Kangaroo Creek Farm in Kelowna, BC

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During my trip to Kelowna, British Columbia, my friend Cate (from Cate Kittlitz) mentioned one thing that immediately peaked my interest: Kangaroo Creek Farm.

Just the name was so intriguing! What was a kangaroo farm? I didn’t even know there were kangaroos in Canada!

From downtown Kelowna, the Kangaroo Creek Farm is about a 25 minute drive. There was plenty of free sidewalk parking right outside the farm. That said, I visited on a weekday during the low season. So if you are trying to go on a weekend or during summer, you might have a more annoying parking situation. At the time of writing this post, the farm is located at : 3193 Hill Road in Lake Country. I heard they were planning to relocate (for bigger animal enclosures, upgraded services like taking credit and debit, and more parking), but for now, they are still at this address.

Prices

To start – IT IS CASH ONLY. Here are the prices.

• Adults – $10
• Youth (under 19) – $5
• Seniors (over 65) – $5
• Children under 5 – free

These are the most current prices, but be sure to check the website before you go in case of any pricing changes.

You can buy a punch card at Olive Us in Lake Country or Vernon between November 1st and March 1st (when the Kangaroo Creek Farm is closed), you can get 50% off adult admission.

When to Go

They close for the winter season, but usually open up between March and November. Once they open, their hours of operation are 10am-3pm, 7 days a week – including holidays and weekends.

The Visit

So the farm is dividing into two sections. Basically the kangaroo section and the not-kangaroo section.

Let’s start with the non-kangaroos!

Petting Zoo Area

The first half of the farm is more like a petting zoo. There are super cute chickens and goats! The chickens have a cozy coop, where the lil baby chicks are, but the bigger ones just roam around during the day.

And then there are the….uh…less common animals. Like the cavies. They are large burrowing rodents from Argentina. They are also called Patagonian Hares, or Mara.

And then there were these even rodents. In fact, they are the BIGGEST rodents in the WORLD. They are called Capybara! They were sleeping when I was visiting, so I didn’t bother them.

AND IF YOU LIKE GOATS, I have good news.

There are goats.

That is the news.

Exotic Birds

They also have a handful of exotic birds, most were surrendered after their lifetime owners had passed away. They each had a name (that I promptly forgot), and after a brief introduction about their species and personality, the handler would let everyone have a chance to hold the bird.

With the bird’s consent, I might add.

When the birds have been handled a while, or if they start to get tired/irritated/bored, the handler will remove them from the interaction area. They do that with all the animals around the farm, by the way, which I thought was great.

Other Critters

Leaving the petting zoo area, there is one more mini section before the main event.

This is where the exotic birds hang out when they are not interacting with people. There are also pot bellied pigs, more capybara, and – MY FAVORITE – sugar gliders.

I had been obsessed with sugar gliders since 9th grade, but they were illegal to own in California, so my dreams were quickly struck down. However, now I had the opportunity to hold one FOR REAL.

I was pretty frigging stoked.

You can feed the capybara, but I headed straight for the sugar gliders.

They are usually nocturnal animals, so the handler had to double check that they were awake and willing to play. And they were! He was pretty chill and mostly just sat on my hand and sniffed my jacket.

I think I fell in love.

They are SO much softer in person, but before you go out and adopt one, please make sure you have the time, money, and energy for them. They are very communal creatures, and can actually die of loneliness. While I love sugar gliders, I know my lifestyle is not ideal to own one at the moment, so for now, this little guy is staying in the farm.

The Kangaroos

NOW. FOR THE BIG FINALE!

*drum roll*

The kangaroo enclosure is very large and holds, yup you guessed it, the kangaroos. But there are also wallabys, llamas, emus, and probably a bunch of other animals I can’t distinguish.

And there were kangaroos too, I SWEAR!! But, being the super excellent and not-awkward blogger that I am, I forgot to take pictures of them hahahah.

I’m sorry guys. BUT! That just means you’ll have to go see them for yourself, yeah? 😉

However, I did take one picture of a kangaroo! At the Kangaroo Creek Farm, you can hold a joey! As it was explained to me, when a joey is old enough, it is slowly introduced to human interaction so that when it grows up, it doesn’t kick guests in the chest and stuff. The joey handlers are VERY strict though, with the people I mean. And that was great!

They show you the EXACT position to hold the joeys, and you get about 16 seconds with them, and that’s it. If the joey shows any indication of discomfort or annoyance (they are toddlers after all!) the joey instinctively buries back into its blanket and the handler takers it away to rest. It’s actually extremely adorable. The older joeys can be not-adorable when they don’t want to be held. But again, the handlers are extremely quick if they hear the joey complaining.

Ethics

As far of the ethics of the farm, I am not an animal rights expert, But in my opinion, the handlers seem to always have the animal’s best interest at min during its entire interaction with humans. I do not believe that the farm is there to make tons of money. There are no extra “add on costs” to do exclusive activities and the prices is already pretty low.

A message from the farm: “We are trying to keep our farm as non-commercial and “un-Disney-fied” as possible. With this in mind we are keeping our admission fee extremely low considering what is on offer. Your admission fee goes toward covering the considerable cost of employee wages (we don’t have volunteers), lease-hold costs and improvements, liability insurance, driveway improvements, additional fencing, gates, signage, buildings, porta potties and associated supplies, hand-wash stations, etc and so on. Admissions have nothing to do with the welfare of the animals. Rest assured that the animals have always been well cared for and always will be, regardless.”

Overall, the Kangaroo Creek Farm was a super cute activity in Kelowna, BC. If you don’t have any children with you, you’ll probably spend an hour or two. You can learn more about the farm at their website! Then after, you can head back to town or check out one of the many amazing Kelowna wineries!

Have you ever seen a kangaroo in person?

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