With a big thankyou to Bertie at ClickCreations we have moved this blog to our website www.ashwoodllamas.co.uk – or we will do very shortly.
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Day to day activities can be found on our facebook page Ashwood Llamas !
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Wispa & Llancellot
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Thank you!
This spring we moved Pepsi, our stud male along with his mate Nazca up to a rented field, and during the two months or so that they were there, their toenails have grown amazingly!
Under normal circumstances they wear them down by pawing the ground and by walking along the roads or the rough & tumble of the hard standing in their paddocks, but in the rented field there’s just soft grass, and so the nails didn’t wear down and os they needed to be cut.
Llamas are big animals, and getting your head down to feet level is quite a scary thought, and a few bruises in the shin is testament to the fact that they can kick, so… we gave in and called the professionals.
Often, it is the shearers that do the toe nails. Whilst they have the llama under control for shearing they just cut the nails, almost while they are not looking, but as we have no intention of shearing our llamas, at least not with electric shears, we needed someone special.
The lady in question comes up from Cornwall and uses a system called Camelid Dynamics to train llamas and llama owners and Vicki has been on her course, but doesn’t feel confident to do the nails, so this lady just pops up, we get the llamas in a pen one by one, and five minutes later they look at me and say – what was all that about, and the nails have been trimmed almost without them really knowing!
It’ll be done so infrequently, and despite us watching and learning, I suspect that we’ll have this lady back again!
…it’s the rutting season for goats but poor old Titan has no one to rut with!
He shares his run with two wethers, his first two youngsters from last year, and they enjoy running him a bit ragged! He has however started to bark at them – a sort of rowrowrow sort of noise – quite amusing coming from a goat!
He stands in the corner of his run – I’m sure he knows the girls are not far away – looking quite forlorn at times. He does pick up and get quite excited about the odd bramble or hazel branch being thrown in to his run.
It’s the smell though – he has found his old perfume, quite a nasty smell in many many ways – it is quite off putting – we may have to move him and his run away from our summerhouse, especially when we have guests over for a BBQ.
He’s going to have to wait though – the girls won’t be ready for a couple of months yet
…had a young kid today! Frostie is the larger of our female pygmy goats, and the way she was waddling around the last day or so we were convinced that she was going to have triplets.
Our holiday guests have been coming out at feeding times most mornings – we have a holiday cottage and one of the attractions is to join us at feeding times morning and afternoon, and families especially enjoy coming out and getting up close and personal with all of the animals, but the pygmy goats are a real attraction in the way they want to be fussed & fed.
Frostie was put into her maternity enclosure at the weekend as she was starting to “bag up” which is a sign that the birthing is due very soon, and the guests noticed strange noises and low & behold this morning at around 8.30am the birthing had started.
I won’t go into the gory details, but by 8.45am we sent the guests off to the house, something wasn’t quite right and we decided to call the vet, and by 9am the head of a young pygmy goat was sticking out, the youngster was breathing but poor thing it couldn’t get out, she was well and truly stuck. Most goats, and our llamas too, normally come out with feet first with the head in between, like a diver, but this one had left her front feet behind.
The vet was soon there but it took nearly 30 minutes of pushing, pulling, twisting etc… to finally get the little one out, and I am glad to say that everything appears to be fine. She has been given a good clean, belly button sprayed with iodine, and has had some nosh!
Amazingly though, Frostie just had the one!
You can find out full details of our llama experiences on our website!
www.ashwoodllamas.co.uk – I know a shameless plug, but heyho! Also, I know our website doesn’t mention Thursdays as a regular day for these sessions but we are flexible, so if you want any other day just call and ask!
So, this afternoon we have a family turning up to spend 3 hours with Vicki & I to play with our llamas, and meet the goats, chickens and maybe the cat!
I have a funny feeling the cuteness of our pygmy goat kids might get more “aaahs” than the llamas will, it just happens to be that time of year!
Wilbur & Cusco will get to be haltered and walked, and Wilbur in particular just loves the attention and will enjoy showing off! Out of all our llamas he is the one that will allow you to stroke him through the fence, most of the others will shy away at the last minute.
Buster & Sir Llancellot will both be in attendance – too young to walk, but they are learning the ropes, and need to be shown that it is an enjoyable experience!
And, I have been told the sun will shine this afternoon – can’t wait as it gets me out of the office for the afternoon!
Over the last winter we had 14 llamas, 4 of whom were youngsters, and 8 pygmy goats, 3 of whom were youngsters. Their main diet during the winter months is hay, as there is little fresh grass to eat and so they have hay to eat as they need it!
I also thought that we wasted about 20-25% – hay that dropped to the floor and got wet and therefore was no use to anyone!
At the weekend, we met a few other llama owners and one lady said that she got through just 200 bales of hay for 20+ llamas & alpacas and a handful of sheep – so we must have wasted closer to 50%!
So, how to save hay and ensure that it doesn’t go to waste – any ideas?
I have a few, and action is needed right now, although there is plenty of grass to eat right now, and the consumption of hay has slowed right down, but with hay soon to be cut I could do with saving some money by not buying quite as much as I thought I would need for this winter!
