Iron Wolf Farm Sanctuary

We are trying to get a $10K grant to build a new loft & flights, please vote for us! & text 109339 to 73774
We are just a small sanctuary & need all the votes we can get!

http://www.refresheverything.com/iwfs4pigeons

It seems as though summer was here & gone in the blink of an eye! We all enjoyed the wonderful warm sunny days wishing they would never end.

We have been very busy, I apologize to those that read my ramblings here for not writing sooner.

Fall is one of our busiest times of the year. This is when we have to bring the turtles & tortoises inside for the winter. When the buildings have to be winterized, the flights & enclosures get inspected & the pigeons get their fall worming, nail clipping & a through once over.

IWFS has welcomed a few new residents Lady Walter who is a non-releasable feral hen, Mr. Pigeon- a handicapped feral, 2 tiny Diamond doves, Christmas- a white homer who lived in a pet shop and Snowbird- also a white homer, who we believe is a hen.

Snowbird is still in quarentine but is doing wonderfully. Lady W. has found a mate & as we speak is happily sitting on 2 wooden eggs.  The D.D’s are happy with 2 little D.D hens, living in a large flight in the house.  Mr. P. is in a large flight cage in our converted garage, since he can’t fly & is having difficulty with his handicapped wing, we have yet felt confortable putting him in one of the lofts. Christmas is living in the house in a large cage for the time.

The sanctuary has reached full capacity. We will not be accepting anymore doves or pigeons until we get the new loft built. We hope to have it up & running by late spring early summer of 2012. We are also no longer accepting turtles or tortioses.

If you have an animal that you need to place we may be able to help you place it else where, just contact us at ironwolffarmsanctuary@yahoo.com

A few have asked if we are still planning on moving, yes we are but because of limited finances its been taking longer than we had hoped.

Jeff, I & the critters send our best to all of you & hope that you have a safe & happy fall!

Remember to adopt your next feathered, furry or shelled friend because adopting is saving a life.

It’s been a very busy spring here at the sanctuary for me. Jeff hasn’t been able to do any lifting becuase of a shoulder & neck injury. He had shoulder surgery a couple of months back & just had neck surgery. Because of this & trying to get the funds to start work on the fencing & buildings & dead trees need to be removed, have as yet moved to the new location. We are hoping to be able to start in Aug., everyone cross your fingers.

Once we move & get settled I will be applying for our non profit status. I’m afraid of the paper work getting lost in the mail becuase of the new addy.

The animals are outside & settled in their enclosures for the summer.  I thought this might not happen this year because of the wet, cold spring we had.

Rivers, our Sliver Fox, & Lexi, the German Shepard, are suffering from old age arthritis. Both are getting glucosamine tabs to help with the stiffness.

 The torts & turtles are enjoying the warm sun & green grazing & the lucky torts get to enjoy the seasons fruit!

We miss not seeing the sulcata’s out in their enclosures. I don’t think there will ever be a time when we won’t.

The last few years we have been having a terrible time with slugs, ticks, & Japnese beetles. We have sprayed where we could, never around the animal enclosures, spraying not only got rid of a few of the target bugs but we also noticed not as many birds, snakes & the “good” preditor bugs were around either.

We wanted to be earth friendly so after much research we decided to purchase 5 downey little bug terminators!  We are now the happy caretakers of 4 black & 1 chocolate Runner ducks.

This is a tall breed of duck that have been used in Asia for centuries as rice paddy bug exterminators. And they lay yummy eggs!

The pigeons are doing great, dispite the hot humid weather we’ve had.  I’m not sure how they would do without baths &  fans during the day.

Bubba & Pidge are always the first to greet me in the mornings. They like to let me know that no matter how fast I am I’m always too slow giving them breakfast.

Birdie isn’t usually far from his love Greta & both warn me with wing slaps to stay far away from their nest.

When I can steal a few minutes from chores I always enjoy watching all the pijjies go about their daily routine, interacting with each other or just dozing in the sun.

 We have a new resident here at I.W.F.S who comes all the way from chesapeake, Virginia. She’s a beautiful blue bar feral named Lady Walter.

She was taken to humming/song bird rehabbers as a baby. These two special people lovingly handfed her until she was weaned then tried to release her, but she kept returning back to them. Lady W not only wanted the company of those who loved her she also tried to make friends with the nieghbors!  Unfortunately they weren’t so friendly and wanted her gone!  We were chosen to share the life of this wonderful girl.

 We also given a Buddy,Thrianta rabbit a home.  Check out both Lady Walters & Buddy’s photo’s.

                                         Happy New Year

I can only say that I can’t wait for the warm weather to come back to Wisconsin

 It’s been a long cold month, the heaters in the lofts & ‘Pigeon Cottage’ are doing a great job keeping the pijjies cozy & comfortable. We like to keep the temps. between 35 – 40 degrees at night, during the day when the sun is shining the heaters are turned off… unless its below zero.

Whats been happen’ in the Pigeon Cottage – IniGo is doing great even though Hamlet has been moved to another loft. He was bullying the other pigeons to the piont of not letting them eat or drink.  When the weather warms we will be introducing another male to our lovely IndiGo in hopes of  them becoming a pair.

Solo & Mario, who also live in the Cottage, have become a pair. They built a beautiful nest & laid 2 eggs, becuase we do not allow the pigeons to hatch their eggs I pulled them, replacing the eggs with wooden ones. Image my surprised to find that they had torn apart their nest in protest!  I have since pulled another clutch, while Solo was sitting, this time however the nest has remained intact.  Could it be the it was Mario who had the tantrum & not Solo?

