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Lack of Vision no Barrier to Raising Llamas & Alpacas

Ken and I have been part of the Alpaca Industry since 2001 and added llamas to the family in 2005. For the first few years our alpacas were on agistment as we were both working in Sydney. In November 2003 we moved to our 25 acre property in the NSW Southern Tablelands full time and I was finally able to bring my small herd home. Like many new caretakers I had much to learn about caring for these beautiful animals, my job was going to be somewhat more challenging as unlike a lot of other breeders I am visually impaired and legally blind. I have light and colour perception which is incredibly useful but I lack detailed vision.

I specifically choose alpacas and llamas as my research indicated these were gentle and easy to manage animals. I could breed them and run the farm as a business but most importantly I was confident that despite my disability I could be the primary caretaker of my new camelid family.

Before I brought my animals’ home I spent hours researching how to set up the pasture, sheds and pens so that I would be able to move and manage the herd by myself. I found a great book called the Camelid Companion by Marty McGee Bennet, it showed how I could achieve this and at the same time minimise the stress involved in handling my animals. I set up our paddocks so everyone could be easily herded into one big shed. In the shed there was a series of gates that allowed me to gently and easily move the animals either into a 3x3m pen or a chute. This was a small enough area to allow me to safely handle, train and perform any necessary husbandry tasks on the animals.

I soon found out they would also always come when I shook a bucket containing their favourite treat – alpaca pellets. I simply had to call, shake the bucket and everyone would follow me into the shed; this made catching them even easier.

Being visually impaired means finding out different ways to achieve the same results that sighted people do using their vision. I have a couple of great mobility aids including my wonderful guide dog Khan, a white cane and a mini sensor. As I need to focus on one animal at a time I generally don’t use Khan when working with the alpacas or llamas but instead rely on my cane and mini sensor. With the mini sensor I can tell where my animals are and how close they are to me, the white cane helps me navigate over unfamiliar territory and also makes a very good herding wand!!

For a while to help me identify my animals I used Braille ear tags, but I found that with a small herd I didn’t really need them as I could easily tell them apart by colour and personality. I also used Braille labels in my feed shed and for my health and husbandry equipment. By the time the labels fell off I was familiar with the location of everything I needed so I didn’t worry about replacing them. I was also familiar with how each supplement and medication smelt or the colour on the labels. I do keep things very organised and everything has its own place so it is easy to find. 

I was very concerned that my limited vision would prevent me from picking up on health issues within my herd but I soon found that as long as everybody was bought into the shed at least once a day I could easily determine if anyone was feeling a little off colour. It may be they were slower than normal to come in, or they were hanging back from the food dishes or not displaying their normal herd ranking. Whenever this happened I would ask Ken or our neighbour for help and we would give them the once over. I also go into the paddock with them several times a day. Normally everyone will come up to say a quick hello and if someone doesn’t then I will go and find them and make sure they are just resting or eating and not cushed reluctant to get up. I have been lucky to attend most births on farm and have picked up when one of my llamas girls was having a difficult labor. I have also been able to quickly pick up animals that limp, have sore eyes or ears and have tummy upsets.

Up until recently my biggest problem was haltering my animals, I taught myself to be adept at catching my animals with a wand and catch rope but could never figure out how to get the halter on. This all changed when I was lucky enough to attend a Marty McGee Bennet basic training course. After working with Marty I had the skills and confidence I needed to take my handling and training to the next level. I was really surprised at how having a visual impairment in many ways helped in the handling of my animals. I had a revelation when I figured out that the gentler my touch and signals the more responsive the animal was. This was relatively easy for me as I am used to having a light touch from reading Braille.

I still have problems with some aspects of herd management; poo patrol is always a challenge especially if someone starts up a new poo pile. Without talking scales I cannot weigh crias, although the bonus being I have an excuse to not weigh myself. I can’t monitor births from a distance or quickly look to see if it is a boy or girl. (One umbilical = a girl, 2 = a boy!!). The upside is that as I spend so much time in the paddock with my animals the girls are very relaxed with me being reasonable close while they are giving birth.

Aside from the hands on care required it is also important I am able to keep accurate health, breeding and husbandry records and from a business perspective market my animals and maintain good business records. By using a screen magnifier I can easily achieve all this using my computer. I have even managed to set up my own website.

My current herd consists of 4 beautiful female, 2 wether, and 1 stud male llama, 3 female and one male weanling alpaca. Many people have questioned why I would move from alpacas into llamas. They assume because they are larger they would be harder for me to handle. In fact quite the opposite is true. On the whole llamas are more tractable and easier to work with than alpacas. They are more confident in themselves which means they are less likely to react unpredictably. Also being bigger I can see them better, I love to magnify things and I guess you could say a llama is a magnified alpaca!!

I can recommend camelids to anyone that is physically challenged. By selecting the right animals and being creative in adapting your environment and handling techniques you will enjoy the many benefits that come with sharing your life with these remarkable animals.