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 24 February 2019

Time to visit the nail bar!

This is a nice shot of Faro taken earlier in the week.  He and the other two boys have enjoyed the mild weather and warm temperatures which we hope to have during the coming week too.
We've often said on this blog that Faro, being the 'guard' alpaca is the boy who is always alert, always inquisitive and always checks out what any human is doing in the paddocks.  This picture tells the story - the Grumpy Gardener appeared pushing a barrow with three buckets of soil, Faro checks it out and the other two boys just carry on grazing, completely unconcerned because they know that Faro is the one who is watching out for them.  Strange - but true!
The other two boys doing what they do best - grazing!  Fyta is in front with Fergus at the rear.
It was a lovely morning yesterday so we decided to clip Fergus's nails.  Normally we would have had to clip the two white boy's nails but as we lost Fidget a few weeks ago, Fergus was on his own.  His nails have always been problematic because some of them do not grow straight and end up becoming twisted.
Fergus does not like having his nails clipped and can be a handful sometimes, like this occasion when part of the 'quick' under the nail was cut, drawing some blood.  Fergus was not concerned by this and was quite happy just to stand and chew some hay!  The bleeding clotted quite quickly and we have been keeping an eye on it since.
Fergus is on his own in the catch pen whilst Fyta takes an interest in what is going on from the outside.   Faro is grazing in the background.
And finally............ our neighbours moved a couple of their horses into an adjoining field and this is 'Crackers' (left) and his older pal 'Blue' getting used to their new surroundings and hoping to get a piece of an alpaca carrot.

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