Frosty Paca!

So it was a cold Winter. It's never warm here over Winter, but this year we did have quite a few nasty frosts. About 50 of them (if might have been more, I lost count). The alpacas aren't the least bit worried by frosty mornings. They love nothing better than laying out in the frosty air waiting for their breakfast to arrive. Well, they actually prefer to be sunbaking in the warm spring days, sunning their bellies, but they are quite fond of laying around all frosted up.

Often in Winter we get up and find them with a good thick layer of frost over their fleece. They get shorn in October so through Winter they are pretty fluffy and really don't feel the cold one little bit. If you shove your hand into their fleece it's toasty in there! It's pretty obvious they don't mind the cold because they love to sit around on the pavers (which are generally frozen over) rather than sitting in their straw.

 When we are out walking people often ask how they go with the cold. They seem to think we are mean for 'making' them sleep outside. Truth is they don't even notice the cold. The heat bothers them more. In Summer, when it gets too hot (over about 33 degrees) we tend to hose them down to keep them cool. In Winter we have had minus 8 and below temps and they aren't the least bit phased. Here are some pics we grabbed the other week showing a good layer of frost on Chimu. His dark coat makes it easy to see. Inti, being mostly white, makes it hard to see his frost but on this morning (I think it was minus 8 with an apparent temp of minus 10 or 11) even he has some obvious icing over.