Sleeping Dove Loft- Birdy Continues to rule his section of the loft, with of course his mate Greta. Pinkie & Queenie are still a mated pair.

In another section of the loft  Bubba & Angel are still a pair.  Although Pidge is now single & seems happy about it.  Beanie &  Gabbi are still together.  The swifts are are all happy & healthy too.

 Precious & Toad are still in the house living together in a large cage. Precious has since started laying eggs but not at all interested about them. In the spring we will be moving them outside to the Pigeon Cottage, we will be watching Precious closely to make sure that she is eating enough. Last year she was moved to the Pigeon Cottage & stopped eating, we don’t want that to happen again.

 If for any reason an animal does not do well in a flock or group, with its own species, we do not hesitate to move that animal to make it comfortable.

The torts are waiting patiently for the warm weather too. But in the mean time they are happily eating & basking under their sun lamps.

The turtles are enjoying their indoor pools, getting fat eating their turtle chow & special treats. Our newest resident Sal, a red eared slider, has started courting one of the gold fish that live in his pool. Hopefully that means spring is closer than we think.

The plans for the loft & animal building has changed… again. I hope for the last time! Items have been added that will make not only the animals lives better but also easier for us to care for them. I’m actually glad we had to wait to build, the extra time has given us longer to consider other options to include.

In a couple of weeks we are going to change the name of the sanctuary slightly.  It will be known as Iron Wolf Farm Animal Sanctuary & Rescue, we feel that this will better inform people when looking for help.

 Hope you have a great day & don’t forget to give a little kindness.

Wouldn’t you know that on the first day of December it would be cold,windy with flurries & worst of all NO sun!

In the fall we have a running list of jobs that have to be finished before the snow flies. I call it a running list because I’m constantly adding forgotten jobs that need doing. 

The turtles & tortoises have been in their winter enclosures for a couple of months & their summer houses have been closed up for the season. They are all doing great, growing fat & sassy and I’m sure like me counting the days till spring arrives.

This winter we decided to purchase 2 flameless space heaters for the lofts. After reading what other pigeon owners had to say about these heaters we decided to give them a try.

They are equipped with thermostats, this is great because they will only be running when needed & hopefully this will in turn cut down a bit on our eletric bill.

The heaters are placed in the center aisles of each loft giving all pens heat & keeping the heaters away from any of the pigeons.

During warmer sunny days the heaters are turned down to entice the birds to go out & bask in the sun.

The ‘Pigeon Cottage’ will be heated by a heat bulb because of its small size.

 It was breezy & cold today so I was surprised to see many of the pigeons out enjoying the sun.  Since the weather has turned cold many of them prefer just to stick their heads out the door or look out the window. I’m almost tempted to push them out for some fresh air!

 Unfortunately we will be unable to move to the new location until new year. The cost of building the new animal building & loft  will be more than we calculated, we want to design it correctly so the animals & pigeons will be happy and comfortable & working in the buildings will be easy for us.

And the fact that our well went out at the new location also helped with the deciding factor. 

The well will have to wait until next spring to be fixed.

 We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving

  Continue reading →

You may have noticed that the Sulcata tortoises that lived with us here at the sanctuary are no longer here. 

 Because of our move to  north central WI. we have decided that it was best for these tortoises to be moved to homes in southern part of the country.

The summers are cooler & shorter and the winters longer & colder where we are moving. We believe that it wouldn’t be fair to these large torts to spend most of their lives indoors.

 The smaller tortoises will be making the move to our new location & unlike the Sulcatas will do just fine.

Because the move is taking longer than we anticipated and we had to get 2 pigeons out of quarantine, plus move two more that weren’t fitting into one of the other flocks, we had to build the “Pigeon Cottage”.  The Cottage is now home to IndiGo, Solo, Mario, Hamlet & sometimes Precious. 

We are trying a different pigeon feed mix, some like it & some don’t. I guess with 40 pigeons I shouldn’t expect them all to have the same taste. 

With winter fast approaching the parrots & doves were moved into their winter quarters. It was decided that all the doves would be moved into one large enclosure. And I’m very happy to say that all 9 doves are getting along wonderfully!

It seems as if summer was here for just too short of time, but then summer is never here long enough for me.

Unfortunately we still have Lucy the kitten. With so very many unwanted kittens all ready needing homes Jeff & I figured she would be a life time resident here.  But we hope one day to find a loving home for her.

Look for more photos & updates about the aniaml residents here at I.W.F.S.

                                  The sanctuary is moving!!!

                            Jeff & I are very excited about this!

We hope to build a new and better animal building which will include private rooms for the parrots, reptiles and the doves.  This building will also have a quarentine room for any new animals that are brought to the sanctuary. 

 The bird rooms will have large windows so the birds can enjoy the views of the gardens & wild life.   All windows will open to allow fresh air to circulate in the rooms. The windows will face south to better utilize the southern exposure.

 The torts & turtles will have their separate enclosures inside & out with the  appropriate species specific set up.   We have plans to build a bigger better pond for the RES and hopefully give a few more a forever home.

This building will always have an office and hospital room.

The new loft will be larger & more efficient. Each group of pigeons will have their own separate outside flight & inside accommodations. The loft will be furnished with water & electric, a feed room & more.

 We hope to have the buildings done by this fall and then move the animals in.

Photos of the new buildings & the move will be posted.

                  Hope you all have a great summer!!!

    Jeff & Robin.