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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 Golden Apple Snail !
Hettie and Herman - August 2002	Hettie - November 2006
Herman, Hettie and Daisy, are 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 150 years old! When they are fully grown, they will be the size of a dinner plate!

Delilah and Roger are two Corn Snakes that have visited us each year as they've grown from tiny babies to great big adults. Each year, they come to visit along with one or two of their babies ! Mice are their favourite food. As babies, they were about 30cm long, but now they are grown up, they're 150cm long ! 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 are her favourite food. When she's all grown up, Milly will be over 30cm long !

Colin and Margaret the Veiled Chameleons, have had several clutches of eggs, and some of their babies have come to visit over the last few years. Fruit flies are their favourite food. A chameleons tongue is 1.5 times the length of it's body, and is VERY sticky !

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 ! We have ducklings visit most years. Mushrooms, corn 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 help them camouflage They prefer to only come out at night, because they are nocturnal

Betty and Bert the Bearded Dragon lizards come to visit each year Crikets and locusts are their favourite food Bearded Dragons sometimes wave their front legs around in the air, as if they are saying "hello" !
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 was fully grown - he wasn't scared any more !