New animals on their way :)

[DrPizza]

Pics to follow...
One is pregnant, bred by a top of the line male,
The other is only a year old.

So, a baby llama is also expected in the near future (few months)
Plus, 2 others are destined for here.

 

[krunchykrome]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Pics to follow...
One is pregnant, bred by a top of the line male,
The other is only a year old.

So, a baby llama is also expected in the near future (few months)
Plus, 2 others are destined for here.

Llamas? LLAMAS?

I thought you ran a pet store

 

[Coquito]

You never got back to me about that Turkey!!! :|

 

[Bootprint]

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Pics to follow...
One is pregnant, bred by a top of the line male,
The other is only a year old.

So, a baby llama is also expected in the near future (few months)
Plus, 2 others are destined for here.

Llamas? LLAMAS?

I thought you ran a pet store

Nah, he's playing the latest version of Sim City.

 

[SagaLore]

Can I buy one?

 

[ElFenix]

are you going to open a petting zoo soon?

 

[BillGates]

I hate llamas.

 

[nakedfrog]

Here's a llama, there's a llama

 

[drnickriviera]

Carl Wheezer?

 

[TheSlamma]

Llama and Okapi are my 2 fav animals

How big of an area do you need to keep a mini llama?

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Coquito
You never got back to me about that Turkey!!! :|

Sorry, I thought I had... we did not raise turkeys for Thanksgiving this year... cleaning them was too much a pain in the neck (as in nearly 4 hours spent plucking.) We have one remaining turkey from last year; he's destined for the taxidermist if he ever grows a decent set of tail feathers. He'd probably make an incredible feast for Thanksgiving, except, he probably wouldn't fit in most people's oven. (He's huge... large enough to assert his authority over all 3 of our dogs - golden lab, golden retriever, and a shepherd mix.) The dogs are afraid of him... my younger son gets chased away by him.

 

[Baked]

How would breeding in a human pet shop work?

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: TheSlamma
Llama and Okapi are my 2 fav animals

How big of an area do you need to keep a mini llama?

Okapi > Llama

A bit too big for a pet though

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
Can I buy one?

I'm pretty sure we're going to have a baby for sale in the spring... price is completely unknown, dependent upon all those particular things - color, conformation, etc. The mother that we got isn't worth a ton of money, but she's had excellent crias (baby llamas) in the past. She's currently bred to a male with a pricetag of 140k. WAYYYYY out of my price range, but we're crossing our fingers for her offspring.

Heyyyyy, If you're serious, check out here Those are my sis-in-laws animals for sale. Captain Morgan lives with us though (til sold).
There are 2 llamas still for sale - Ruka and Desiree.
Sassy is going to be making her home with us soon, and from what I've heard, so is Do See Do if he gets along with our male.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
are you going to open a petting zoo soon?

Whenever people go by with little kids, we always invite them to visit the animals. The little kids love it. We have a big bag of animal crackers in a cabinet just for such visits. (The animals LOVE animal crackers.) The kids are usually quite thrilled.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Coquito
You never got back to me about that Turkey!!! :|

forgot to mention - we have decided to become breeders of Narragansett turkeys, an endangered breed of turkeys listed at the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy as "threatened" - estimated less than 5000 existing in the world, and less than 1000 registered. We have a pair of poults right now that are doing well.. within a couple of years, we're hoping to be breeding quite a few of these birds and raising them for dinners.

edit: link

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: TheSlamma
Llama and Okapi are my 2 fav animals

How big of an area do you need to keep a mini llama?

About the same as the area needed for a regular llama... You can get by with what amounts to one of those 8x10 sheds from Sears (we have a barn), plus maybe a 40x40 foot enclosed area. But, in such a small area, they'll eat every bit of grass... larger pasture is preferrable (as well as the ability to rotate pastures.)

Currently we have a total of about 4800 square feet fenced in (with plans for a lot more fencing... I just haven't gotten around to some of it.) And, in that 4800 square feet, we have 15 goats, 3 llamas, and an alpaca.

 

[Leros]

here's a llama
there's a llama
and another little llama
fuzzy llama
funny llama
llama llama
duck

llama llama
cheesecake
llama
tablet
brick
potato
llama
llama llama
mushroom
llama
llama llama
duck

i was once a treehouse
i lived in a cake
but i never saw the way
the orange slayed the rake
i was only three years dead
but it told a tale
and now listen, little child
to the safety rail

did you ever see a llama
kiss a llama
on the llama
llama's llama
tastes of llama
llama llama
duck

half a llama
twice the llama
not a llama
farmer
llama
llama in a car
alarm a llama
llama
duck

is THIS how it's told now?
is it all so old?
is it made of lemon juice?
doorknob
ankle
cold
now my song is getting thin
i've run out of luck
time for me to retire now
and become a duck

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Strk

Originally posted by: TheSlamma
Llama and Okapi are my 2 fav animals

How big of an area do you need to keep a mini llama?

Okapi > Llama

A bit too big for a pet though

Bigger than a horse? People have horses as pets... It all depends on the temperament.

