Kat's Kritters

14/05/2023

🎂🥳Happy 16th birthday Enchanter!! Here’s a little video of Enchanter and Jess sharing some birthday cookies!

10/04/2023

🐰Happy Easter from everyone here at Kat’s Kritters!

Here a few photos of some of our critters captured from the weekend!

27/06/2022

👀🏡
These 3 does are still searching for a new home!

They were going to be replacements but after further evaluation we decided that they are more pet quality and reduced price reflects that.

Can meet along the route of Macklin to Vermilion (Provost, Wainwright) on Sunday (July 3) $4️⃣0️⃣ ea.

Or pickup near Macklin $2️⃣0️⃣ ea

14/05/2022

🥳Happy birthday Enchanter!!

🙄This goofball was a bit too excited about his birthday treats to stay still for a half decent birthday photo! I insisted that we only needed one, he insisted that he needed more treats🤦‍♀️

💙But we love him and are grateful for his goofiness! He always brings a smile during hard times!

11/04/2022

❤️Happy Monday!

💕Photo of Our group of Salmon Faverolles from a few weeks ago! Absolutely in love with this breed! The hens are friendly and curious, and our rooster never attacks us, he protects his ladies and is a gentle giant!

❓Did you know❓
💧Chickens rely on gravity to drink water! This is why we see them tilt their heads all the way back. Their tongue helps push food back, but it’s not quite the same for when they drink water! It’s always important to have fresh clean water (chickens can be picky!) and to have enough space to allow them to tilt their heads!

08/04/2022

😔Unfortunately the excitement of playing outside in the nicer weather for the Kritters is over for the time being.

We are taking preventative measures, increasing biosecurity, birds will be kept in and there will be absolutely no visitors in the barns. This is a very stressful and scary time for all poultry owners.

Stay safe 💕

https://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/news-and-media/2022/april/08/avian-influenza-detected-in-saskatchewan

The Ministry of Agriculture is reminding poultry producers with flocks of all sizes to follow all necessary biosecurity protocols to keep their flocks free of diseases after a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5 strain was detected in a wild bird in Saskatchewan.

24/03/2022

🐶It’s ! Here’s a throwback to our girls as puppies!

🐾Who was the cutest pup?!

💕Would love to see your puppy pics! Comment a photo of your puppy!

14/03/2022

❄️We’ve had quite a few snow days in Saskatchewan this winter! Some animals love it.. others not so much!

🥶What do you do on a snow day?

✨Starring Pheobe, Sophie & Fynnley
🐶Special guests: Everest & Oscar

28/02/2022

💕Our K&L Sephora x Hoppy’s Buttercup litter is 10 weeks old!

💜K&L Black otter doe #2 —— NFS
🖤K&L Black otter doe #1 —— NFS
💙K&L tort otter buck —— 👀 for pet 🏡
💜K&L Black otter doe ——👀 for pet 🏡

🖤The black does will be staying back as grow outs, crossing fingers for maybe some show buns! I don’t mind the airplane ears but would be great if they can lop! First time posing, not perfect but very impressed! They learn quick 😊

💕The other 2 are very sweet, I love the otter colours but are more pet quality. Pm for info!

06/02/2022

Funny & relatable!

Thankful for mom (Lori Hottot )taking care of the Kritters! Especially for Carrying pails of water from the house to the barn, horses & sheep while the water trough was down, and a thank you to dad Walter Gallan for fixing it once it warmed up. ❤️

Even though it’s been a horrible winter (weather wise, -45 to blizzards and freezing rain), I would rather be outside helping our animals than anywhere else, none the less I’m thankful that I know all of our animals are receiving their best care while I’m away at school 💕

We got it like..

28/01/2022

💕K&L Sephora x Hoppy’s Buttercup litter

📸Taken on January 12th at 4 weeks old!

🥰Currently the only litter in the barn! These babies are growing fast and we’re very excited to see how they turnout!

14/01/2022

❄️Yesterday was a beautiful day for a ba****ck ride! There was a lot more snow in the fields than we thought!

💕Jess and Enchanter did amazing and they were so happy to be out and about. Enchanter finished his day with a good roll in the snow!

