Borth Animalarium

This is not a zoo! It's such a lovely relaxing environment that allows you to take time and see a range of animals. If you wanted to just take a photo and move onto the next one you could get round in 20 minutes. If you want to take time and meet the animals and learn about them you can take hours! Lovely cafe, food for the animals, petting experiences and lovely friendly staff that care about the animals. My 2 year old loved it!

· via Google

Used to come here as a child 20+ years ago, visited today for old time’s sake. As a zoo, much poorer than it used to be (but it really was never that great and always felt sorry for the animals). I think the place could do with a rebrand, a clean and a lick of paint. Instead of setting expectations of a zoo and leaving people disappointed and leaving bad reviews, I think rebranding as a farm animal experience/petting zoo and offering education about farm animals and pet care would do it a world of good. Think Fantasy Farm Park on a smaller scale. There was never enough space for it to be a proper zoo even back under previous ownership when there were lions/snakes/marmosets etc and I’m actually glad to see them gone for their own sake. Let the wolf dogs go to somewhere with a bit more space and enrichment and lean into being a space for farm animals and maybe exotic birds! Offer a cow milking experience? Even a fake cow would do! A clean and a bit of wood stain/paint and some freshening up could do wonders. A few flower beds or pots here and there with a couple of pansies, re stain the wood and clean all the Perspex. Lean into being by the sea! Retirement home for ex beach donkeys? Sunflowers and pumpkins as a seasonal attraction in the adjacent field? Currently the place is trying to straddle two worlds and not doing great at either. It could be such a lovely little “farm” if it stopped trying to be a zoo. The goats, pigs and the two outdoor rabbits are the only animals that seem truly happy (and none of those are in cages - coincidence?) but it’s obvious that the basic care needs of all others are met, though not their enrichment or space needs in my opinion. As it’s such a small attraction there needs to be more to do on offer so people feel as though they could stay a couple of hours. The overall vibe is a bit depressing. Mind you it always was! All staff we encountered were friendly and I’d love to see the place do well. I could even see the local community helping get the place into shape if it was approached with a renewed vision.

· via Google

Cute little animal centre with a great range of animals including wolf dogs. Petting area and animal feeding is part of the day with a cafe on sight that has vegan friendly food and ice cream

· via Google

This place is truly depressing. The animals shelters are unkempt and small. One of the foxes in the enclosure frankly looks ill - its missing most of its fur and looks very thin. The wolf dogs are somehow in a smaller enclosure than they were the last time we visited a couple of years ago. I understand they are fundraising for a larger enclosure but they could at least have some form of enrichment to help supplement active range. Moving on to the petting barn whilst I may not know much about proper housing for many of the animals, I am well versed in proper rabbit care and that is not what is going on there. Only one enclosure had hay for the rabbits despite hay making up 80% of a healthy rabbits diet. Furthermore, the steps/ramp up to their boxes are incredibly thin and steep. Rabbits are particularly prone to arthritis as they age and this setup is aggravating their little joints. Most of these rabbits are on concrete ground which is not suitable for domestic rabbits and creates significant issues for their back feet and the risk of developing sore hocks. I am unsure whether they have unlimited food or if they were just not eating the food given as all rabbit bowls were near full. If they are receiving unlimited food that is asking for obese rabbits furthering the risk of arthritis and sore hocks. Also how are health conditions such as GI Stasis being detected when pellets are always available considering lack of interest in food is a key signal for a rabbits health concern as prey animals hide almost all other signs of illness. All of this being said, the staff I interacted with seemed friendly which leads me to believe that this is due to a lack of education/awareness over anything else. I truly hope they make changes to benefit the animal welfare. They definitely have a lot of potential and hopefully the animals get more enrichment soon.

· via Google