Saturday, October 20, 2007

WHERE'S THE LLAMAS?

I was asked about our llamas. We have 3 female llamas here at Milehaus Farm. Stardust is pictured above with her May 2007 cria 'Sterling'. This year we had one llama cria born at our farm.
Sunburst, a fawn coloured alpaca cria, greets her new buddy Sterling.

Sterling peeks over top of his momma.


Sterling at 2 months. Sterling has a very fine, lustrous, silky fleece.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Critter questions from a city girl:

• What is the average birthweight of a llama/alpaca cria?

• How tall was Sterling at 2 months? Is he as soft and huggable in person as he appears in the picture?

• Is that Sunburst in the sidebar picture? That picture makes me smile every time I see it!

Love your blog!

Beth and Dennis said...

Hi Thistledown,

I am finally getting caught up after my week away :-)

On average llamas weigh 18 to 30 pounds at birth and alpacas 12 to 20 pounds. The vast majority of camelid births take place in the daytime between 10 am and 4 pm.

Sterling is now the size of an adult alpaca - not sure what his height at the withers would be. I
I will make a note next year of the growth rate of both the llama and alpaca crias. I have repeated the breeding of Sterling as he is as soft as he looks :-)

No, it is not Sunburst in the sidebar picture. The cria in the sidebar picture is now over 2 years old and expecting her first cria in June '08. She is a half sister to Sunburst.

Beth