, one our two Shetland ponies, and will often let herself out of her stable if Violet is away for too long!
Paddy – 13 years old, male miniature donkey
Father of Clover and although he is the male of the group, he is definitely the biggest wimp! He does not like to spend any time apart from Felicity or Clover and often gets a little scared of things he sees everyday such as a bucket or the hose! Regardless of this, he is a lovely boy and will position himself in the middle of you and the other donkeys so he can get all the grooming!
Felicity – 13 years old, female miniature donkey
Mother of Clover and the boss in the group. She is always first to get the feed and tells the others off if they try to pinch hers. Nevertheless, she is very affectionate with people and will do anything for a tasty treat of a carrot or apple.
Clover – 11 years old, female miniature donkey
Clover was born here on the farm and lives with her mum and dad, Paddy and Felicity. She is very gentle and the best at standing still to be brushed. She doesn’t hurry herself anywhere so it’s a very rare sight to see Clover trotting anywhere, let alone any faster!
Patra – 10 years old, female donkey
Patra arrived at the farm with her friend Cleo in 2015. She gradually got bigger and bigger until we realised she must be pregnant! She gave birth to her foal, Lucky, in May 2016. It was a lovely surprise for staff to arrive one morning and find little Lucky slowly learning to use his legs! Patra did a wonderful job raising Lucky but has definitely enjoyed the peace and quiet now he has gone to a new home.
Cleo – 8 years old, female donkey
Cleo was a fantastic aunt to Patra’s foal. We believe she didn’t have the best start to life as her previous owner told us how her feet were very overgrown and even now she is still slightly wary of the farrier. Now she has found her forever home, she is much happier but still deserves lots of extra love and attention.
Venus – 18 months old, female cow
Venus has lived here on the farm since she was three weeks old. She was bottle fed by staff and customers, therefore she is very friendly and will lick anyone in sight! She has a very close bond with Dee who works on the farm and they competed together at Newbury show in 2016 and 2017. They came 1st in her class and got into the championship. The success may have gone to her head as she can be very naughty at times such as jumping out of her field and pulling staff across the yard to get her dinner!
Belle – 9 year old, sow
Belle is our oldest pig here on the farm. She has now retired from having piglets and enjoys spending the summer days outside rolling in the mud. Her daughter, Babybelle has recently had her first litter of piglets and has taken after Belle in being an excellent mother. Belle has made an appearance on the tv show Mr Tumble.
Winston – 10 weeks old, male piglet
Winston was born on the 11th October 2017 and had 11 brothers and sisters. It was clear from the very start that he was tiny compared to the others. Although Bluebell is always a fantastic mother to her piglets, we gave him extra milk and care just to make sure he would grow up to be healthy. Now Winston is over 8 weeks old, he can eat solid food and doesn’t need Bluebell’s milk but Winston is staying with her over winter to keep nice and warm. He has learnt to walk on a lead but often it is Winston taking you for a walk rather than you taking Winston!
Gilly – 9 months old, female pygmy goat
When Gilly was born, she sadly did not get on very well with her mother so staff had to bottle feed her. Because of this, she is now incredibly friendly and a firm favourite with the staff. She will walk well on the head collar and even does a few tricks! She has recently developed a few naughty habits such as clearing over a metre jump with no problem.
Jigsaw – 9 months old, female pygmy goat
As you can see, Jigsaw is a very pretty little goat. Her mother, called Penelope is almost completely black, whereas her father, Popeye is completely white so Jigsaw is the perfect combination of both! We took Jigsaw to Royal County of Berkshire Show in 2017 and she got a very impressive 3rd place rosette in the pet goat class.
Want to sign up? You can book your animal adoption packages online now or complete our 2018 ANIMAL ADOPTION BOOKING FORM and drop it into the farm. To find out more, please email our Farm Manager Catherine at adoptions(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)buckleburyfarmpark.co.uk