Llamas and Alpacas: A Guide to Management

Description

As well as being adorable animals with a thick, warm fleece, llamas and alpacas are also intelligent, discerning, curious and sociable. In addition they are docile, gentle and easily trained. Natural grazers and browsers, they keep down hedges and pastures, they rarely challenge even the most pathetic fencing unless they are frightened, or in love. They require very little supplementary feed, live outside all year round, are generally hardy, healthy and happy. Llamas and Alpacas - A Guide to Management contains all the basic information required in order to keep these animals successfully and provides an invaluable insight into what keeping llamas and alapacas involves in terms of resources, housing, equipment and skills. It assumes no prior knowledge of llamas and alpacas, nor the husbandry of other domesticated species, and is ideal for the uninitiated as well as being a comprehensive reference source for the established camelid keeper. The book contains chapters that deal with land and housing, nutrition, husbandry and welfare, fleece evaluation, fleece marketing, animal assessment and showing, breeding, birth, the care of the newborn and common health problems.Designed to be a husbandry handbook, it aims to cover the basic knowledge required to keep llamas and alpacas successfully. It assumes no prior knowledge of llamas and alpacas, nor the husbandry of other domesticated species, and is ideal for the completely uninitiated, as well as being a useful source of first reference for the established camelid keeper. Superbly illustrated with 183 colour photographs and 23 diagrams and drawings. Gina Bromage is an experienced veterinary surgeon who keeps alpacas.