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Does anyone here breed alpacas? Login/Join 
Nature is full of
magnificent creatures
posted
I've seen a few at a distance near a road as I drive by (at least I think they are alpacas). I'm curious if anyone here breeds them or has them among the animals on their farm. We have a lot of interesting members here. I suspect someone here knows a lot about them.
 
Posts: 6273 | Registered: March 24, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
A Grateful American
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...beware of their lips...




"the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא שוב!
 
Posts: 44569 | Location: ...... I am thrice divorced, and I live in a van DOWN BY THE RIVER!!! (in Arkansas) | Registered: December 20, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Green grass and
high tides
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For a pet? Not a money maker. That ship sailed 30 years ago or so.



"Practice like you want to play in the game"
 
Posts: 19866 | Registered: September 21, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
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I had a co-worker whose wife went full on crazy with Alpacas and Llamas.
She evidently thought they were pets. Full on insane costs, expensive barns built and the Vet bills were sky high. When she finally wanted to bail, no one would buy them.
Think owning horses but twice as nuts.


End of Earth: 2 Miles
Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles
 
Posts: 16468 | Location: Marquette MI | Registered: July 08, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Nature is full of
magnificent creatures
posted Hide Post
I am not interested in the pedigreed/show type. I am not planning on buying any. I just was curious if anyone here raises them for their own use, as pets, not for profit.

As I understand it, there is a difference of temperment between llamas and alpacas.
 
Posts: 6273 | Registered: March 24, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Get on the fifty!
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My uncle had a Llama for years, that thing was a total dick. Well, two llamas, one named Dolly and the other Danny. Dolly Llama croaked and left the mean bastard Danny to roam the earth.



"Pickin' stones and pullin' teats is a hard way to make a living. But, sure as God's got sandals, it beats fightin' dudes with treasure trails."

"We've been tricked, we've been backstabbed, and we've been quite possibly, bamboozled."
 
Posts: 3631 | Location: OK | Registered: November 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Not really from Vienna
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A few people around here successfully use llamas to protect their goats from predators. I don’t know how a llama manages to protect goats from mountain lions or packs of coyotes/dogs. Maybe they smell real bad.
 
Posts: 27237 | Location: SW of Hovey, Texas | Registered: January 30, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
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Had a BiL that raised them a few years ago. Lost nearly everything he had as a result of that and a couple other stupid decisions.
 
Posts: 13866 | Location: Shenandoah Valley, VA | Registered: October 16, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Three Generations
of Service
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I had a llama for a few years when I had sheep. EXCELLENT guard animal, never had so much as a skunk inside the fence while he was here.

While some, if raised by hand from birth, can be quite tame, they're not really pets. Fernando would stand for me to pet his neck for a minute or two as long as there were apples or carrots in the other hand.

I really enjoyed watching him and my dog playing. They'd take turns chasing each other around the pasture, Fernando "skipping" like Pepe LePew.

I don't know much about alpacas other than they're smaller. AFAIK, about the only commercially viable use for alpacas is for fiber.




Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
 
Posts: 15594 | Location: Downeast Maine | Registered: March 10, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Stangosaurus Rex
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Do the protect against Chupacabra?


___________________________
"I Get It Now"

Beth Greene
 
Posts: 7846 | Location: South Florida | Registered: January 09, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Striker in waiting
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quote:
Originally posted by old rugged cross:
For a pet? Not a money maker. That ship sailed 30 years ago or so.


Really? A colleague of mine still sells the wool from hers (she raises them) for $100-125/oz.

-Rob




I predict that there will be many suggestions and statements about the law made here, and some of them will be spectacularly wrong. - jhe888

A=A
 
Posts: 16330 | Location: Maryland, AA Co. | Registered: March 16, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Shit don't
mean shit
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My uncle has about 16 llamas. About 10 males and 4 females and 2 younger ones that were born this year. Not sure of their sex. He uses them as pack animals for hiking/fishing/hunting trips. He only packs the males and keeps them separate from the females, except during breeding time.

A llama can carry about 50 - 55 lbs total. We use them to go to areas where almost no one else goes. Remote fishing lakes, remote hunting areas. It really helps when packing out an elk. There's roughly 400 lbs of elk meat on a big bull (de-boned). The llamas allow us to go into areas where there are very few, if any, other hunters. We usually pack in between 5 - 7 miles one way.



 
Posts: 5825 | Location: 7400 feet in Conifer CO | Registered: November 14, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Mensch
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quote:
Dolly Llama



Good one.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Yidn, shreibt un fershreibt"

"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind."
-Bomber Harris
 
Posts: 16134 | Location: Ivorydale | Registered: January 21, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fortified with Sleestak
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quote:
Originally posted by sigmonkey:
...beware of their lips...


teh horror.....teh horror....



I have the heart of a lion.......and a lifetime ban from the Toronto Zoo.- Unknown
 
Posts: 5371 | Location: Shenandoah Valley, VA | Registered: November 05, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Shit don't
mean shit
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by kz1000:
quote:
Dolly Llama



Good one.


I keep suggesting to my uncle he name one Lorenzo, but he hasn't done that yet.
 
Posts: 5825 | Location: 7400 feet in Conifer CO | Registered: November 14, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
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Llamas are great for watching over a flock of sheep. I worked fall hunting seasons for a outfitter who hated them. It was when we encountered a group using them on trails also occupied by back country Elk trips that I understood his concern. Horses would absolutely freak out when we came up on Llamas, they didn't know what they were. Even before being sighted our pack animals would go full retard just from the scent.
 
Posts: 1320 | Location: Montana | Registered: October 20, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Little ray
of sunshine
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The money is in vicuna wool. Alpacas are for chumps.

"Why Does a Vicuña Jacket Cost $21,000?"

https://www.wsj.com/articles/w...ost-22000-1379717090




The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
 
Posts: 53346 | Location: Texas | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
It's not you,
it's me.
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There’s a bunch around here since the gov pays you or did pay you.

https://amp.washingtontimes.co...alpaca-farms-turn-b/
 
Posts: 7016 | Location: Right outside Philly | Registered: September 08, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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They are used quite a bit with large free range chicken outfits. They really do a good job at keeping 4 legged varmints out.
 
Posts: 6633 | Location: Virginia | Registered: December 23, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
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My brother has two for a few years now. He sells the wool in the spring. He has pigs, goats, chickens, ducks and horses.


Living the Dream
 
Posts: 4037 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: December 06, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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