This is one of our FOUR daily Roadrunner visitors. My husband has named them 
. This one’s name is…wait for it…ROAD. LOL, very creative to say the least. They come daily for their food handouts. They’re predator carnivore birds so we feed them raw meat. Like our dogs (who get prey model raw food – meat/bones/organs), we accommodate the nature of the animals we feed around here. That’s how you catch a roadrunner – FEED them REAL food! Of course we don’t really try to catch them, we simply feed them. They come up real close to my husband. As you’ll see we attract a lot of birds and other critters too. Our environment is all natural so that helps too – no herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers.
In the pic, Road is on our roof. I told him he had to come back later because Donnie wasn’t home at the moment. Yes, I could have fed him, but since he knows Donnie and trusts him, I just leave it to the Roadrunner Whisperer to care for him.
Today after my husband got home from taking a yard pruning load to the dump, the one he named Queenie was waiting for him. So after he took care of the trailer and vehicle, he came into the house. When he went back out Queenie was in our garage! That was a first. She just sat there waiting for him to come back in and get some food. So he did. She even sat there when I came out to see her. We never pet them or get too close. We know they’re wild and they’re only doing what animals will do – get what they can get while the getting is good. She trusts my husband and thereby me. A few minutes later I had to go retrieve a towel I had hanging on our wall that the wind had blown over the wall and she was out there by our trailer. She didn’t freak out or run from me, but I was speaking softly to her the entire time.
We never got to experience any of this at our former home in the city. This has been a great experience for me similar to how it was when I was growing up. Same for my husband. We see hawks all the time too (like this morning one flew right over me and Ezra). We’ve never fed them anything except for a rattlesnake that got into our yard once when we were in between dogs (thankfully). We had to kill it, so Donnie just threw it over the wall and something got it – most likely a hawk, owl or coyote (yep these are plentiful too, we just don’t see them as often now due to all the encroaching development). Sadly there is also roadkill rabbits from time to time on the roads behind us so we just throw them into the fields so they can become food for the scavenger predators.
We do feed the rabbits and quail too – they’re herbivores so we feed them accordingly. They typically receive all the trimmings from my smoothie and salad makings. My husband also buys them lettuce and carrots. Yes, he sure does. And yes, he names the rabbits too . We have a LOT of “pets” around here that we only have to feed but at least they all don’t live in the house 
which makes it easy. We have two dogs that DO live in the house with us – and they’re more than enough 
.
We have two watering containers for the multitude of other birds, ground squirrels and lizards who live around us. They’re bird baths really so the birds can also bathe. Donnie is constantly having to refill them during the day, especially during the hot summer months. We don’t put out bird seed, we just feed all our raw trimmings to them. Donnie truly is the real animal whisperer around here 
The point of this post was just to share some desert beauty with you and educate a tad on waste not, want not as well as the nutritional needs of various animals.
Until next time…
Have a PAWSitively, tail waggin’, NATUROPATHICALLY healthy day!
Kim Bloomer, V.N.D., N.D. is an animal naturopath as well as being certified in small animal nutrition, with years of experience in animal wellness. Dr. Kim is a published author, writer, and blogger. Subscribe to her DOGgone Newsletter for updates or to her blog via email. Copyright ©2005-2024 Aspenbloom Pet Care, Dr. Kim Bloomer, All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the Author/Publisher. This article is intended to be educational. However, it is not intended to be a substitute for diagnosis or treatment from a qualified animal health professional. Dr. Kim Bloomer and Aspenbloom Pet Care, do not assume any legal responsibility for misuse of the products discussed in this article. The only essential oils referenced on this website are Young Living.
