Alpaca Facts

Therefore, you don't experience compaction of the soil to same degree that you would with other types of livestock. The occasional alpaca may enjoy a hug, but for the most part, they're happy to mingle among their own.

Therefore, you don't experience compaction of the soil to same degree that you would with other types of livestock. The occasional alpaca may enjoy a hug, but for the most part, they're happy to mingle among their own.

You want to ensure your animals will be provided for if own circumstances change. Those are kept on foster farms and trained until ready for adoption. By adopting from a reputable rescue, you eliminate most unknowns.

Camelids include Old World camels (two-humped Bactrian camels and one-humped dromedaries) and South American camelids , namely llamas, alpacas, guanacos and vicunas. Female llamas and alpacas used for breeding purposes are usually mated for the first...

It smells incredibly nasty, so never get caught in the crossfire when lamas spit! Tags llama poop , Martok , Sue Weaver Unless they can't get out to use a poop pile outdoors, llamas and alpacas rarely dirty their stalls.

Samantha Johnson co-wrote this article with her brother, Daniel Johnson. Common Camelid Uses iStock/Thinkstock Far from being ornamental creatures, camelids are surprisingly versatile and useful in many different ways.

Below are some tips for selecting appropriate activities. Heifers, for example, are docile but so large that I would leave these to my older children to raise. Teach your children how to properly approach an alpaca, with their hands behind their backs,...

Haircuts for your herd are the best option, but shearing day in the spring is done best with a little bit of planning. When setting up the area, consider your proximity to electrical outlets and lights.

See That It's Clean, Dry And In Good Repair: Putting a dirty coat on an animal is inviting the potential for skin infection. Additionally, consider how herd mates treat the older animal in the pasture.

However, she estimates that on average an adult alpaca will produce 3 to 5 pounds a year. Additional performance characteristics include: stretch, water repellency, and odor reduction.

Think of it as the four-legged version of Gatorade. This might seem obvious, but think how many pastures are just fields of grass with not a single tree in sight. All they're missing is margaritas.

It's not much fun for us, but if you fast us overnight before deworming, dewormers are more effective. Most chemical dewormers are given orally. Tags Ask Martok , goats , Martok , sheep

A pre-purchase veterinary exam is essential in any alpaca purchase. Comprehensive Guide to Alpaca Pre-Purchase Examinations Remember: The vet is working for you and representing your interests.

In addition, the nearly odorless alpaca fertilizer may even When using alpaca fertilizer, you can put it on top of the garden soil and then water it or wait and let the rain help soak it in.For those in colder climates, you can also spread the manure...

It was really strange to see because she was entirely underground when I first saw her.” The baby alpaca's head was poking above the ground, and it was apparently stuck in a badger hole.

These fuzzy creatures were featured in the Farm Show's first-ever costume contest on Jan. The Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg has been going on for years, but this year it was all about the alpacas.

This is reflected in the name of the world's largest llama registry, the International Lama Registry, which also maintains separate studbooks for the other South American camelids and their crosses.

That's right! Special Cashmere goats grow a lot of ultra-soft fiber (Mom wrote an article about them in the July/August 2010 issue of Hobby Farms ), but all us goats grow cashmere underwear to keep us warm.

Once I had, I'd show Bandit the new pile and hope he got the message. That makes it easy to scoop up and add it to the garden as a soil amendment . But they may migrate back, eventually.

They're intelligent, intensely interested in the world around them, and somewhat aloof (many seasoned owners compare them to cats). Eventually, llamas became more commonplace, leading to an active market both here and abroad.

Wild things, like lions, tigers, deer, moose, tapirs and giraffes, do it, too. Instead, we have a tough platform of flesh, called a dental pad, with a toothless gap behind it. If your farm animal flehmens a lot when he usually doesn't, check him out;...

That happens when mineral stones made up of phosphate salts get lodged in our urinary tracts and we can't pee. Not drinking enough can lead to a deadly condition called urinary calculi .

(Note: Cows are not known to have problems with meningeal worms.) Deer simply running through a farm property pose no problems, says Tatiana Luisa Stanton, PhD, small ruminant extension specialist for Cornell University.

With the shortage of farm vets to help to our sick animals, we often turn to home remedies for common ailments. TOP This article first appeared in the July/August 2007 issue of Hobby Farms magazine.

She's also really mad at herself for letting Baatiste get so fat. Instead, she started to bloat. And if they're already fat, make especially sure they have what they need to survive really hot weather.

If you do, consider using solar heat or a heated chicken-coop mat instead of a heat lamp; heat lamps can and often do ignite nearby flammables and burn down the structure they're warming.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, a client gave to me: 11 Steers Circling Circling disease is sometimes seen in cattle and small ruminants due to a sporadic bacterial infection called listeriosis.