Our llama journey commenced in September 2024 when we purchased our first two gorgeous llama females- Painted Pines Daphne and Painted Pines Lotus.
Lotus, Lynda and Daphne September 2024
We were fortunate to have chosen these girls at a young age and Painted Pines Llamas halter trained them for us. They arrived at Auravale and we all fell in love with them immediately.
Lotus and Daphne meeting their paddock mates
Although from the same species – South American Camelids, llamas are quite different to alpacas. In addition to the obvious differences in that they are larger, have banana shaped ears and a more coarse, less dense coat rather than the fine, softer fleece of an alpaca. Historically they have been trained to work with humans and therefore are far more confident around humans, choosing to closely interact. Llamas are know for their use as pack animals, while alpacas are bred for their fiber.
Daphne and Lotus at Warratina lavendar Farm
We quickly got together with a few other local llama owners and started to take the girls out to public areas, walking through parks, towns and cafes. Taking a llama for a walk is lots of fun and as you can imagine they attract a lot of attention.
In their countries of origin it is quite common to adorn your llamas with decorations – we call it “llama bling”. I have really enjoyed the creative side of making pom poms, felted shapes and tassels to create beautiful decorations for the girls to wear on our outings.
January 2025 marked the arrival of Painted Pines Blossom our third llama. Blossom has a very striking coat known as reverse appaloosa. She is a very sweet llama, much more chilled than Daphne or Lotus and extremely willing to do what is asked of her. Blossom took to our walks with no issues. All our llamas live with our alpaca female herd and seem to all get along beautifully.
Blossom July 2025
Early in 2026 we are planning for the older two girls to have a date or two with some local male llamas and 2027 should see our first llama cria arrive. In the meantime we are thoroughly enjoying our interactions and adventures with our llamas.
Lotus, Blossom, Nic, Lynda and Daphne at Auravale
