Alpacas and Llamas

Yesterday Beth, her son, John, and I went to Lansing to the LlamaFest which is a show for llamas, but they were also showing a few alpacas. There were some vendors there selling products. We visited a while with my dear friend, Kathy. She is making some very stylish hats and purses from alpaca fiber.

Today it occurred to me that many people confuse alpacas and llamas. Until yesterday, I would just say that llamas are much bigger - sometimes up to 500 pounds. But folks are breeding miniature llamas now which are in the same 150 to 200 pound range of alpacas. Probably the best way to tell them apart is the shape of their ears. You can see by the picture above that Gunny's ears are erect and sort of a spear shape, but the llama below and on the left has ears that tip in toward each other.


They are similar in many ways. Both are members of the camelid family.

Their gestation is about 11 months and they have similar life spans. Both llamas and alpacas are induced ovulators which means they can be bred just about any time. Most folks think that alpacas and llamas originated in South America, but studies have shown that these camelid were originally from North America and migrated south.

It's a stretch of my imagination to realize that these cuddly creatures are family members of the camels.

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I haven't posted here in over a month because my world has pretty much turned upside down. On July 9, my husband was diagnosed with colon cancer which had progressed to his liver. Six weeks were spent having colonoscopies, CTs, MRIs, transfusions, IVs, and hospital stays. Finally on August 13th, he called at 7 a.m. from the hospital and said that he had enough and just wanted to come home. I called Dr. Stefanek at his home and asked if he would discharge Smitty when he went in to do his morning rounds. By the time I got there at 9, Doc had made all the arrangements and had Hospice folks ready to help me out.
Smitty died on August 21st, a week and a day after he came home.
My son from Pennsylvania was here the whole time and he and I were bedside when Smitty passed over. One daughter, Terre, was living here. The other daughter, Nikki, lives over an hour away but managed to get home frequently. Hospice was incredible and I wonder how folks could ever handle the ordeal without them. Doctor Stefanek would drop in to comfort not only Smitty, but us. And my friend, Beth, was my stability and rock. In her nonintrusive way, she was alway here checking on me. Damn! Friends are Great!
The funeral was yesterday and I'm just starting to reflect on the kindness and love that has poured from friends and even folks that I hardly know. The church was packed, we have a mountain of cards, the freezer is stuffed with casseroles, my frig is jammed with meats, cheezes and salads.
We established a scholarship/memorial fund with the high school where he was principal and even though we haven't actually counted, it looks like a few thousand will be given to a deserving student.
I hope that this post hasn't been depressing or morbid. Life is Good and death is a natural part of it. Although at moments I have periods of overwhelming sadness, I am ready to resume my place in this world with my family, animals, and friends.

Alpaca Breeding 101 / 'Paca Porno

I think that Beth and I helped Lars (Polaris) do a successful breeding with Lady Belita today. Someone told me that they watched alpaca or llama breeding on the "Dirtiest Jobs" show. I don't know why it would be considered dirty, it's not like we got spit on, or kicked, or anything like that.
First of all, if the female is ready to be bred, she will cush, like white Ariana is doing in this first picture. If she is already bred, or has a headache ☺, or something, she will spit, run away, maybe kick, or like Belita - do a growling, warning thing. Almost anything to let the male know that she is not receptive.
Belita did none of these things, but just stood there so Beth and I did a little "one, two, three, slide her front feet back" and down she went.
Now you need to know that this was Lars's second breeding attempt. He's our homegrown herdsire and only 2 and 1/2 years old.
My role was something like this "No, Lars, not the head, nope, not her side either, yep, back there, no, no, don't slide back, good boy, good boy, opps, get up there."
Beth is on her knees holding Belita's tail out of the way (tail is covered with a sock, don't want Lars getting a fiber burn), and observing and reporting to me any connections being made.
And SUCCESS! We had about a 20 minute breeding.


We will probably have our vet do an ultrasound and/or a progesterone test in a month to be sure that she's pregnant. If not, we will try again in the fall. Alpaca gestation is 11 months and we try to plan births to avoid high heat and extreme cold.
This is our handsome herd sire, Polaris, on the left. He is a very gentle guy with lovely conformation and fleece. We are hoping he has it figured out so that Beth and I don't have to be so actively involved. Sometimes we get to giggling thinking about what we would look like if someone walked into the barn.

HeatherBelle's Alpaca Barn Video - NorthStarAlpacas

Alpacas at 4-H Fair

John decided to take Chinella to the Fair this week instead of Orion (Slammy). He can reach around her head to show her bite to the Judge and Slammy has grown considerably so that it's quite a reach.....and as it turned out, the judge didn't even require this.

John and Chin did extremely well and had a super time. The only thing that Chin refused to do was to lift her foot for him.

All my information is second hand from Beth because I wasn't able to be there. Smitty (husband) had a very serious surgery that day (Monday) and is still hospitalized.

We are hoping he will come home tomorrow (Friday).

Thank You, Etsy

Oh, my gosh, friends, Etsy did a really, really nice article about the alpacas, this blog, and my shop. You might want to take a look here:

http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/thisHandmadeLife/article/northstaralapacas-alpaca-granny/2192/

If you just double click in the middle of the blue, you will go to the Etsy article.

The dear brown girl who is pictured here is Sonata who is due in September with her first cria. She was bred to a handsome Gray and we are really hoping for a RoseGray. Of course, will love whatever she has. But, oh, I can just imagine spinning up Baby RoseGray Alpaca. Mmmmm.

Nursing Spot

I promised you a picture of Spot actually nursing on Ariana instead of a bottle. Here he is!!!! Melanie was out and took this picture to email to me. He will have absolutely nothing to do with his bottle and is a little aloof to me now. I'm so amazed that after 3 weeks he is figuring out the instincts that he should of had at birth. And thank you, Ariana, for being so patient with him.