Want to Travel in the Backcountry with Small Children? Rent a Llama
We also show the alpacas at nationally sanctioned shows as well as enter their fleece (not take them to a show) into fleece shows. To avoid health problems for your piggie, you’ll need to follow a diet of pellets specifically formulated for pigs, supplementing with veggies as treats. Vegetables are not only a low-sugar treat option, but they also hydrate, too. As with all animals, your pigs will need constant access to water.
When their flock of Sweet Home Natural Longwool sheep aren’t grazing in nearby pastures, they’re welcoming visitors to the barn and caring for their newborn lambs each spring. JoAnn offers spinning and knitting classes and workshops. Just an hour from New Orleans, Splendor Farms is 75 acres of Louisiana fun. Anyone looking to spend a day, weekend or a week at a beautiful Bed & Breakfast in a natural setting with plenty of animals will be thrilled with everything Splendor offers. They have horseback riding & lessons, stables and a petting zoo where you can feed chickens, turkeys, pig, sheep, goats, alpacas and ponies. You might even catch a glimpse of the newest litter of prize winning long-haired dachshunds they breed.
Llamas consume 1 to 1.3 percent of their body weight daily and eat an average of 10 to 12 pounds of hay per day. An absolute must when you help your llama in winter is giving them grassy hay and grain. You don’t want to give them any moldy hay, as this could make them sick. You may also want to help your llama in winter by giving them a ration of grain, since there is likely not going to be grass for them to graze on. You want to be careful with the grain in order to avoid any choking situations. You may also consider giving your llama beet pulp or cracked corn or pellets of alfalfa.
Ensure that your llama has access to plenty of fresh water at all times. A small corral is another essential fenced gathering place for your llamas to hold them for shearing, weaning, and when any medical treatment is needed. However, keeping a breeding male alongside your female llamas only asks for trouble; in this case, a slightly higher fence would be advisable. I strongly recommend separating llamas of the same sex.
They do not really like to be held and “petted” and are especially sensitive to being touched on their heads, ears and legs. When I got Herbivores vs. carnivores up to check on the llamas the next morning, we were still shrouded in a cloud. Curtains of rain had turned our camp into a mud puddle.
They are wonderful, gentle animals – very safe for adults and children alike (in fact they are often very curious and enchanted by children). Alpacas do not possess the teeth, horns, hooves or claws to do any harm. They don’t bite, they don’t butt and it is not common for them to kick.
I was surprised to breathe so easily in the thin air which had 80% less oxygen than back home. His 35-year-old daughter, Amber, followed behind with another four llamas. Sam brought up the rear with Carson, Zeus and Charlie Boy.
Crias are precocial, meaning they can stand and move around on their own shortly after birth. Crias weigh around 17 to 33 pounds at birth, and are weaned at 6 to 8 months old. Not many animals have their own festivals but these guys do. For twenty years, Utah Valley Llamas has been hosting Llama Festival, inviting llama owners around the state to come and do the same. Besides giving kids a chance to show their llamas for ribbons, there are exhibits, Andean music and dancing and food from Chile, Bolivia and Peru. They can be rented or leased for treks, pack trips, hikes and parties.
Late and early snows limit the hiking season in western mountain states to a period from early July to mid-September. Trips fill up early; reservations should be made by May. Most mountain ranges kick up their own weather systems, and the Crazies are no exception. We learned to anticipate the storms that rolled in late every afternoon by covering our gear with rock-anchored tarps and heading for our tents before the black thunderheads boiled over us. For the next half-hour or so, cold gusts of wind punched ferociously at the tents and icy rain – or even hail – pelted the llamas, who didn’t seem to mind.
As we hiked the final two miles to the parking lot, both kids were singing, laughing, and dashing ahead to pick wild strawberries. When I put on my rain gear and checked on them the next morning, the llamas seemed none worse for the wear. They were a little wet and doleful looking, but llamas were bred to withstand the brutal weather of the Andes. My three-year-old daughter, Jo, and her five-year-old friend, Huck, were also unfazed. In fact, the only ones bothered by the relentless rain were the adults—me and my husband, Jesse, and Huck’s parents, Dev and Marian.
I know, the National Forest isn’t in Portugal, (actually in Leicestershire, UK) but as we’ve found there don’t seem to be any llamas to trek with in Portugal. I hope someone reading this blog will prove me wrong but apart from Quinta Pedagogica, and Aljezur Alpacas on the Algarve which of course only have alpacas, we can’t find a single llama farm. Which is a shame because we would really like to have some Portuguese llamas. After dinner the second night out, we sat in companionable silence around the fire, sipping cognac and listening to the birds mutter off to sleep and the breeze fluff up little waves on the lake. The llamas glowed like ghosts in the moonlight, lying on their bellies with feet tucked under them, heads up, watching the lake slip deeper into shadow. At noon, we reached a high mountain pass at almost 10,000 feet.
Llamas have very warm, thick coats, naturally, so they can enjoy the snow in comfort. But you want to ensure that you are doing everything in your power to help your llama in winter. As in ancient days, alpacas are important to Andean herders, providing luxury fiber and meat.
The bulk of their diet is made up of good quality grass hay (Orchard is ideal) and/or pasture grass. They are from a harsh climate so they are well adapted to maximize their intake of their food. There are a number of commercially available alpaca feeds, but these should be rationed as a vitamin and mineral supplement. Their primary food source should always be good quality grass and hay. Here in the south, alpacas just like any grazing livestock, tend to drink a lot of water so access to clean, fresh drinking water is a must at all times.
