We Tried the New Kangaroo Yoga Class in Wheat Ridge

Coloradans no longer need to visit Australia — or even the Denver Zoo — to interact with kangaroos. A new metro business brings the marsupials from down under, all the way to a Wheat Ridge yoga studio.

The Colorado Kangaroo Ranch started holding kangaroo yoga classes in March. Every weekend, the animals hop around the studio at 4910 Iris Street as a yoga instructor leads guests through various poses. Treats are placed at the end of each yoga mat, enticing the roos to approach and giving participants the chance to pet and feed them.

"It's a special experience," says Keaton Crawford, co-owner and head roo keeper of the Kangaroo Ranch. "I don't think I have seen anybody walk out of here without a big smile on their face."

Though yoga classes are the ranch's main draw, it also offers bottle feeding experiences with baby kangaroos and meet-and-greet events, including recurring visits to retirement communities. They're currently working to partner with a local brewery to host a "brews with roos" function, Crawford says.
When she was in college, Crawford's parents ran a private Airbnb zoo in Golden called Zoo Chateau, which featured two kangaroos, a zebra-donkey hybrid, giant tortoises and other animals. The zoo shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, at which point the family traded in the fourteen-acre property for a 57-acre ranch in the Brighton area.

That ranch went on to become the Kangaroo Ranch, where the animals live when they're not in the yoga studio. While the rest of Crawford's family stepped away from the zoo business, Crawford spent the next five years collecting the licenses and permits needed to reopen, this time as a kangaroo-focused facility.

"I just couldn't stop thinking about it," Crawford says, noting that her love for kangaroos began in childhood from watching Steve Irwin's The Crocodile Hunter. "I remember one specific episode of Terri rescuing a little baby kangaroo out of a mom's pouch that had gotten hit by a car. ...I was like, 'That is what I want to do.'"

Crawford's kangaroos are not rescued; the ranch is a for-profit company, and its kangaroos are purchased from zoological breeders in Texas. Though the species is abundant, Crawford says the ranch carefully selects kangaroo breeders that also work to revitalize vulnerable and endangered species, such as clouded leopards and pygmy hippos, to support conservation efforts.

The ranch has six red kangaroos: two female joeys, Ruby and Hazel; two adolescent males, Luka and Kyrie; and two ten-year-olds from Zoo Chateau, Bindi and Rooney. The oldest two kangaroos are "roo-tired" and do not participate in public interactions, living on the ranch full-time.
I met four of the kangaroos while trying out a yoga class on Sunday, August 10.

For thirty minutes, a yoga instructor walked my class of eleven people through simple stretches and introductory moves as Luka and Kyrie hopped around the room. Special kangaroo-bite-resistant mats were provided. The yoga was optional — as the instructor put it, "I know you're here for the kangaroos." By the end of class, less than half of the group followed along with the stretches, more interested in the jumping roos than the downward dog.

The kangaroos largely had free rein to roam throughout the class, while participants were asked to stay on the yoga mats. We were also told to leave our cell phones at the front of the room; rather than selfies, staff members snapped candid photos that were later uploaded to Facebook. Salt licks and enrichment devices were used to guide the kangaroos toward different areas of the room to ensure everyone got ample visitation time.

"It's very mentally stimulating for them," Crawford says of the kangaroos. "They're very curious animals. They hop around and get to know each person. I always joke that Kyrie finds somebody to flirt with during every class." (In my class, he was particularly interested in exploring the inside of a young man's shorts.)
After the yoga concluded, Luka and Kyrie were put away and our class got a special treat: A meet-and-greet with the joeys, Ruby and Hazel, who had just joined the ranch a week prior. Everyone got to hold the baby roos, wrapped in a blanket, while sitting in a rocking chair. The staff members shared kangaroo facts, answered questions and told punny jokes as visitors held and took photos with the joeys for another half hour.

Ruby and Hazel are only around nine months old, but eventually, they will join the yoga classes as well. Crawford says the ranch is slowly building its kangaroo family, with plans to begin breeding down the line.

The kangaroos will continue participating in yoga classes for as long as they seem comfortable doing so, regardless of their age and size, Crawford says. The retired roos, Bindi and Rooney, previously did yoga classes and meet-and-greets at Zoo Chateau while they were full-grown. However, they began displaying anxious behaviors around new people after COVID lockdowns, so they no longer participate.

Crawford says the ranch will house all of the kangaroos until the end of their lives, even if the animals no longer want to interact with the public: "We take that very, very seriously. They basically become part of the family," she says.
The ranch holds three or four events per day on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, giving the kangaroos at least an hour break in between each appearance, Crawford says. At the end of the day, the animals are transported back to the ranch for rest and outdoor time.

They stay on the ranch full-time Monday through Thursday, to "just hang out and be kangaroos," she says. The ranch has indoor and outdoor enclosures; Bindi and Rooney have their own space, while the younger kangaroos will all be kept together once the new joeys are integrated.

"The animals are really at the core of everything that we do. We always want to make sure that they're happy and healthy in this environment," Crawford says, adding that they're comfortable in Colorado's climate because of the extreme heat and cold kangaroos experience in the Outback. "They're really good in a very wide range of temperatures. But we like to spoil our animals as much as we can," providing them with heaters, beds and blankets.

It is legal to own red kangaroos as pets in Colorado. To run the ranch and yoga studio, Crawford maintains licenses with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Colorado Department of Agriculture, in addition to receiving approval from the Wheat Ridge Police Department and every city they transport kangaroos to for events. Though it was difficult to get started, traversing the red tape has been well worth it, Crawford says. The yoga classes are wildly popular, selling out most weekends. And beyond financial success, Crawford says the endeavor has been emotionally fulfilling. She recalls one guest who left her in tears after saying holding the kangaroos "healed parts of me that I didn't know were broken."

"It is almost a therapeutic experience for people," Crawford says. "This has just been a dream come true."

The Colorado Kangaroo Ranch holds kangaroo yoga classes every weekend at 4910 Iris Street, Wheat Ridge; tickets are available via Eventbrite starting at $85.