Each morning the girls await feeding time. The young girls get their morning pellets which they love, while the older girls have fresh hay for the day. The boys on the other hand, head right for the gate, so they can run into the pasture.

Morning is the time when stalls are cleaned and water buckets also get cleaned out and refilled for the day. The girls like to supervise the activity whereas the boys prefer to head out to the pasture for the day. As long as they know they have hay and water in their stall, they are happy.

After the girls have all eaten breakfast and supervised stall mucking, they head to the gate and await their time to run out to the back pasture. They spend every morning sunning themselves even in the hottest of weather. Summers here in New Mexico can get rather warm, but it doesn’t seem to faze the girls. They will lay out in the sun until early afternoon then it’s time to head into the barn for some well deserved shade and hay.

In the summertime, I turn on the stall fans to help keep the herd cooled down. If the temperature is especially hot, I will turn on the hose and spray the herd. They love this and vie for the best spot in front of the hose. When the water play has finished, the girls love to dig into the alfalfa. This is as good as ice-cream in the alpaca world.

They then settle in for an afternoon nap and time to just enjoy life. This is something in which alpacas excel.

When evening arrives, the boys and the girls head back out to the pasture to enjoy the cool of night before heading to the barn for the night.

Such is the life of an alpaca