Figuring It Out

Beautiful Morning!

Since Sweet Caroline's demise I've been concentrating on raising the alpacas we have.  I've spent the last month getting to know these eight strange but wonderful creatures. They are graceful when they run and are beautiful to watch.  They are curious, never too bored or nonchalant to not check out a Linus cat silly enough to wonder into their pasture, bounding up to and after him with unbridled passion.  Good thing Linus can run fast!

Home, sweet alpaca home!

They issue an "alert" when they notice something out of the ordinary (like a Linus cat or a deer) sounding short high pitched squeals to put the rest of the herd on their toes.  They are enthusiastic about eating and the queen and king have first dibs, usually snatching bites out of each kibble bowl before allowing the rest of the herd to commence eating.  The queen of the girls would be Miss Felicity.  The king of the boys would be Rafael.  Some of the herd are non-stop "talkers".  Rafael is famous for humming, grunting, squealing or just making noise.  The guy never shuts up!  

Rafael -  Even though he never shuts up he is quite the handsome boy.

As they have gotten used to me I can now walk in between and around them without having them flinching and running off.  Twizzler and sometimes Daisy Mae will allow me the honor of touching them.  My hope is that they all will eventually allow me to touch and halter them without any drama.

I've bred three of the "girls", learning important lessons each time.  Like, always have a halter on the male and female.  Don't breed in the paddock with the other females.  If the other females are available they may lay down next to the one you're trying to breed making it hard for you to direct the male to the correct female.  Too many choices! 

Rafael and Miss Felicity having a moment.  Notice they both have halters on and they are separated from the rest of the girls in the small catch "pen" I constructed.

Especially don't breed in sight of the other "left out" males.  They get a tad competitive and start fighting amongst themselves.  Much spitting, squealing and general mayhem may ensue.

Whoever said alpacas don't spit was confused.  I've been spit at for putting a halter on an alpaca (Birdie) and asking said alpaca to walk with me.  I've been spit at for not allowing more than the chosen male to breed with the females (Comanche).  How dare I be so exclusionary!  I've been in the cross fire between alpacas "expressing" their displeasure with each other. The good news is that it isn't painful just kinda stinky and gross.  Fortunately it does wash off.

Their daily care is easy.  Feed hay, alpaca kibbles and fresh water morning and night.  I like to also clean the stalls and clean up the paca poo piles daily.  Did you know alpacas all use the same area for their bathroom?  It makes clean up so much easier than cleaning up after any other type of livestock.  They do generate a lot of manure though, or maybe it's because I have eight of them?  No matter, I'll just have a generous amount of paca poo for the garden in the spring!

Andraya working on creating that paca poo!

When the girls get to squabbling, they tend to spit and squeal and wrap their long necks around each other.  The first time I observed this I was ready to throw a bucket of water on them.  How would they ever unentwine themselves from each other?  After having an altercation, the two combatants will walk around in a daze with their lower lip hanging down for several minutes.  Silly animals.

For the record, the females tend to be messy.  They have decided they need three paca poo piles.  One in the pasture, one in the paddock and unfortunately one in their stall.  Cleaning the stall is the most cumbersome because I keep it bedded with straw.  Since their poo resembles large rabbit pellets, it is sometimes challenging to extract just it and leave the straw behind.  The boys only have one pile and it is located in their paddock. To date they have not soiled their stall.  Good boys!

The females also don't like to be out in the rain.  The boys are much hardier and don't seem to care.  It will be interesting to see how they handle the snow.  Also the girls like to eat their hay lesiurely, often laying down while they chow down.

Birdie and Felicity having a lesiurely hay snack.

  
It has been quite the tutorial learning their habits and personalities.  I'm excited to learn more.