30/12/2021

💕We finally have babies!!!
I’ve been waiting to post about them for a while now, as we haven’t had much luck this past year and I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

🤗But on December 14th our beautiful Sephora delivered 4 beautiful healthy babies! She’s an amazing first time momma! And these babies are now 2 weeks old (unfortunately no recent pics) and they are HUUUGGEE! Chunkiest holland babies I’ve ever had!

🥰Very proud of K&L Sephora and Hoppy Acres Buttercup!

29/12/2021

😁Sometimes you just need to stop and smile at your chickens!

🥶it’s been very cold these last few days doing chores, but I couldn’t help but to stop and take some quick pictures of some of our beautiful hens! It makes doing chores worth it, everyday seeing how happy all of the animals are.

🤗No matter the weather, and no matter what mood we’re in, We (mom and I) always leave the barn happier and more relaxed when We know the Kritters are taken care of.

27/12/2021

This page has been an inspiration behind starting the Kat’s Kritters media pages, and I was about to make a post about tips in the cold weather, but Dalarna Farm summed it up pretty well!!

With our temps dropping below -40 this week here in Saskatchewan, I am thinking about everyone and their Kritters! Stay warm everyone!

Here in South Dakota, we are on the cusp of our first big "arctic plunge" in temperatures. Bitter cold is a fact of life on the Northern Plains and yet I see so many up here wait until it is already happening to prepare their farm and animals for the hardest parts of winter. So I thought I might throw out a few of my personal cold weather livestock tips that I have figured out over the years:

1. Let fall make them (a bit) fat. If you wait to increase feed until the deep cold is upon you, you are already behind a step. Because below zero temperatures are the rule, not the exception, where I live, I like all of our stock to go into the winter season a little on the fat side. It is what nature intends for all species---the reason fall grasses have that last burst of green, the reasons berry ripen and fruits fall when the frost comes---all of this is part of nature ensuring animals have extra calories to create an extra layer of fat. So I feed a little extra to all and aim for a body score at least 1 notch above "ideal' for everyone--dogs to horses to sheep.

2. Feed is everything before, during and after a cold spell. We all have the modern benefit of a 10-day forecast and I check it every day. When I see a cold trend starting out of in front of me, I start packing in some extra nutrition AHEAD of the cold. This is the time to "build them up" even a bit more than they were--extra calories, extra protein and extra fat. Beef liver is a great builder for anything that eats meat (and that includes chickens!) and for the herbivores, this is when I push alfalfa. A little BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) also goes a long way in giving a boost of calories and much needed in the dead of winter Vitamin E.

During the cold spell is when I focus on keeping their "furnaces" roaring. High quality long stem grass hay is the best for making those rumens and hind guts of horses create as much internal heat as possible. For the chickens, this is when I tend to give more scratch grain that usual---because it is a "whole" grain vs processed pellets, they get a longer calorie burn just like when we eat whole grains. A full crop of slow burning fuel goes a long way to keep birds warm during cold nights.

After a cold spell is when I watch for animals who got run down by the cold and might need extra help. They might only show this by coming to feed slower or being less social--I watch those ones closely and separate for TLC as needed.

3. Bed Deep. We use the deep bedding method over most of our farm. You can google it and find out more but the basic principle is using the compost action of layers of bedding and manure to generate ground heat in sheds and barns. This means continually adding bedding for a dry, clean top later. Prior to a cold spell, i make sure everyone has a deep, fluffy top layer of straw.

4. Do the hard stuff before it gets cold! That 10-day forecast is also my manual on when to do the "hard stuff". Before the deep cold sets, I move bales, fill tanks, bed sheds so i don't have to do it when it is -20! We have ancient tractors on our farm, the odds that they will say "Nope!" on the coldest days of the year are pretty high. LOL. Strategically place your hay ahead of time so you don't have to haul it around in the cold is something I always try to do if no snowstorms are in the forecast. I'd rather stack 5 bales outside a pen on a 30 degree day than haul one at a time when I can't feel my face!

5. Leave chores to the minimum once the cold sets. Deep cold is dangerous to our livestock and us humans. Set things up so you only have to do the basic checking of stock once it is truly cold out. When I have all my ducks in a row, I can do all my chores in under 15 minutes and those minutes matter when frost bite is nigh!

