Alpaca FactsHere's a quick course to help you learn about alpacas.Alpacas are members of the camelid family!Besides the familiar humped camels, the camelid family also includes the wild guanaco ("wa-NAH-ko"), the domesticated llama, and the fiber-bearers: the wild vicuna ("vee-KOO-nya") and the domesticated alpaca.
There are two alpaca breed types: In North America, alpacas are raised exclusively for their soft and luxurious fiber. In South America, they are used as "pack animals" and consumed as food.
Alpaca Fiber Alpacas are raised for their unbelievably soft fleeces, which are then transformed into luxurious finished goods. Sheared once a year, each animal produces anywhere from 3 - 10 pounds of raw fleece.
Alpaca fiber is stronger and more resilient than the finest sheep's wool, warmer than wool for the same weight, and is prized for its unique silky feel. Unlike sheep's wool that contains significant amounts of waste material and lanolin, alpaca contains no lanolin and is usally a relatively clean, dry fiber. Alpaca is as light, soft and glamorous as cashmere, yet much less expensive and more easily acquired and processed than cashmere. Alpaca fiber comes in a great variety of natural colors: pure white, plus several shades a fawn, brown, gray and black - some 16 distinguishable colors in all. White, light fawn and light gray can be readily dyed, which gives the fiber artist a rainbow of colors from which to select. Alpaca can also be combined with other fibers like fine sheep's wool, cashmere, mohair, silk and angora to get very interesting blends. These blends also make alpaca extremely versatile . . . it is used for everyday wear to the most expensive fashion designer clothing! Because of the unique manner in which the scales of alpaca fiber lie down against the shaft of each hair follicle, alpaca fiber is considered to be hypo-allergenic (especially the ultra-creamy, premium-grade products designated as "baby alpaca").
Alpacas stand about 36" tall at the withers (the point where the neck and spine come together). Females weigh between 100 and 150 pounds, while males weigh roughly 140 to 200 pounds. They are gentle, intelligent animals.
Alpacas do not have hooves - they have two toes, with hard toenails on the top of their feet that must be trimmed regularly and a soft pad on the bottom of their feet. You therefore don't have the compaction of the soil that you see from many other types of livestock. An alpaca acquires its food by using a single row of bottom teeth to slice the grass and crush it against a hard palate on the roof of its mouth, in a back-and-forth motion. The food is swallowed and then digested in a three-chambered stomach. Alpacas have a single stomach divided into three compartments, so they produce rumen and chew cud. Their highly sophisticated food processing capability makes the alpaca one of the fuel-efficient forms of livestock in existence anywhere in the world!
The main thing alpacas eat is grass or hay, and not much of it - approximately two pounds per 125 pounds of body weight per day. A single 60-pound bale of hay can generally feed a group of about 20 alpacas for one day. You should give alpacas access to free-choice mineral suplements and plenty of fresh water to drink. We use automatic waterers and buckets with electrolytes . . . much like "gatorade" for alpacas! As a rule, alpacas need at least a three-sided, open shelter where they can escape inclement weather - as well as a minimum of five-foot-high 2" x 4" no-climb fencing to keep out predators. Believe it or not, alpacas all defecate in the same spot. In a medium-sized field, they will select three or four spots to claim as communal dung piles. This makes for easy clean-up of the pastures, and better hygiene in the herd. |
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Females are first bred between 14 - 18 months.