KINGFIELD – Zoe Grant stood among the alpacas and llamas Monday at her family’s Good Karma Farm trying to coax one closer to her.

Grant, 12, helps her parents, Amy and Jim, take care of the 23 huacaya and two suri alpacas, and llamas they are raising.

Dolly and Roger are guard llamas that protect the alpacas in the fenced-in area. They put out a repetitive alarm sound when something is amiss that alerts the Grants.

Each alpaca, a member of the camel family, has a name with the females named after rock and roll songs and the males named after places and things in Spain.

“It’s fun,” Zoe Grant, 12, said. “The babies are definitely the best part of it.”

The babies, or crias, jump around and are generally more friendlier than the older alpacas.

“You can pick up the babies,” she said, as she demonstrated with 2-week-old Iggy. “They don’t really play. They’re more curious to see what you’re doing, “

If you bend down, Ochux gives you kisses, Zoe said.

“Alpacas in general like to be at arm’s length but they’re very curious,” Jim said.

When a pregnant alpaca is nearing birthing time, Zoe’s on baby watch, Amy said.

She watches to see if an alpaca is pacing or humming a lot, and sometimes they’ll just come up to tell you “I need help” in their own way, Zoe said.

Alpacas are usually born between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. but sometimes they surprise you, she said, remembering that Rosalita’s baby Agave was born at 8 p.m.

They started out with a horse and built a small barn but decided it wasn’t that much fun, Jim said.

He wanted emus but Amy wouldn’t allow that, Jim said.

They settled on alpacas – docile animals with individual personalities.

“Alpacas in general like to be at arm’s length but they’re very curious,” Jim said.

They shear their alpacas once a year and turn the raw wool fiber into yarn at their mill, Good Karma Spinning Co., off West Kingfield Road.

Feeding the animals is a two-person job, Zoe said. One opens the gate and the other brings in the food really fast.

On average, Zoe said, they get 5 to 6 pounds of wool fiber per alpaca, except for the suris which are not shorn. A pound of raw fiber goes for about $20, Amy said. The value is in the animal itself.

Amy placed individual bowls on the ground of shredded beef pulp, a protein supplement mostly for the mothers, but they all get it because it would be difficult to keep the others away. They also eat hay or grass.

Her daughter, a seventh-grade home-schooler, trains the animals to wear a halter to prepare for a show.

“Training can be hard, depending on the alpaca,” Zoe said. “If they don’t want to be halter-trained, they’ll lay down and won’t move.”

Zoe is patient and does well with training, Amy said.

“It’s really fun and it’s rewarding if you get them to do something you wouldn’t expect them to do,” Zoe said. “Some are difficult to train.”

Though she’s a young entrepreneur already with her own line of custom dyed wool, she’s got her sights set on another career when she grows up.

“I want to be an actress,” Zoe said.