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.
Not surprisingly, many people are intrigued by llamas and alpacas and wonder what it would be like to keep them. Are they difficult to look after? How much land do they need? Can you mix them with other stock? Do they kick, bite or spit?
All of these questions and many other questions are answered in this book, whuch is written and packed full of advice and information.
Gina Bromage read Veterinary Medicine at Girton College, Cambridgeshire in the early 1970s. After graduation she entered general practice and gained a Master of Arts degree before travelling to the USA, where she passed the National and State Board veterinary examinations and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine by the State of Maryland. She came back to England and her involvement with camelids began in 1999 and she swiftly joined the British Veterinary Camelid Society. Gina continues to take every opportunity to expand her knowledge of the medicine and husbandry of these wonderful animals. Resident: Somerset