Twin View Llamas

Miniature Llamas for Sale

2011-02-24T18:46:00.000-08:00

Finally, I have a computer again but I've been way too busy this winter trying to keep all the snow moved and the llamas taken care of to spend much time updating things here. It's been a winter just like last winter with 8 foot drifts common around the farm. There has been several days that we've been snow bound here at home because the road is drifted shut for nearly a half mile west.
I have been spending some time on the many snowy days cleaning up some of the fleece that we sheared off of the llamas last spring. It take a lot of time but really looks nice when it's done. I want to get it spun into yarn and maybe Shirley can knit it into a scarf or something. That could be kind of fun.
I have been able to sell a couple of llamas over the winter. Of course no one wants to come get them until spring but that's OK, I sure can't blame them for that. I'll take good care of them until the weather gets better.
I have also listed a few of our miniature llamas for sale on another website I found. Click on the following link to go to the section where they are listed; http://www.classifiedads.com/livestock-200.html
There I have more details about each of them, along with the asking price. Check it out, you'll find the prices hard to beat, especially for mini llamas.
Thinking about raising your own llamas? Contact me about putting together a package including a male and unrelated females that you can use to start your own herd of miniature llamas.

Contact Us...

2010-09-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

Hi There. This is Steve, Bill and Shirley's son.
I'm writing this quick note for Mom and Dad because their computer crapped out a while ago and it may be a little while yet before they can get back on line.
They wanted to let you all know that they're still around and still have several llamas for sale, male and female, all ages and price ranges.
It's been a busy, busy summer for them with keeping up with the acreage and the llamas, working part time for a neighbor farmer and all. Also, mom had back surgery this summer. It all turned out ok and she's doing much better for it.
They made it to a couple of shows this summer and did pretty good when showing up against the full size llamas. Dad was satisfied.
Take a look at some of the pictures here to see a sample of the nice miniature or foundation mini llamas he has or give dad a call on his cell number in his profile, to to visit about what's currently available and pricing.

2010 Cria...so far...

2010-06-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

We've been so busy around here that I haven't had time to write much but I wanted to share some pictures of a few of the new babies we've had lately. Here are pictures of 3 of them with their mothers.

We have even more new cria by now but just haven't had time to get pictures of them yet. I'll have to work on that.

Mini Llama males for sale - The Chief and Shadow

2010-06-17T08:33:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of really nice male llamas that need a good home. Take a look and give me a call if your interested.... Let's make a deal!

Shirley's Flower Gardens

2010-04-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

Well it's the first of April and most of the snow has melted away. It looks like spring might be coming after all. Soon the grass will be green and Shirley's flowers will be coming up.
The llamas are my hobby and flowers are Shirley's hobby. And just like I can tell you the background of my llamas, if you point to a flower she can tell you the name of the flower, when to plant it, how to take care of it, when it blooms and what color. She can probably tell you how she came to have that plant as well. She is really good with them and has had some really pretty ones over the years.
Here is a few pictures of her gardens here and at the place we lived when we were farming.

Chocolate Chip moves to Shalom Hill

2010-03-17T20:17:00.000-07:00

We had an appaloosa llama with brown and black spots, mixed in with a white and gray coat of fiber, so that is how he got his name -- Chocolate Chip .
Shalom Hill is a non-profit rural ministry education and retreat center devoted to the care of creation and retreat hospitality. They have an acreage just a few miles from us that over looks a valley that goes for miles. It is very pretty all year around. They have some sheep and goats, so Twin View Llamas gave Chocolate Chip to them to guard their sheep and goats from the coyotes and dogs. They just love him. The guests seem to enjoy his big brown eyes, quirky appearance and curious nature. Chip is halter trained and some guests even take him for a walk. Chip is a very good llama.
Here is a picture of him in a pen with a few goats that we had for a while and another with one of the little kid goats jumping off of his back. They would jump up in the hay feeder then jump up on his back and Chip didn’t seem to mind at all. We knew that Chip would be very good llama and work out very well up at Shalom Hill.

Fun letter to read

2010-03-09T19:37:00.000-08:00

It's always fun to hear from someone when they get their first baby llama. Mid-February, I got a frantic call from a gal that I sold a female llama to. It seems she came home to find a little surprise in the barn.
Her female had a baby a little sooner than expected, especially given the Minnesota winter we've been having. We visited about the condition of "mom" and the baby and what to do and it sounded as if everything was going to be just fine. She followed up with this letter and some pictures.

