The first Alpacas were imported to the US in the early '80s and since than gain more and more popularity.
These creatures are wonderful to raise, very hardy and disease resistant. Alpacas require only a 4ft. fence and a 3-sided Shelter to protect them from the winds. They eat grass, hay and a handful grain, which we enhance with special Vitamins, and drink little water.
Alpacas are well travelers and can be transported in a Van, canopied Truck or Horse trailer, while they lay down.
Alpacas are very quiet animals, make wonderful pets and are easily handled by children for 4H projects.
The gestation period for a female alpaca is approximately 11 ½ month, normally resulting in a single, healthy baby called a cria. The birth takes usually place between 8am - 4pm, because it's the warmest part of the day.
The average life span of an alpaca is between 15 and 20 years.
There are two types of fleece with alpacas, which comes in 22 identified fiber colors.
The Huacaya has a soft, dense fleece with with a waviness that gives it a fluffy, teddy bear-like appearance.
The Suri has no crimp, so the individual fibers wrap around each other form lustrous, pencil locks that hang down from the body, elegantly parted at the spine. While their body types are the same, the unique fibers they produce give them their own distinguished look.
The Alpacas produce 3 - 10 pounds of fleece, which can range from 3 - 7 inches in length, depending on the age of the animal and the shearing method and schedule.
They are usually shorn once a year in the spring.
Alpaca fiber is as soft as cashmere, seven times warmer and three times stronger than sheep wool, yet only half the weight. It is non-allergenic and does not feel scratchy like
other animal fibers. Alpaca fiber is unbelievably soft and has no lanolin or other greases and has no coarse hair, which would be waste material.
The Spinners and Weavers around the world love to work with Alpaca fiber, which blends also well with wool, silk, cotton, mohair and cashmere.
Used alone or blended, left natural or dyed, alpaca end products are soft, luxurious, pleasurable treasures to own.
Alpacas do well on small acreages, produce a luxury product that can be reaped year after year, without killing the animal, one the many aspects we appreciate the most.
Alpaca's are one of the calmest, easiest-to-get-along-with creatures on the planet.
They don't spit like camels, they don't bite like llamas, they don't kick like cows, they don't charge like many herd animals such as bulls, and they certainly don't stampede.
Also, an alpaca herd knows how to designate a spot to be the bathroom, they generally drop their feces in a very few locations in their pastures, which keeps the rest of the field clean and free of disease and parasites - not to mention making it a lot easier for alpaca herders to clean up the waste, which makes great composted fertilizer.
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