Alpacas!

[Molly]

Hello,

I've gone a bit alpaca crazy. I think they're such funny animals, and produce a really great fleece.

I've just started to make my own felt, and would really like to use alpaca wool (it's just so soft!). Is anyone keeping alpacas and needs to get rid of some fleece?

Or is there anyone out there who thinks alpacas are the bees knees like I do?

[Han&Matt]

Hey Molly,
I had never heard of the name before but was curious and googled the word as suggested - how absurdly cute they are! Apparently their wool coat grows all the way to the ground if it isn't clipped! Marvelous creatures, have noted the show day (info below) and may well pitch up and learn some more... Mind you, I can't see an alpaca living happily on the 4th floor of an apartment in Birmingham... Or my precious plants surviving for long if I kept one at the allotment!
Well, I must add an alpaca to the growing list of 'wants' for a couple of years time when I move out of the city...
Best of luck with your veg (not how I remember my student days !!), and thanks for the tip!


Sunday 23 July 2005
Manor Farm Llama & Alpaca Show, Trek & Fun Day
Manor Farm Animal Centre & Donkey Sanctuary
East Leake, Leicestershire
Contact: Brian Haughton
Tel: 0775 2206481
E: haughton_brian@hotmail.com

[Molly]

They're so funny looking aren't they! They make a hilarious kind of 'humming' noise as well.

[Garlic]

Have you thought about Llamas.........they don't spit! well not really and it's pretty rare you get caught in the cross fire.......they are lovely and their fleece can be almost as sort as alpaca.........I shear mine every year with my dress making sissors

[Andy Hamilton]

Have you thought about Llamas.........they don't spit! well not really and it's pretty rare you get caught in the cross fire.......they are lovely and their fleece can be almost as sort as alpaca.........I shear mine every year with my dress making sissors

So do you keep them for their fleece?

[Martin]

flee powder?

[Garlic]

I keep them as an all round sort of animal....so! I breed, I pack with them, I grow my veg with the manure (also thinking about using it as fuel because they do in the andes), I harvest the fleece because the llamas really like a shear come summer and yes I market the fibre..........Oh and I just had my first experience milking a llama and a thankless task it was too but the milk is delicious

[PurpleDragon]

I keep them as an all round sort of animal....so! I breed, I pack with them, I grow my veg with the manure (also thinking about using it as fuel because they do in the andes), I harvest the fleece because the llamas really like a shear come summer and yes I market the fibre..........Oh and I just had my first experience milking a llama and a thankless task it was too but the milk is delicious

We have 2 acres of grass and are trying to think of something we can put on there to help keep the grass short. We thought about sheep and goats, but certainly never thought about llamas, although now you mention it, I'm all enthusiastic.

Can you tell me more about them? How hard are they to look after? What do they eat? What can you use them for, apart from manure and wool? Do you have to have a herd?

Look forward to hearing your reply :)

[Garlic]

Probably not a good idea to start me on Llamas there is a fair chance I'll never stop.
But before I start...I feel like I have to say that any livestock 'easy' or not is a huge responsibility and unless you are very rich you will have to do a lot of care that you might assume is for a vet, ie: giving injections...(I hate it!) Also bear in mind that whilst finding someone to look after your dog may not be impossible if you want to go on holiday, finding someone to care for your llamas amy be more difficult! So first and foremost if you are considering keeping llamas do as much research as you can and then maybe do a bit more.

I love llamas...and they're easy! They need food and water, shelter and adequate fencing. Llamas eat grass and hay but are also partial to carrots and apples. They do need occasional nail trimming...and they don't like it so try telling 200kilos of llama to just stand still with foot up whilst you trim their nails. Wether we've just been unlucky I don't know but we have had several eye problems with ours which has involved regular eye drops for upto a couple of weeks. We worm and treat for lice twice a year and give an annual vaccination against tetanus type diseases. Llamas don't like to be enclosed and prefer an open shelter...we often in winter find ours with a couple of inches of snow on their backs but they are always toasty warm within their fibre. A llama would never be happy as a solitary animal and although I've heard they are fine with goats or sheep watching llama interaction I would never want to keep one llama without another llama for company. It's not a good idea to keep more than one whole male with another whole male...although this is do as I say not as I do because I keep 2 whole males and a castrated male in the same field but one of the whole males has never sniffed a female and our females are a long way from the male field. The reason is that the males will/can fight.

Llamas are much more expensive to buy than sheep or goats if you are just looking for lawnmowers! We also use our boys as a trek team carrying out picnic packs into the mountains and sometimes small children.

