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Pets and other Visitors

At The Alphabet Train, we have several permanent residents - in the form of our Tropical Freshwater Fish. All of our fish have names, chosen by the children. All the children love having them at school, and enjoy helping to feed them every day, and to occasionally clean their aquarium out.

As well as our permanent residents, we also have a lot of pets visit us throughout the year. In the past, we have been visited by kittens, puppies, tortoises, a pair of corn snakes, a pair of Bearded Dragon lizards (and later by their eggs and resulting babies!), Giant African Landsnails, White's Tree Frog's and lots more!

We believe it is an important part of the children's development to encounter all sorts of creatures - no-one is forced into meeting and greeting anything they really don't want to, but participation is encouraged !

Click on any picture to enlarge it


Some of our Tropical Freshwater Fish that live at The Alphabet Train Nursery School Flakes are our fishes normal food, but they also enjoy slices of cucumber and lettuce. We keep several different sorts of tropical fish, we have Gourami's, Ottocinclus, Guppies, a Weather Loach and a Giant Golden Apple Snail !
Herman & Hettie - August 2002	Hettie - November 2006
Herman and Hettie, two Herman's Tortoises that visit us a couple of times a year. Tomato and dandilion leaves are their favourite foods. They can live to be between 100 and 150 years old! When they are fully grown, they will be the size of a dinner plate!

Geoffrey and Delilah, two Corn Snakes that are visiting us as they grow from tiny babies to great big adults ! Tiny mice are their favourite food. They are as long as a grown-ups arm as babies, but when they are grown up, they'll be longer than most whole adults ! Snakes "shed" their skin every couple of months, and grow new skin underneath !

Milly the Giant African Train Millipede, who comes to visit us a couple of times a year Cucumber and grapes is her favourite food. When she's all grown up, Milly will be over 30cm long !


Two of Amy's (the Principal) Chickens, Gerald and Alice, her Ducks and Jeremy and Maggie, the two Ducklings who came to visit us when they were only 2 days old ! Mushrooms and apples are their favourite foods. Most chickens lay an egg every day, and most ducks lay an egg every few days. The chickens really don't like getting wet, but the ducks LOVE a good bath !

One of the four White's Tree Frogs who have visited us Crikets and flies are their favourite foods They can change colour from bright green to dark brown to camouflage into what they are sitting on They prefer to only come out at night, because they are nocturnal

One of the two Bearded Dragon lizards we have had come to visit Crikets are their favourite food Shortly after coming to visit us at The Alphabet Train, this pair of lizards laid eggs, and had four babies!
Flynn - two months old	Meg, a much older German Shepherd looks after Flynn in the snow	Flynn - one year old
Flynn is a German Shepherd Dog who visited whilst he grew up Flynn likes to eat all sorts of things - but he is usually happy with a tin of dog food ! When he first visited us, he was quite scared, and had very floppy ears - he was only two months old When Flynn last visited, he was one year old, and is fully grown - he isn't scared any more !