3 Palms Zoo & Education Center

At the 3 Palms Zoo, I was coated with the saliva on many animals, from goats to pigs to llamas to sheep. And I loved every minute of it.
At 3 Palms, you can have more contact with animals than any other petting zoo. In fact, there might be a little TOO much contact — we had an unfortunate run-​in with an aggressive cock (no, really, he was a rooster) who attacked my girl when she was too slow to give him some feed. He drew blood and left a couple nasty, painful bruises.
But you know what? That’s a small price to pay (easy for me to say, I suppose). There are so many wonderful animals here and lots of free-​ranging birds (if you’ve never had a duck eat feed from your hand, you are missing out, my friend) and spending time with them is pure joy. The very friendly proprietors give you all the free bamboo you want (lots of the animals, especially the llama, love bamboo), and you can get a nice handful of chicken/​duck feed for a quarter (takes about $ 2 to fill up a plastic up, and it’s so worth it).
3 Palms is a rescue as much as a zoo — lots of these animals were abused or abandoned, and aren’t fit for living in the wild. Fortunately, these guys work hard to give them a good home. It’s not pretty — you’d barely know it was there, and you don’t want to park in the lot if there’s been rain recently. But petting a llama while he gently eats from your hand is PURE BLISS — and damn good therapy, besides. All for a $ 5 donation. Do it.
Wear long pants and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. Like… really, really dirty.

Came to Dover to visit my sister and brother in-​law, had to find something for me and my 4yr old boy to do during the baby shower. A quick Google search yielded this place as an interesting destination. I’ll admit, I was somewhat apprehensive about going after getting there, judging from the outside. An eager 4yr old wouldn’t allow me to turn around. We entered, paid the $ 10 entry fee and went on our tour. What an extremely pleasant little zoo to visit. Extremely knowledgable and friendly staff to answer any questions we had along the way. A definite go to spot for our visits to DE going forward.

Never would have known this was here! We went to their Christmas lights event. Great time and the staff were so friendly and knowledgeable about their animals.

Nice small petting zoo. They have many different kinds of animals, and they’re all quite cute. The interior (or shall I say exterior) design is in itself something special. It’s actually an animal shelter for animals in trouble, poor creatures that have been hurt in nature, or born with some defect, or abused by their previous owners. So by going there you are not only seeing a lot of cute animals, which you can pet and feed, but you also help some animals who would otherwise be left for dead.