There's an unusual baby down on the Cornish Camels farm in Helston, Cornwall - Colin the wallaby is being hand-reared by devoted owners Jan and Stuart Oates.

Jan and Stuart have a menagerie of wallabies, camels, peacocks plus cattle and sheep at the beautiful Cornish venue where they host weddings, holiday cottages, a camel farm and a family visitor experience.

Colin's mum died unexpectedly in the spring of this year, and Jan found him cold and hungry. At about five months old, he weighed just 420g and had no hair.

Three months on, and Colin has grown furry and fast! His growth comes courtesy of pet food firm Royal Canin, whose Babydog Milk is designed for new puppies whose mothers don't produce enough milk.

Jan says: “Colin lives in the house with us, and comes everywhere we go in his baby pouch - he's visited National Trust properties, he meets all the visitors, he even does the supermarket run! At home he's becoming much more agile, and he is making great progress.

"When we started hand-rearing him we found that his lactose-free baby milk made him poorly, so we checked out the internet and found a wallaby who had been reared successfully on puppy milk.

“Royal Canin have been absolutely fantastic, and made sure that Colin can stay on their product until he's weaned onto solid foods.”

Check out Colin's blog at www.colin.cornishcamels.com

Gemma Duffield, Royal Canin retail marketing manager, comments: “Providing dogs and cats with nutritional solutions to suit every stage of their life is our daily routine - so a wallaby is a bit of a different issue for our customer service staff! However, when Jan got in touch and told us about Colin, we were delighted to be able to help. 

"In fact, it seems that wallabies are not the only exotic species to be enjoying Royal Canin - we've heard in the past that meerkats, fox cubs and hoglets (baby hedgehogs) have all had it on the menu.”