"Dear Bill and Shirley.
I have good news for you. This baby did come from the father you originally thought. She did come here bred, just like you thought, only she must have been just bred. I figure she must have been bred in March and you sold her to me in the spring. I haven't had her a year yet!!! I'm sure excited! He's a gorgeous little feller. I named him "Moses Valentine". This is lots of fun!!! Also, I need a halter for the mother. I can't find mine. Where can I buy one? Let me know. Well, I can't wait to share these pictures with you!!! Enjoy!!
Take care -- Jennifer"
Little "Moses" is only 3 hours old in these pictures and like all new baby llamas, all legs, neck, and ears. Thanks for sharing the pictures, Jennifer. It sounds like you're hooked! Can't wait to visit some more.

More and more snow

2010-02-11T19:45:00.001-08:00

Here it is February and the snow just keeps coming. The piles are as big as they've ever been.
I have added some more pictures to the Snowbanks slide show. They show how the wind is blowing the snow so much that you can't see the llama barns. We really have to plan our trips to town between snow storms,it seems.
Even the llamas just stick their heads out the door, look around and step back inside. Their pasture has a drift that's about 15 feet deep going across it. I wonder if they are looking out and wishing they could see the green grass of summer, just like the rest of us.

Snowbanks around the farm

2010-01-26T19:48:00.000-08:00

Winter in Minnesota

2010-01-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

Well, let me tell you folks about the winter here in Minnesota.
They said that we may get some snow and some wind, so I got the llamas bedded down and shut all the doors in the big barn, which has the males and some young. The older females are out in the smaller llama barn just north of the big barn. We have some baled hay and round bales up overhead in the barns.

In snowstorms like these, I feed the llamas inside, both their hay and grain. I put more corn in their feed for more energy to keep them warm. So we’ve kept them inside for over a week or so. When I would open the door, they put their head out, then step back in and look at me like “Come on in, it’s warmer in here. Feed and hay us and check our water. Shut the door as you leave and we’ll see you tonight for more hay, thank you.”

So then you plug the tractor in to get it warmed up so it will start. Then you put the snow blower on the tractor and blow snow for two hours to clean out some of the yard. Time to go inside to get warmed up, have a cup of coffee and a snack. Then back outside to check the llamas, hay them and get some corn for the corn stove. It gets dark so early and it supposed to get about 25 below zero by morning.

I will put some pictures up so you can see some snow. We got about 40 inches or so they say. I will not argue with them. At one time, you can’t see the llama barns or the two-grain bins because the wind is blowing snow at about 40 or 45 miles an hour then about a half hour later you can see them and the sun was shining. It was like that for two days or so, and then it got very cold for a week. That is Minnesota.

After we got two more snows, they had to get a bulldozer to push the snow off the road back into the field. I had to go up on the roof of the house to push some 3 to 4 feet of snow off the roof and also off the hen house roof and hoop barn. That took a good part of a day.

We have gotten rain, ice and fog the last two days but today was good so we got to go to church and get some more food while we were in town. The sun was shining all day. Now they are saying the wind is going to blow hard and snow tonight and for the next day and half.

Boy, I hope spring comes soon.

Driving at a Llama Show and MN State Fair

2010-01-06T19:39:00.000-08:00

Driving Llamas in Parades and Weddings

2009-12-19T19:00:00.000-08:00

Visiting the nursing home

2009-12-09T18:32:00.000-08:00

More things to do with llamas

2009-11-29T19:04:00.000-08:00

It is time to share some more of the things you can do with llamas.
You can train them to pull a cart. We have trained some to do pull a cart then sold them. We had five white llamas trained to pull carts for parades or weddings, which we did in southern Minnesota, & Iowa for about 15 or 16 years. We drove one as a single llama, a team of two, a hitch of three or a hitch of four llamas. At the State Fair in Minnesota, first as single llamas Isac and Doctor Day [We called him “Doc”] took 1st and 2nd. Then as a team Isac & Doc took 1st and our other team, Fan Tan & Flurry took 2nd for seven years.
You can go to llama shows and show them in halter classes where they get judged on how their confirmation. They can also be shown in an obstacle class where they have to walk over, through or around obstacles or in a costume class where the llama and the person showing the llama gets dressed in a costume with a theme. The more of the llama that can be covered up the better to show how much the llama will tolerate and how much they trust the person showing them.
You can take them in parades, in to nursing homes to visit the people living there or schools for “Show & Tell”. We even had what we called “An afternoon of fun with llamas” where we had some llamas in a small pasture with a few obstacles set up. There were young and older kids and older folks that came to visit. They loved to lead the llamas through the obstacles. These are some of the things you can do with llamas.