6. Make sure you have the cold weather gear YOU need! Good gloves, good hat, good coat, good boots---the Scandanavian saying of "there is no bad weather only bad clothes" is so very true. I can stand a lot of things when I have the right gear on!

7. Be thankful you live when you do, where you do! When I think back to what the homesteaders endured on the high prairie---no heated tanks, no tractors, no trees to break the wind--I am just so thankful for that I do have here and now. We may think "this is SO hard!" but man oh man, do we have it easy!

Stay warm and stay safe everyone!

25/12/2021

🎄Merry Christmas from our flock to yours!! Hope everyone is staying warm this holiday season!

14/12/2021

🤔Who let the horses out??

👇Comment who you think did it!
Enchanter, Jess, Beauty or one of us (me & family)? I’ll reveal who the culprit was later!

🐴Didn’t get to uploading this yesterday for but here’s a throwback from summer!

🐎They enjoyed their run. They don’t get out often, but when they do, they make sure to do it when I have somewhere to go and am already running late 😅

💕They sure keep us on our toes and make us laugh! We also love seeing old Beauty have fun and play too! Was going very slow in the truck because I didn’t want to make them run more, but they insisted!

30/11/2021

🐣Sometimes chicks need assistance. It’s hard to watch them struggle and take a long time to hatch, but patience is key. I knew this one wasn’t hatching properly, and other eggs in the nest actually got to the point of externally pipping but later died. Sometimes shrink wrapping can occur when the membrane starts to dry out. This was the case for this chick! It’s important not to peel away the shell until they externally pip (they have to make the hole for outside air, if we do that then it can shock them), and STOP if you see blood! There are still blood vessels from the egg to the chick, and if you break the blood vessels the chick can bleed out. 🤔Wondering how to help if you see this? 1) Keep the membrane damp. When it dries it’s very tough for chicks to get out. 2)DO YOUR RESEARCH! I’ve been hatching chicks with an incubator and broody hens for nearly 10 years. 3) if you need to assist, be extremely careful, little bits at a time, and let the chick rest. It will be exhausted. I decided to put this one in the incubator for 24 hours before putting it back in with the hen. He was the only chick to hatch, so it was very lonely and the hen wanted her baby back.

28/11/2021

🦆7 weeks old already!! Our little baby isn’t so little anymore! He/she has outgrown his/her silkie momma and is loving the barn life with the other Kritters!

💗Jill has taken a huge interest in the ‘new duck that looks like her’.

📸Pictures from today (age 7 weeks) vs exactly 6 weeks ago (age 1 week)!!

10/11/2021

💜When 2S Shea’s Royal Beauty decided to go for a stroll a few weeks ago, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for a photo shoot!

💕Senior horses are crazy, I swear. But we love her so much!

07/11/2021

🐐Stella, 🐑 Dolly, Seth and Oreo enjoying a pumpkin treat!!

31/10/2021

🎃Hoppy Halloween!!!!

🍬From Starburst, Jellybean & all of the Kritters!

🧡These 2 buns are our oldest Hollands in the barn and are Enjoying retirement life!

30/10/2021

🥰Our Hollands! Can’t wait to see them all in a few days!! Posted on the story but figured I should add it here too!

29/10/2021

🎃Oh Finnigan, the disappointment when he thought he was getting treats and I took him for photos (don’t worry he got his treats!)

💙This boy is so special to us. He is a Starburst grandson, and a son out of K&L Jellybean. He was the only baby of his litter to live (due to no fault of Jellybean’s) and he was the cutest baby bunny ever.

***Long post warning***

📖A bit of a scary story that I’ve been holding off about posting for a long time…

We almost lost Finnigan this summer…twice. It was a hard summer, in which he spent most of the time being nursed back to health. The first incident was fly strike. Hot humid weater, and a tiny shot of rain created the perfect environment for flies. Even though his cage was spotless, the barn was cleaned, and we checked our bunnies minimum 3 times a day, it wasnt enough. We unfortunately lost a Frenchie that day as well, but managed to save Finnigan. We spent all night cleaning him to make sure there were no more *bugs*. We gave him a dose of metacam for the pain, and crossed our fingers. We knew he was strong, but We weren’t sure he was going to make it and prepared ourselves for the worst. He shocked us when he was alert in the morning. A trip to the vet to get some antibiotics, another cleansing wash and a salve to help his wounds. He was on the road to recovery. He Even started to binky again and his hair grew back around his hind end. You couldn’t even tell something had ever happened.

