Camel Fencing & Feeding

There’s one thing that owning camels can prove and that is: That your fences suck & that you’re spending wayyyyy too much money on camel feed!

So, about the camel fencing….

I’ve spent hours (and dollars) fixing fencing and building new ones, but that’s because I gave our camels the benefit of the doubt, thinking “nar, they won’t test that fence” (it only takes one!), and, not to mention, the crap fences that came with the property we brought a few years back.

Side Note: ALWAYS give your camels the benefit of the doubt when training & handling them, but NOT when it comes to fences ;-)

Camels will wreak havoc on anything that they “need to” - meaning that if “the grass is greener on the other side” (read: if there's a better / different variety of feed on the other side of the fence) they'll crawl over glass to get to it!

You see, by nature, camels are land moving mammals, meaning they're designed to move everyday for food foraging & water sourcing and often don’t return to browsed areas for up to 6+ months!

Another fun fact: Camels roaming free in the desert have been tracked to walk up to 50km per day in Australia's deserts! For the camel, that can mean a lot of good tucker & average (repeat “average”) exercise.

Which brings us to the next point - over feeding camels.

Spoiler alert: very few domestic camels are underfed!

In fact, in Australia & the USA, what people are calling a “healthy looking camel” is an overweight camel (and that camel will suffer overtime).

The thing with The Camel is you can’t just reduce the amount of feed you give them and or put them on a “diet”....

Why doesn't this work for camels….?

Because their biology and conservativeness of food & H20 is so clever that the camel will store even MORE fat (not less) in preparation for "The Big Drought" (i.e. limited food & water) that their body is indicating is going on with smaller amounts of food being fed.

Should domestic camels just be exercised more...?

Well, here's the kicker....Exercising a camel can make them even more conservative with their fat stores (read: doesn't necessarily help them lose weight)!

Whaaa!? Yep, but lucky we have a Camel Vet who knows Camels and their biology (and camel weight loss!)

So, understandably, most people who are considering owning camels by now are thinking “I’m gonna have to build 6ft fences, confine this thing, with very little exercise, and try not to over feed it?!” #SoundsFun

And for all you Camel Owners out there, you know exactly what’s being said here ;-)

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a Know How on how to set up Camel Proof Fencing?

How’s about a How To on Camel friendly yards & training spaces (remember: a camel “sees” things differently to the human eye)...?

What about getting camel nutrition info straight from the camel's mouth (so to speak), and avoiding health risks (like camel obesity!) by getting info & recommendations directly from a Camel Vet (yes, it’s a thing!)...?

You can access all this in The Academy right away - it’s where all us camel owners, wanna-be-owners and carers/keepers are hanging out!