Fun Days with Llamas

2009-11-22T15:37:00.000-08:00

What can you do with a Llama?

2009-11-11T19:14:00.000-08:00

Well here it is fall of 2009 and we all cannot figure out where the year has gone. I think I will tell you what we have done and what you can do with llamas.
First, you can breed them & have babies [called Crias], then you sell the babies or raise them up to show.
They can be trained to carry a pack or to carry golf bags on a golf course. Carrying a pack is what they are used for back in their native South America.
They can be used as guard llamas to guard sheep, cattle, chickens, goats, or be pals for horses & guard them from predators. Their curious nature and strong “mothering” instinct makes them very good for this.
We will look around for some pictures of llamas doing some of those things that I told about. It is late so I will close for now.

Mini-Llamas for Sale

2009-10-11T17:47:00.000-07:00

We have several miniature llamas for sale, both male and female. Contact us for more details and pricing.

Clay County Fair Pictures

2009-09-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

Clay County Fair Llama Show

2009-09-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is two days after the Clay County Fair in Spencer Iowa, the largest county fair in USA .We only took 3 llamas this year, as time was busy to get hay put up & to get ready for the fair too. We did very good, got one Grand Champion, one Reserve Champion, sever other ribbons. Our son Steve show llamas with us, so this year we entered in halter, costumes, obstacles, & showmanship classes & we did good. We’ll put some pictures in to show how they did.
The show was for all llamas, not just for mini llamas only. So we showed with the big llamas in the pictures for grand & reserve champion with Just Fantacy He’s only 31” high and was standing beside a male that was 48” high. We are the only ones there that have minis so you have to tell the judge that we have minis then they understand why they are smaller and judge them the same. So if you get a blue or red ribbon that is very good but if you get a grand champion or a reserve champion that is super good.
Shirley & I got home about 9 o’clock Sunday night, got all the llamas & boxes put away and went to bed for a good night sleep. Got up Monday morning and back to work, so that is our weekend at the llama show. We have to give Steve & Wanda a big thanks you for all the help they give us in showing the llamas.

Mini Llama Show

2009-05-10T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well we did make it down to Webster City, Iowa for the miniature show. We had two juveniles in this class of 18 llamas. They only place 6 llamas in each class, so I had Just Fantacy [who was only 29 ½ “ high to top of his front shoulders. I led him around the ring and had to bend over to talk to him & try to see if the judge was looking at us. The judge didn’t look at us very much.] But we were placed in 6 sixth, so got a green ribbon. The Chief was placed in 2nd place and got a red ribbon in the 2 year old male class. We were very pleased for there were some that did not get any ribbons.We were there with other mini llama owners from IA, KY, VA, IL, WA, MN, MO. That was very nice. Well that is our trip to the 2009 mini show.

Getting Ready for the Mini llama show

2009-04-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

Well time flies when you are busy, shearing llamas, trying to pick the right Cria & get them all combed out. The mini show in Webster City, Iowa is the last weekend of April. We do have the 4 llamas picked out, 1 female and 2 males for the juvenile’s class and 1 male in the 2yr old class. One juvenile male is only 29 ½ “ high at his withers. He is a cutie. What fine fiber. It is like silk.

Home remedies aren't just for people

2009-01-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

Oh boy, this has been a bad January. We sure have been busy with moving snow & keeping all the llamas feed dry.

We did have a problem with one of the male llamas. He got kidney stones on one Sunday morning. Called the Vet and he had me give him some pain medicine every 3 hours for 24 hours. That did not work, so I called a Vet in Wisconsin. She called my Vet & he called me. I went in and got the medicine before the blizzard came. I gave him that medicine every 6 hours. If that didn’t work to remove the stones then in 48 hours or so his bladder would break and he would die. [I was talking & praying to God about him.]
Well it got to Saturday things were not the best for you could see that he was going down hill. Then a neighbor called about 8 o’clock & asked how the llama was doing. She said that a friend of hers got relief of kidney stones by taking JUST TART CHERRY by R.W.Knudsen. This juice is organic & gotten at health food stores.
So I got some of the juice that night and started to give him a ¼ cup of cherry juice & 1/8-cup water by drench every 3 hours for 24 hours. At the 15th hour he went potty, we did that for another day.
Well, by now he has urine infection, so we had to put him on cranberry juice. Have to watch him every day, to see that he is urinating & that he is not kicking at his belly. If he is, that means that he could have another stone.