Well we thought he was recovered from the first incident, then he took a turn for the worse. Almost paralyzed, his symptoms didn’t make sense. I initially thought he injured himself, but we were keeping a close eye to him and had him in a cage when he wasn’t supervised to make sure he didn’t hurt himself while healing. Second thought: infection from the fly strike. But it had been over a month later, surely he had healed properly?

Another trip to the vet. They thought he had a slipped disc, took X-rays. X-rays were normal. They said it unlikely wasn’t an infection but asked if I wanted bloodwork done. Bloodwork confirmed my suspicions and he has an infection and it caused him to be severely dehydrated. He had a round of Fluids and was sent home with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicines.

His vet bills cost more than half of the value of my herd. This story also goes to show that I don’t raise these bunnies For the money and we all love them dearly. Even dad (who prefers to be the delivery driver, hay giver, etc) developed a soft spot for this one. Special thanks to mom and dad for helping me with vet bills, other animal costs, and helping me with Finnigan’s healing journey.

This little guy is a fighter and his personality shined throughout the whole process. When he bit into a banana that contained his pills he was sure to let us know. If someone was walking by and didn’t greet him he wasn’t impressed. Watching Tv and not paying attention, he would flop and look dead, terrifying anyone who didn’t know bunnies did that. He keeps us on our toes, and we love him for it 💙

28/10/2021

🖤K&L Sutton

🧡This handsome little guy just melts our hearts! Was the litter pick as a baby and has grown into an adorable buck. Littermate to Sangria! We kept the majority of our Starburst x Sage litter and they’ve turned out amazing!

✈️Sutton has a tighter crown and will have airplane ears, but when relaxed it doesn’t show!

😍Completely mesmerized by the otters!

**NFS**

27/10/2021

🎃Warning: spam of pumpkin and bunny photos for the remainder of the week!

🍷K&L Sangria

🖤Love this doe! She has a sweet personality and is stunning! The photos don’t do her justice. Excited to see what she produces in the future!

Sire: K&L Starburst
Dam: Hoppy Acres Sage

20/10/2021

🐷Reba our potbelly pig has been a taxi service for the chickens & kitties that ride on her back, she’s the warmth for the kritters who snuggle up to her on chilly nights, but this… this is new.

🐈I walked into the barn today to see the cat going for a ride, perched on piggy’s back as she went over to the heat lamp. She tried to go for her afternoon nap but Steve Jr wanted to play. She was very patient, sleepy, And surprisingly unbothered. (I did shoo the cat away after she didn’t try to get him off since I didn’t want him to accidentally hurt her)

🐽How do I know she’s unbothered? Because when Reba is grumpy everyone knows. Just yesterday I ran into the barn, preparing for the grunts and ruckus to be piggy fending off the barn from an attacker! Nope! It was one of the junior silkies trying to share food in the big dish. Which Reba usually does just fine, but yesterday she was not having it. Grunts, growls, opening her mouth and shoving the poor silkie out of the bowl. There’s multiple food dishes, but eating with their favourite girl just seems better 🤦‍♀️❤️

18/10/2021

🐥🦆Remember when we put call ducklings eggs under a broody silkie? Here’s the result! This baby is now 1 week old today! Still so tiny!! Unfortunately only one baby made it out of the 2 that hatched. None the less, this hen has her wings full! This baby is always on the go, and doesn’t listen when she’s clucking to show him/her food! We’re thinking there might be a language barrier 🙊

01/10/2021

💕Jack & Jill our first Call Duck pair

💔We are very sad to announce that we lost Jack this week. He was such a good little drake and didn’t harass any of the other animals and took such good care of his mate. Fly high little buddy 🦆

❤️Jill is doing well despite losing her partner, she has the other ducks for company, and babies along the way. One of our silkies has been working hard and we’re crossing fingers for the due date on October 11th! This would be even more special now that Jack is gone, as Jill can have some company with some ducks of her own size. (Although she loves hanging out with our white crested hen, Kate, who is significantly larger).