Saturday, May 06, 2006

Pablo & Paloma, plus Lilly gets a haircut

Eastern Washington Alpaca Ranches:
Enchanted Acres Ranch, Benton City, WA
Yakima River Alpacas, Richland, WA

North Idaho Alpaca Ranch, Sagle, ID

Mens and Womens Fashions from natural fibers, Alpaca Products at Pedro's Pride Fashions

This is your update on our two crias-- Pablo and Paloma (which means pidgeon in Spanish, by the way).

As I wrote in an earlier blog posting, we were quite worried about Paloma because she was not eating and her mom seemed to not be cooperating. It does take two to make nursing work. We separated the herd so that Paloma and Pablo were not together. That worked. When Lisa put them all back together, she said the whole herd ran and jumped around the pasture, obviously glad to be with friends again.

And, Pablo tried to bully little Paloma who was about half his weight. She kicked him squarely in the chest. From that moment on, they are getting along quite well. Both are thriving. Paloma is still gaining weight at a rate averaging 0.7 lbs per day. Pablo hit fifty pounds yesterday (and he got sheared, to boot).




Here is a photo of the two. Pablo is on the left and Paloma is on the right. If it looks like she has a hole in her forehead, it is actually the "green stuff" from having someone spit on her.











We started shearing yesterday, doing only two animals. One of them is Lilly. She was great, but afterwards seems a bit put out. She looks totally different. I am sure that if I had not seen it happen (I was, afterall, the one weilding the shears), I would not believe it is the same girl. And, if you look at the photo to the right, you can tell what color our soil is. Lilly is white with a brown spot on her right side (visible in the photo). She immediately rolled and rubbed in the dirt and now looks almost light brown. We put a blanket on her last night and she hated that. But, it was down to near freezing, so it seemed prudent.

I would sure like to see other cria photos and hear the tales of the Alpaca Ranches out there. And, of course, if you are considering buying Alpacas, please ask any questions you want here.

All my best,
Ken Larson

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

New Alpacas Coming to Pedro's Pride Ranch

We are pleased to announce that two new Alpacas will be joining the herd at Pedro's Pride Ranch in Sagle, ID.

Through a recent purchase, Pedro's Pride Ranch has acquired two wonderful, pregnant females from Alpacas de la Patagonia, of Camano Island, WA.

Patagonia's Lucky Charm is fawn colored, with very fine fleece. She will be two years old this August. Her dam is fawn, her sire is rosegray. Lucky Charm is bred to the famous Kapsa, a thickly-fibered rosegray who was the 2003 AOBA Gray Champion. Here is a photo of the Charmer after last shearing.


Patagonia's Cilantro will be two years old in September. She is a dynamic black with a white face and socks. Her dam is Jazz, a black. Cilantro's sire is champion Patagonia's Neruda, whose 10-month-old cria recently sold at auction for $80,000. Here is a photo our new girl, Cilantro:

Cilantro is bred to a statuesque black Alpaca named Guevara. Her cria is due in the spring of 2007.

As a continuing part of our breeding program, we will look at combining the championship qualities of these Patagonia girls with our future herdsire who is the son of Premier's Absolute, a champion for sure. We believe these two bloodlines will produce some incredible crias.

As always, our main goal in our breeding program is to guarantee genetic diversity and strong, healthy, conformationally-correct Alpacas.

I sure hope the Spring is as nice where you are as it is here in North Idaho.

Remember, if you have a ranch store, Lisa has some wonderful alpaca products from Peru at wholesale prices. Click here for Alpaca Products.

If you are going to be in the Tri-Cities area of Washington, contact these two ranches to meet some really nice people and visit some great alpacas.

Enchanted Acres Ranch, Benton City, WA

Yakima River Alpacas, Richland, WA