Well it is Feb 6th and our male that had the stones is doing very good, not kicking belly any more. So I think I can stop giving him the tart cherry juices and watch him that he is urinating.

Crias

2008-12-30T19:59:00.000-08:00

Hi! I will tell you about these pictures of the crias. I put in a creep pen, so the young crias could creep feed and keep warm and grow. But I didn’t know if they would come into the pen. So our son Steve (who is a bow hunter) brought his camera & put it up in the pen so that we could keep an eye on them. It takes about 200 hundred pictures and will take pictures when there is action. We sure learned a lot. We learned that they only sleep about only 2-3 hours at a time, then spend the rest of the time eating or playing.

In the picture of the two lying down, the small one is a very small male; he only weighed 14½ pounds at birth. His sire is only 36 ½ inches tall at the shoulder and his dam is only 37 inches. All of the ones in pictures are third generation to the farm.

There is a cria that has three brown legs and only one white leg, and there is one gray cria that has three gray legs and one white leg.
The sire of these two is all black but his right front leg. His two babies’ both have front left legs that are white. You can breed for fiber, size, big bone or fine bone, long or short fiber. But you can’t fuss about the color; you get what God gives you. About their sizes, you have to remember that the miniature world of llamas only was started in 1999. So if you compare mini llamas to mini horses, we are about 50 or 75 year behind them. A mini llama has to be 3 years old and measure only 38 inches at the top of the front legs or the shoulder (called the withers) to be a miniature. From 38 to 40 inches, the females are called foundation llamas.
Boy you talk about learning about llamas! I have been in the llama world for 20 years and I don’t know it all yet, but it is the most fascinating hobby I know of. I only wish that we could have had the llamas when Shirley & I were young and our children were young, as well. Kids can do so much with llamas when they get use to each other. In fact girls, most the time, can get llamas do more than boys can for girls usually show more affection than boys. Llamas can be talked in to doing thing, but llamas cannot be ordered to do things like horses can.
I would like to find a family or some one that wanted to have a hobby, for we have some good llamas for sale.The other great thing about having llamas as a hobby is that you get to meet great people who become great friends.
Well I guess I have bent you ear long enough for now.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T20:42:00.000-08:00

I have not been on since I started because of sickness. Shirley and I were both sick with the flu. Then one of my llamas was very sick and I had to give her medication, but she made it and will survive. Then the cold and snow have made it hard for me to do chores, so I have been busy with that.
I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I will be back after the New Year and try to keep the blog going then.

Hello friends

2008-11-24T20:15:00.000-08:00

This is the first blog in what I hope will be many. Please come share with me my stories of my love of llamas.
Well we will start ,when I was in high school in the 11 grade, I read about llamas and it was so interesting, I new that some day I would have a llama . But it toke a little time like, got out of school, 2 yrs in army, met Shirley, we got married [only after I got my plowing done and the oats planted. Shirley should have known that farming was one of the things that I loved.] We raised our family. Then 1989 is when we got our first llama. We got Doc & Isac and trained them to drive. Then we got Fan Tan & Capie Tan and trained them. So now we were driving 4 llamas on a Victorian carriage that I built.We did many parades and weddings. In the same time we got 2 females, had baby crias. A baby llama is called Cria. It has been the most interesting and the most rewarding thing that we have done. We have been to llamas shows, state fairs, co fairs, taken llamas to nursing homes. We had what we call A fun afternoon with llamas, where the public can come and lead, pet, feed or have their pictures taken with a llama. We have been at church events and done events to raise money for cancer. Shirley & I have meet so many wonderful people at all the events that we go to. One of the thing that is fun to hear is when meet some one and they can remember our name they will say Oh, you are the llama people. We grin say yes and we are Bill & Shirley Fisher. Hoping in time I will be able to put pictures on my blog,of our 4 llama hitch, That was so much fun to drive them.Will close for now.