{"id":142,"date":"2012-04-25T08:43:23","date_gmt":"2012-04-25T12:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roseshadowranch.com\/?p=142"},"modified":"2012-04-25T08:43:23","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T12:43:23","slug":"alpaca-shearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roseshadowranch.com\/?p=142","title":{"rendered":"Alpaca Shearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yesterday was a day spent with the alpacas, it was shearing day! \u00a0Once a year in the spring the alpacas get all their winter “fluff” (fleece) shaved off just like sheep. \u00a0The fleece can then be sent off to be cleaned, dyed, and spun into beautiful yarn. \u00a0Alpaca fleece is the finest there is, unlike sheeps wool which is itchy, alpaca fleece is softer and warmer and does not itch like sheeps wool. \u00a0It is also hypoallergenic because it lacks lanolin.<\/p>\n

Shearing an alpaca is quite the task. \u00a0Alpacas weigh around 200 pounds. \u00a0It takes 2 men to wrangle them to the ground for their “haircuts” and they fight and scream and spit the whole way. \u00a0Needless to say, they do not like to be sheared! \u00a0Special measures must be taken to insure the animal stays safe as well as everyone involved in the process. \u00a0The easiest way to get the job done is to tie off their feet and stretch them out using a pulley system. \u00a0This way the animal becomes almost submissive and it can be easily rolled from side to side. \u00a0The legs can also be sheared easily this way with no kicking. \u00a0We use old socks (clean of course) to put over the animal’s mouth to avoid getting spit on, because I tell you, they spit like crazy and they can spit far too! \u00a0If you’ve never been around a spitting camelid, you’re lucky, because it smells awful!<\/p>\n

While the animal is tied down, they also get their teeth filed if need be, hooves clipped, and maybe a vaccination or a wound tended to. \u00a0This is the perfect time to give each animal a thorough once over to check for anything abnormal.<\/p>\n

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Alpaca ShearingAlpaca Shearing<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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Alpaca Shearing, look at all the fleece!Alpaca shearing, look how thick that fleece is!Alpaca Shearing<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was a day spent with the alpacas, it was shearing day! \u00a0Once a year in the spring the alpacas get all their winter “fluff” (fleece) shaved off just like sheep. \u00a0The fleece can then be sent off to be … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2jrxr-2i","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roseshadowranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roseshadowranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roseshadowranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roseshadowranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roseshadowranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/roseshadowranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"https:\/\/roseshadowranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roseshadowranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roseshadowranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roseshadowranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}