North Florida Therapy Services

04/06/2025

Come see us and our animals!

03/08/2025

I didn’t get a chance to post last weeks animal, so I’ll combine the 2!

Last week, our animal of the week was a blue heeler named Whisky! 🐕 We learned that the blue heeler is from Australia and closely related to the Dingo. They are a work species and herd cattle, sheep, goats, etc. We learned what they eat, that they are extremely smart and can learn verbal commands to help them do their job, even on other languages, and everyone got to pet Whisky!! Our staff was just as thrilled as our children! ❤️

Today, we met Zazu, the Red Crowned Amazon! 🦜 Even though, Zazu was a “look at only” animal today, due to his bite strength, immune system as well as stress reduction for him, all of our kids and staff got to look at him and hear him squawk and “mimic”. We learned that parrots don’t actually talk, they “mimic” what they have heard (also called echolalia, for those of us who are therapists 🤪). We learned that they are very smart, have fewer tastebuds than humans, where others like Zazu came from, and that they are endangered. There are only about 700 left in the wild. 😢 What a FUN day for everyone! Zazu even seemed to enjoy himself and was a very good boy while his Daddy worked!

Thank you, as always, Dakota, for sharing yet another amazing animal with us and teaching us so much about each! This is truly the highlight of everyone’s week!! ❤️

Next week!!!! We should have chickens and quail (it’s Spring Break week for our school) but hopefully they will come back the following week to lots of fluffy chicks and quail followed by ducks, a week or so after!!! 🐣 🦆

03/04/2025

❤️❤️

All jokes aside! I am working on collecting these and more for our kids at school and therapy! THEY asked me for a “Then and Now” display! I’ve been busy with the animals but they are going to love this too! ❤️

SN: I AM old..1/2 my staff doesn’t know what a “floppy disk” is 😳🤦🏼‍♀️🥴

03/04/2025

All jokes aside! I am working on collecting these and more for our kids at school and therapy! THEY asked me for a “Then and Now” display! I’ve been busy with the animals but they are going to love this too! ❤️

SN: I AM old..1/2 my staff doesn’t know what a “floppy disk” is 😳🤦🏼‍♀️🥴

02/22/2025

EGGS!!! 🥚 🐣 🐥 Today we put 3 different types of chicken eggs and one type of duck eggs in our incubator! We taught our students about the different types of chickens, that we will be hatching (Ayam Cemani, Buffs, Delaware and Pekin duck). They learned that freshly collected eggs aren’t “dirty” they have “bloom” on them, and can be left out of refrigeration for upwards of 3 weeks, if they aren’t washed! All our classes were asked to calculate 21 days from todays for our first babies to start hatching!

As always- THANK YOU, Dakota for your incredible expertise on all things animal! ❤️You saved me today, because I know nothing chicken 😂😂. We also had some visitors who helped, Paula and Nicky! It was so good to see you both! ❤️ BOTH saved the eggs by carrying them, because I can NOT be trusted to walk and not trip..over air 🙄
A huge shout out to Norman, for providing 2 species of chicken and the duck and also to Lauren at Black Biddy Farms for our Ayam! We are SO excited!!

If you are looking for various chicken or duck breeds or feeder rats, I suggest contacting Norman at the number listed in the pictures. If you are looking for specialty chickens, such as Ayam’s, Lauren at Black Biddy Farms is AMAZING as well! Black Biddy can be found on FB.

We are SO excited for March 13th, when our first babies should start hatching! 🐣

02/18/2025

To applaud our kiddos for making up a snow day today, we decided to have 2 animal presentations this week. Our first was today and we had 2 amazing presenters AND two snakes that are just alike, but look very different!

Yona, our guest presenter, from Virginia, shared a Eastern Rat Snake, Black Rat Snake that is native to Virginia, and for comparison, we presented our own Florida native, Gray Rat Snake, or the White Oak Snake! These 2 snakes are the very much the same, yet look VERY different based on the location in the United States where they live.

Even more people than in the past, squashed their fears and touched and even held these beautiful scaled fellows!

As always, with our snake presentations, we always talk about nice snakes and snakes that can hurt you, and it’s always best to leave the area or tell an adult.

I just learned today, that the children found a harmless ring-neck snake on the playground last week, and left the area and immediately told an adult! ❤️❤️ This made me SO happy!

We want our children to be unafraid and inquisitive, challenged to learn about things they might not know about, but NEVER in danger! It’s days like today, that show us, they truly DO listen to us! 🤪❤️

02/16/2025

Attn all students and outpatients!

We are OPEN tomorrow for both school and therapies. We were originally supposed to be closed (as we follow the GCS calendar), however, we made a collective decision to open to try to make up some time and education from our unanticipated “Snow Week”, a few weeks ago!

See you tomorrow!!

02/15/2025

🦔🦔❤️❤️

02/15/2025

Today’s animal of the week, was Verah the African Pygmy Hedgehog (or Four-toed hedgehog)!! Isn’t she adorbs!!! ❤️❤️ She is about a pound of 5,000-7,000 quills, that are made of keratin (the same material our hair and fingernails are made of). She was a fantastic sport and seemed to throughly enjoy the attention )and her treat of a strawberry (one of a hedgehogs favorite fruit)! 🍓 Our kids were thrilled to meet a real, live Sonic!! 🦔

Hedgehogs are nocturnal, and have a diet of grain free hedgehog food or cat food, insects, fruits and veggies. When they feel threatened, the contract muscles which allow them to roll into a ball with quills poking out to deter or injure predators. Hedgehogs have been found to have a high tolerance to toxins and have been known to feast on venomous snakes and scorpions. They are solitary animals and very active at night. They tend to be ground dwellers but are capable of climbing and swimming.

What a cool little ball of fingernails and hair!! 😂😂😂

Thank you Dakota, for today’s presentation!! I believe MOST children AND employees held or touched Verah today! ❤️

02/14/2025

MANNERS and formal dining and behavior is in the air!! ❤️❤️❤️ One of our AMAZING teachers, Ms. Neal, organized a formal Valentines lunch for her class, to work on concepts such as how to dress, act and enjoy a FANCY dinner! Men were taught to open the doors for women, pull out their chairs, everyone learned to put their napkins in their laps and which foods are considered “finger foods” and which needed to be eaten with utinsils. Polite table conversation and full bellies were had by all! What an amazing idea, Ms. Neal!! Your kids are just the right age to start learning these “oldie but goodies” behaviors!!

You and your paras were the BEST waiters and waitresses and I hope you got tipped graciously! 😂😘❤️

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!! ❤️❤️