Llamas spit at each other and sometimes you get caught in the crossfire. They're big and difficult to move if they don't want to but once caught are very easy to handle (of course I'm only talking about my own experience here). If my boys escape I only have to catch one and the others will follow home. Lots of llama folk use sheep fencing to contain them but it didn't work for me, my lot were always trying to reach something tasty on the other side and the weight of the llama usually meant the fence had to give. I use electric now and it works well. It seems that once a llama finds a way out it will keep trying the same route.

Hope this helps
PS the thing about the llama milk I did milk the llama but I didn't drink it,it just felt so unctuous on my fingers (just to clear up any confusion before it starts!) oh and llamas don't produce much milk in terms of volume so ideas of llama cheese may need to be forgotten!

[PurpleDragon]

Hi Garlic, and - wow! - thanks for all the info!

Yes, I know having livestock of any kind isn't easy. My neighbour has 7 horses and the stuff she goes thru, particularly in the winter, is enough to make anyone think twice. We never manage to go anywhere, and that is just because of the hens.

I think that llamas might be a consideration for the future, but right now, with small children underfoot (my oldest is 6, youngest 1.5) and all their friends around the place, I think sticking with my goat idea is probably favorite.

Thank you so much for giving me so thorough a rundown though :)

[Garlic]

Don't let little kids put you off having llamas...my tiddler has been leading llamas since she was just shy of three...They really are very child friendly. They don't kick unless something bothers their legs but you do have to watch kids of that small size because they are just the right height to get a head kick....having said that a llama kick is nothing like a horse or donkey kick it's just small kids/heads not nice! We take our llamas to our town carnival and they are completely untroubled by hundreds of children shouting and whooping and touching from all angles...I'm just always so proud and amazed at how calm they are in the chaos
I also think they are less troublesome than goats...not so hard on fencing and much hardier in winter/rain.

[PurpleDragon]

Are they? I was a bit worried about the size of them, compared to goats. I've heard goats can be rather bothersome re fences and escaping from places. Apparently a lot of folk resort to electric fencing.

[Garlic]

I'm not that up on goats anymore! But I seem to remember that goats need protection from draughts and need to be shut up in bad weather. A llama is quite happy with a three sided shelter and they really prefer to decide for themselves when it's too cold or wet to be outside. We have harsh winters here and I only had to confine them once and that was because trees were falling over due to the weight of snow and ice...they were fine I was just worried that a tree would fall on them.

We use electric fencing it's easy and simple to put up. we just have two strands of tape (inch wide tape is very visible). The children understand at quite a young age that it 'stings' the llamas once they've touched it avoid it, so mostly now we don't have power running anyway. Every now and then one figures a way out and we just switch the power on for a couple of days and show them that it works.

If you were just to put a couple of llamas on 2 acres I don't think they'd try the fences anyway because they'd have loads of space and if you walk trained them and took them out for walks they'd be so happy (they do love the variety of getting out and seeing new stuff)..........

[PurpleDragon]

Not that you're biased towards llamas or anything.

I wish I could come see your llamas. They are so far outside my experience that, although I would love to go for it, I'm terrifed to make a mistake. I recently made a silly mistake with my hens, and it cost the life of one of them.

One of the things that worries me is your earlier comment of 'unless you are very rich'. Well, believe me, we are far from rich.

What size of shelter do you have for yours?

[Garlic]

No I'm not biased!
You'd be welcome to come and see my llamas but it's a bit of a long way!

The expense I was talking about: Llamas are expensive to buy compared to a sheep or goat. But are no more expensive to feed or take care of...possibly less. I was really talking about vet bills! Not that we have that many and our vet is very reasonable...What I mean't was if you're going to get a vet to come and vaccinate for example you'll have to pay his call out charge plus his time, if you do it yourself you just go get the medication and a syringe and the cost is minimal. We deal with all minor to moderate health problems with our lot and what we can do is increasing all the time. Our vet always gives us free advice and if we are still not able to solve a problem then he comes out.

We just had our three llamas birth and had 1 prolapsed uterus involving a middle of the night vet visit. 1 assisted birth involving vet visit and 1 emergency visit to the surgery with a cria involving lots of very expensive medication......the total cost for all this including all medicines and other stuff was 350euros...we were sort of unlucky to have these problems but I still think the charges were very fair considering the time and effort he gave. It's always a learning curve and problems one and two I could probably deal with without assistance if they happened again...we're very poor peasant farmers and the point I was trying to make was that if you need a vet to do every little thing then you'll need a lot of money to pay him...so llamas themselves aren't expensive but their care can be but no more so than any other animal...vet doesn't charge more because it's a llama in fact I think our vet charges less for 'livestock' than for 'pets'