Fist Livestock on our Homestead

[SpaceBus]

Hello,

As the title suggests my wife and I just adopted our first livestock animal, a five year old alpaca named Lightning. He came from a home that could no longer take care of him. For the last year and a half I had been visiting and helping with his care when I could, but the opportunity finally came to adopt him. Lightning is very skittish but will approach my GSD and touch noses, take food from my hand, and let me pet him while he eats oats/alpaca kibble from a bucket. Honestly Lightning seems to like the dog more than he likes us people. It was a bit of an adventure getting his halter and leash on to get him here yesterday, but we managed. Lightning is amendable to being led with a leash, but he has limits. I've contacted a local Alpaca farm and hoping to find another alpaca that needs a home so Lightning can have a friend. I don't think he has ever been sheared in his life and his coat is filthy. Before bringing Lightning home we watched some shearing and handling videos and are looking into clippers. One video even showed a blanket tied to the animal to keep the coat clean, and I can't find anything more on the topic using google. All my attempts end up with products made of alpaca wool rather than to protect the animal's coat. My wife and I have always liked these little tiny camels and hoped to acquire some after starting our homestead. Lightning is even my favorite color for an Alpaca and we couldn't be happier with him.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Coolbreeze89]

Congratulations! The first animal is so exciting (and nerve-wracking!). It sounds like you’re doing everything right to try and learn as much as you can. I know nothing about alpaca care, so I’ll leave that to the knowledgeable folks here. Just wanted to welcome you.

 

[SpaceBus]

Thanks! I hope to stir up some life in the Alpaca/Llama subforum. Not many new posts...

 

[BarnOwl]

Hello! I love alpacas, so beautiful. I'm new to this site and also new to livestock. (Well, livestock other than chickens). We are getting guinea hogs in June, which will be a new and exciting adventure for us. It's interesting that the Alpaca is bonding with your GSD. I bet it would be fun to watch. I'd be taking a ton of pictures and videos. Sounds like you have a good and patient dog. We have two GSDs. Mine can kind of be jerks with our chickens though so I keep them separated by a chain link fence.

 

[SpaceBus]

Hello! I love alpacas, so beautiful. I'm new to this site and also new to livestock. (Well, livestock other than chickens). We are getting guinea hogs in June, which will be a new and exciting adventure for us. It's interesting that the Alpaca is bonding with your GSD. I bet it would be fun to watch. I'd be taking a ton of pictures and videos. Sounds like you have a good and patient dog. We have two GSDs. Mine can kind of be jerks with our chickens though so I keep them separated by a chain link fence.

We let the GSD, Seamus, out into the paddock with Lighting and didn't put his leash on and they had a great time together. We are hoping Seamus will be our ambassador and help lightning to not be so timid. I think if Seamus were still a puppy this would not have gone the same!

 

[SpaceBus]

We have managed to hand shear Lighting a bit, just in time for sweltering heat! Today he was joined by Hans (light cinnamon) and BB. Hans definitely misses his old handlers and farm, but I'm confident he will settle in.

 

[BarnOwl]

They are beautiful!

 

[SpaceBus]

They are beautiful!

Thank you, I'll let them know today

 

[MuldrowHomeFarm]

Thank you, I'll let them know today

So, we are hoping to revive the Alpaca thread because we have 6 female Alpaca that are new to us! Maybe we can be Alpaca pals!!

 

[SpaceBus]

Your girls are very cute! Good to see some others. If you haven't found it already, i would suggest looking up the Camelid Dynamics website. There is more information there than you could ever need, but it is not really a social group, just for information.