OUR SMALL HERD

Our original four boys came from Ardo Alpacas in Aberdeenshire. We are not alpaca breeders and have our boys purely as pets. Our experience is that you don't need to be a breeder and that a 'batchelor herd' can give much pleasure to the owner. We have 5 acres including our big garden and grazing for the boys, 15 miles north of Inverness, Scotland. I spin, knit, felt and crochet with the fleece from the boys.

Clicking!!

Just a reminder that clicking on (most) of the photos will show them greatly enlarged.

Sunday 11 December 2016

Daily routines

Overnight frosts continued into the beginning of this week and as usual the boys take a bit of time to get themselves going first thing in the morning. From the left, Faro, Fergus, Fyta and Fidget. Faro knows the morning paddock routines off by heart and will walk ahead of the human when the water is changed, the hay is dispensed and the poop patrol begun.  He goes to the closed gate waiting for the boys to be let into another paddock and of course the other three just follow him, as leader. 
In the early morning frosty gloom, Fidget enjoys some hay. He enjoys frosty weather and usually sleeps out under the stars when it is like this.
The boys love a handful of hay on the ground first thing in the morning and last thing before it gets dark. Their four hay buckets are usually empty in the mornings so there is obviously a bit of nocturnal feeding going on.
Faro is suffering from a 'runny' right eye at present, something he often gets during winter.  It's not serious and he allows us to wipe his eye with clean tissue.  We may have to use Orbenin in the eye if it does not clear up.  We've used it before and it works well.
Taken today, the boys wander up the paddock knowing that one of the humans has a tub of carrots ready to dispense!
And finally.................it's not often that we see roses in the garden at this time of year but the current warm temperatures during the last few days are playing tricks on plants and insects.

2 comments:

  1. Oooh, looks chilly up there!
    Re-Faro's eye, have you tried gently massaging around it, especially around the tear ducts? Annabelle, our great-grandma alpaca, has always been prone to a watery eye. When we first got her, we had the vet look but, aside from an op to clear it, which he didn't recommend, he couldn't really help. We accepted it for several years, just keeping the eye area clean, before I read that massage could help and now, whenever it starts, I am able to clear it up very fast and she doesn't seem to mind me doing it so it can't be painful! Hope this works for Faro.

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  2. Thanks for that Judi. No, we haven't tried that. His eye is much better today but if it starts up again we'll try massaging it. Thanks. Shirley & Robbie

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