Alpacas graze and do well on pasture grass and good quality hay. Here in East Texas, our pastures grow a mixture of bermuda, bahia, orchard, and other native grasses. If you live in a different part of the country, check with your county agricultural extension agent about which pasture grasses are best suited for your ranch. In the winter, we plant a winter rye. Having evolved in incredibly harsh conditions, Alpacas utilize their food more efficiently than other domesticated stock. They have 3 stomachs and so are able to get all the nutrition from what they eat. Typically, an alpaca eats about 1 square bale of hay per week. We also provide them with about 1/4 to 1/2 pound per day of a llama pellet. A 50 lb bag of pellets costs about $12 dollars. So it's very incexpensive to feed alpacas. Get more information about what alpacas and llamas eat.

What are alpacas and where did they orginate?

Alpacas are rare, gentle, and charming animals that are adaptable to varied habitat, successfully being raised from Australia to Alaska and from 15,000 feet to sea level. Alpacas originated in South America, especially Peru, Chile, and Bolivia, where they have been domesticated for over 5,000 years. In the US, there are about 45,000 alpacas, as compared with about 6 million horses. In Texas, there are only about 1,000 alpacas. Alpacas are clean, safe, quiet, intelligent and disease resistant. They have a charismatic manner, do very well on small acreage, and produce a luxury fiber that is in high demand.

Measured from the head, an alpaca reaches approximately five feet tall and weights between 110-170 lbs. Measured from the withers, it is 30-38 inches. Its relatively small size makes it very appealing and easy to raise. Alpacas are clean, safe, quiet, intelligent, and disease resistant. Clean up is easy since alpacas deposit droppings in only one or two places -- very tidy! They have a charismatic manner, do very well on small acreage, and produce a luxury fiber that is in high demand.

Alpaca fiber is recognized worldwide as one of the most luxurious natural fibers. Coveted by the fashion industry, it fetches high prices in the market. Alpaca fleece is softer than cashmere, warmer than wool, and a stronger fiber than both! Its uses also include household items like blankets, rugs, upholstery, and so forth.

Alpaca fleece has 22 recognized natural colors, ranging from pure white to browns and grays and black. Alpacas can have a uniform color or have a pinto fleece in two or more colors. The fiber is sheered once a year and can give up to 12 pounds of fiber with an exquisite softness and is very warm. Due to selective breeding, American fiber is getting finer and finer. Alpaca fleece has a sheen that is frequently compared to silk.

Not at all. Alpacas are gentle and docile by nature. Alpacas are herd animals and are happiest when in the company of other alpacas. Although they don't enjoy being petted, like dogs, they do like to hang out with their human owners just outside of arms reafch. They are easily trained to lead and are gentle enough to be handled by children. They do not bite or butt and they do not have teeth, horns, hooves, or claws that do serious injury.

Alpacas have a variety of sounds with which they communicate to each other. They commonly use a soft, low humming sound in a variety of situations, such as when they are separated from the mother or the herd, when the female is about to give birth, and when they are happy and there is no apparent reason to communicate. The mothers have a clucking sound to call their babies. And there is a very high intensity call (a screech) when there is danger, at which the herd runs and huddles together. The males make a clucking sound to attract the attention of a female. And during breeding, the males make a "chortling" sound.

Females begin breeding at between 14 and 18 months of age. Alpaca females have induced pregnancies. That is, they don't come into season like most mammels. Rather mating with a male first, causes the female to release an egg. The females have one baby a year after a pregnancy that lasts 11.5 months. Twins are extremely rare.

The birthing process usually occurs in the morning hours, so the baby, called a cria, gets warmer and dries with the sun. This way, the cria can quickly join the herd within about thirty minutes nursing the mother. Due to special biological characteristics, the baby has a twelve-hour window to nurse and acquire the antibodies that the mother passes on through the colostrum (first milk). After that period, the lining of the gut becomes gradually impermeable to these proteins.

Females can start breeding at about 18 months of age. After a female has a baby, you can rebreed her again in about 2 or 3 weeks. So alpaca females have evolved to be always pregnant. Once your female begins breeding, she will produce 1 baby a year for the rest of her life. And alpacas live for about 15 to 20 years.

Yes, alpacas are very easy on the environment. Alpacas are resilient animals. Resistance to cold and poor nutrition has helped them adapt to the highlands of South America, where they live at twelve to fourteen thousand feet. In the Andes mountains, the pastures are scarce, and alpacas evolved with padded feet to allow them graze without damaging the delicate ecological system of the highlands.

No, unlike emus, there are several reasons why the alpaca market will not go bust like emus.

1. Unlike emus that have 30-60 eggs per year, alpacas have just one baby per year. So you don't have to find 30-60 buyers for the yearly production of each alpaca that you own. Most alpaca breeders own 3-6 alpacas and cannot produce enough alpacas to satisfy clients who want to purchase them. That's because most breeders want to keep some crias to grow their own herd, and statistically only half of each year's new crias will be female.
2. Unlike emus, the Alpaca Registry in the USA is closed. That means there will be no more imports to flood the market. If an alpaca is not registered with the Alpaca Registry, its babies also cannot be registered.
3. Unlike emus, alpacas have a strong national marketing program in the Alpaca Owner and Breeder (AOBA). AOBA buys national advertising that drives new buyers to existing alpaca farms and ranches. In addition, the Alpaca Fiber Coop of North America (AFCNA) promotes the fiber production from alpacas for sustained revenue income alpaca breeders.

All their qualities make alpacas a precious animal, whose breeding and management is undoubtedly a very rewarding experience. The recognition and economical potential of this animal is developing at fast pace in the USA thanks to the efforts of the American Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association.

Research, research, and more research! Deciding to become an alpaca or llama rancher is a big financial investment and major lifestyle change. Alpaca ranching is a business, and you need to approach it in a business-like manner. It's strongly recommended that you visit you several full-time alpaca ranches, attend some alpaca shows, and take a Getting Started Workshop. Then, you'll want to write a start-up budget, 5-year plan, and a mission statement.

Mini-llamas are 38 inches or less at the withers, where the neck meets the back. They are slightly larger than an alpaca, which typically measures about 36 inches at the withers. A mature male alpaca weighs about 165 lbs, and a mature mini-llama weighs about 225 lbs. A mature standard llama weighs about 400 to 600 lbs.

In addition to size, mini-llamas have longer, curved, banana-shaped ears; alpacas have shorter, straight, spear-shaped ears. Mini-llamas have a straighter topline and high tailset; alpacas have a slightly curved topline and lower tailset. Llama fleece is coarser than alpaca fleece.

Yes, they make good companions for one another. People who can afford to buy only one alpaca can buy a much less expensive mini-llama as a companion animal.

Mini-llamas make excellent guard animals. They don't know they are "minis." Indeed, they think that they are ten feet tall! Over and over again, I have seen the mini-llamas run to the fence, stamp their feet and spit at stray dogs, possums, coyotes, raccoons, and other critters; while the alpacas hung back. Read more information about using mini-llamas as guard animals.

Yes, I harvest all the fleeces from my mini-llamas. While not as soft as alpaca fiber, llama fiber can be spun into very nice yarn. I always have the mill dehair my llama fleece to remove the scratchy guard hairs. Llama fiber is particularly excellent as bulky yarn for rugs. But I have also had it spun into sport weight and finger weight yarns.