Filey Bird Garden and Animal Park — Attraction in Gristhorpe

Hidden Gem for Animals and People!

What a fabulous little place this is, and an attraction for young and old, at such low cost. Happy animals in great enclosures, and emphasis on genuine welfare and enrichment for all. We normally dislike zoos, and are very mindful of animal welfare. But this little family-run establishment seems to have got things right, and it is commendable that they are constantly ploughing money back into the business, to make it even better for the animals.

The staff are welcoming and friendly, and they are knowledgeable, too. They clearly enjoy their jobs, and genuinely care for their animals and value their visitors. Feeding times are highlighted throughout the day, and they were a pleasure to watch – with great photo opportunities! Bags of food are available to buy to feed the animals, too, but PLEASE take note of which animals this is suitable for (as clearly laid out on the guide), as we saw people trying to feed animals that weren't suited to eating it... Signs on enclosures would be beneficial.

There are many areas to enjoy a picnic, from sitting in beautiful secluded gardens (where children, too rightly, are to be controlled), to being out in the open and watching the animals. There is also a nice little inexpensive café, with great coffee and homemade cakes, where dogs are welcome inside. The gift shop is small, but packed with nice things, and not just the usual tacky merchandise that you tend to find in places like this.

We will be back when it opens again in April, and we will buy a season ticket this time. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit – and so did our dog (who loved the wallabies the most, but was transfixed by the Asian...

Perfect for families with young children and dogs. We took our 8 month old and dog for a morning out, along with our parents. There is a good variety of healthy, happy looking animals, farm and more exotic. Some of which you can feed! There are talks and signs with information about the animals, facts and some animal related jokes. You can see the farm is undergoing even more development, but this did not interfere with the visit at all. In fact it just made us want to come again soon to see the progress of this. There are enough areas to wash your hands after feeding the animals, and the toilet facilities were clean and well stocked. The baby change/disabled toilet was a good size. Also, we managed to push the travel pram (less manoeuvrable) around the farm easily. The play area was great and well equipped. We went in the coffee shop at the end of our visit, and not only was the welcome very friendly the cake and prices were great too. We sampled lemon cake, scones and chocolate orange cake, sharing with each other because of how delicious they were. The word moist may well have been created for this cake!!

We will definitely be back! And we will be recommending everyone we know...

We arrived at around 11.30 on a Wednesday during summer holidays and paid £33 for a family ticket and two bags of feed (60p each ) the cafe and gift shop, toilets and hand washing are immediately at the entrance as well as a sign to show what time handler talks / animal feeding sessions are. We stayed for approx 2 hours we went round the whole park, gardens and had something to eat and then felt like we had seen everything and left. The prices in the shop were a bit high and there wasn't much variety but with it not being a big place it tracks. The animals all seemed happy enough and well looked after and seemed well behaved when feeding etc but there wasnt many of each animal. For example only one or two donkeys / goats etc. there was a little sheet of information with the name plaque for each animal / amphibian etc and we felt like we had a nice time. There was a play park at the end of the trail which looked nice and there were a few little gardens to walk around as well as one with butterflies and bees amongst the wild flowers etc. we don't feel like we stayed long enough to justify the entry price but perhaps that's a...