 

[JEDI]

um.. what do people usually buy llamas for?

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Coquito
You never got back to me about that Turkey!!! :|

forgot to mention - we have decided to become breeders of Narragansett turkeys, an endangered breed of turkeys listed at the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy as "threatened" - estimated less than 5000 existing in the world, and less than 1000 registered. We have a pair of poults right now that are doing well.. within a couple of years, we're hoping to be breeding quite a few of these birds and raising them for dinners.

edit: link

Newspaper Reporter> So Mr. Pizza, what do you do for a living?
Pizza> We raise various farm animals
Rep> Oh, that sounds rather interesting. Do you just keep them as pets, or do you sell them?
Pizza> Neither, we eat them.
Rep> You eat them? Oh, well I guess that's to be expected.
Pizza> Oh yes, some of them are great food. We have a pair of endangered turkeys right now that we're growing, only 1000 of them left; I fancy they'll make a wonderful Thanksgiving feast.
Rep> You're eating endangered animals? Is that even legal?
Pizza> Oh yes, and the endangered status just makes them taste that much better. We also have some rare sheep for lamb chops, and the wife just bought a Bald Eagle to raise for a 4th of July cookout?
Rep> You're eating our nation's status symbol?! Alright, I've had enough of this, I'm leaving!
Pizza> But wait, I haven't told you about the Dodo for dinner tonight! It's the only one left in the world!

 

[DrPizza]

variety of reasons:

• the fiber (wool)
  
  friendly (albeit large) pets - most have excellent personalities.
  
  excellent guard animal (There's always a chance that some coyotes will come around and get in with our goats... the llamas would easily defeat the coyotes. Without them or some other guard animal, we could lose all our goats in one night.)
  
  And, they make excellent pack animals... we're hoping that in a couple of years, we'll be able to offer a pack service to those eco-tourist hiking weirdos who would gladly pay us $50-$100 or more each to take our llamas for a walk for us... All we'd have to do is put some packs on the llamas, send a small blanket, sandwiches, salads, cheese, crackers, and wine. With a few thousand acres of state forest literally attached to our back yard, there's plenty of room for such a service. Insurance is the only potential pitfall.

edit: here's an article about a llama pack trip... NYTimes
People pay hundreds of dollars for these trips, although I'd probably never offer any more than a day trip or overnight trip.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
Newspaper Reporter> So Mr. Pizza, what do you do for a living?
Pizza> We raise various farm animals
Rep> Oh, that sounds rather interesting. Do you just keep them as pets, or do you sell them?
Pizza> Neither, we eat them.
Rep> You eat them? Oh, well I guess that's to be expected.
Pizza> Oh yes, some of them are great food. We have a pair of endangered turkeys right now that we're growing, only 1000 of them left; I fancy they'll make a wonderful Thanksgiving feast.
Rep> You're eating endangered animals? Is that even legal?
Pizza> Oh yes, and the endangered status just makes them taste that much better. We also have some rare sheep for lamb chops, and the wife just bought a Bald Eagle to raise for a 4th of July cookout?
Rep> You're eating our nation's status symbol?! Alright, I've had enough of this, I'm leaving!
Pizza> But wait, I haven't told you about the Dodo for dinner tonight! It's the only one left in the world!

LOL
Most people don't realize that a lot of breeds of animals are now endangered... the breeds that were grown in this country in many cases for hundreds of years. The major corporations who have taken over the majority of agriculture in this country have produced new breeds of animals and newer varieties of fruits and vegetables that are pushing the old breeds and varieties aside. The chicken that you buy in the store is typically around 6 to 8 weeks old. There are many breeds of meat chicken that take 6 to 8 months, if not longer, before they're mature enough to eat... Anyone raising meat as a business would be foolish to choose animals that cost 4 times as much to reach the same weight. Thus, there are a lot of breeds that are only raised by people who raise them for the sake of preserving the breed, and for the novelty of it. However, if I have 6 hen turkeys who are laying eggs (and a tom), I'm going to end up with probably 100 poults. I have no problem eating a few dozen of these. (Compare this to the chickens I raise for eggs - if I had wanted to, and purchased a large incubator, I could go from 20 hens and a couple of roosters to.. (need the calculator here...) Whoa... with zero mortality, I could compound those 20 hens into almost 90,000 chickens by the end of the year. ) What endangers many of these breeds is that they're simply not popular anymore because there are other breeds that grow much more quickly and cost far less to raise. In the case of commercial egg-layers, they average at least 350 eggs a year each. Who would raise chickens that only lay 40 or 50 eggs a year? Only someone who is doing it for the sake of it... But, even if half of those eggs survived, the potential population growth rate for those varieties is tremendous... who wants them though?

 

[Coquito]

Thanks for the response.

What are you producing this year? My caravan can't make it through the hard winter without sustenance.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Coquito
Thanks for the response.

What are you producing this year? My caravan can't make it through the hard winter without sustenance.

Well, we have a bunch of chickens to get rid of... A lot of silkies, and mixed chickens. I have a hen sitting on about 15 or 20 eggs right now, when those hatch, they're available as well.