Alpaca with Apple
April 25th 2008 05:48
No, not an exciting new recipe I’ve thought up, just an alpaca, with an apple.
This is Alice. Alice is 8 years old. She was born here. Alice knows that if she’s friendly, the two-legged’s will give her yummy things to eat.
Alice likes apples very much, as well as carrots. In fact, Alice just likes food. This is pretty typical of most alpacas. Eating is what alpacas do. When they’re not stuffing their faces, they’re either sitting around chewing the cud (yes, much like a cow), or putting it out the other end, into piles that I shovel into my vegie garden – and so the cycle continues.
On the whole, alpacas don’t much like being handled by people. (I wouldn’t much like being handled by a crocodile or polar bear). It can take a long time to gain their trust.
Some alpacas become very tame around people, some will eat from your hand but stay at arms length and others simply want nothing whatsoever to do with humans (probably very sensible, if you think about it).
I think it’s partly genetic and partly how much time you spend with them. I spend a bit of time just wandering about among the alpacas – not trying to do anything with them, just being there, so they get used to me.
It’s satisfying when you get one to trust you, though by the same token, the trusting alpaca wouldn’t last 5 minutes in a wild situation – she’d march right up to a predator and become it’s lunch.
It's unlikely that my pacas would encounter a puma or tiger here though. More like the old, blind moggy from up the road.
Alpaca eating an apple
This is Alice. Alice is 8 years old. She was born here. Alice knows that if she’s friendly, the two-legged’s will give her yummy things to eat.
Alice likes apples very much, as well as carrots. In fact, Alice just likes food. This is pretty typical of most alpacas. Eating is what alpacas do. When they’re not stuffing their faces, they’re either sitting around chewing the cud (yes, much like a cow), or putting it out the other end, into piles that I shovel into my vegie garden – and so the cycle continues.
On the whole, alpacas don’t much like being handled by people. (I wouldn’t much like being handled by a crocodile or polar bear). It can take a long time to gain their trust.
Some alpacas become very tame around people, some will eat from your hand but stay at arms length and others simply want nothing whatsoever to do with humans (probably very sensible, if you think about it).
I think it’s partly genetic and partly how much time you spend with them. I spend a bit of time just wandering about among the alpacas – not trying to do anything with them, just being there, so they get used to me.
It’s satisfying when you get one to trust you, though by the same token, the trusting alpaca wouldn’t last 5 minutes in a wild situation – she’d march right up to a predator and become it’s lunch.
It's unlikely that my pacas would encounter a puma or tiger here though. More like the old, blind moggy from up the road.
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Comment by katyzzz
Photography Tips
MS Paint Art
Comment by Rosemary
Alpaca Notes - Tasmania
Not very well. We've been lucky here, but I have heard many people losing their pacas to snakes, they're inquisitive "curiosity killed the alpaca".
Lots of apples here this year.
Comment by Henni
What a relief it WASN'T a recipe...
Luckily I know your eating (non-eating) philosophy....
Wish mine would learn from Alice.