Alpaca are a member of the camelid family native to the mountainous regions of South America (Peru, Bolivia, and Chile). They are humpless and much smaller than their more commonly known cousins the camel and the llama. Both of the bigger members of the family are used for riding and/or packing. Alpaca are primarily raised for fleece. A big male Paca will typically top out at 180-200 lbs whereas a llama can easily be 300-400 lbs.

Alpacas are a manageable size in terms of taking care of them even for women and children, and they are relatively intelligent for herd animals. Their aggressive behavior consists of an occasional kick (with a padded foot) and spitting (mostly just at each other over food quarrels), but it is pretty predictable when they will do these things, and neither will do you serious or permanent harm. Reasonable precautions can easily be taken to avoid being a target.

Baby Pacas are called Cria. They begin to eat some hay when only a few weeks old. They are up on their feet and able to run within a couple of hours of being born, although they look a bit like fuzzy puppets on sticks at that point. Managed Pacas are weaned slowly starting at four months of age and should be on their own at six months. This helps give their pregnant mom a break.

Alpacas come in 22 different colors recognized for the show ring, from white through black including several recognized shades of greys and silvers, browns from red to chestnut, fawns and beiges, and 'mixed color' fleeces with fibers of various colors all growing in the same coat. Their fleece is very fine starting as low as 14 microns with 20-23 microns being common in adults. Alpaca fleece does not contain lanolin. Folks who are allergic to wool (like Lillith!) can often handle and wear Alpaca fleece without a problem. Their fleece is considered an 'exotic fiber' in North America and commands a premium price. Alpaca yarn can sell for $5 - $8 an ounce depending on the thickness of the yarn and the fineness of the fleece it is made of.

Alpacas can live to be 20-25 years of age and we're told that there are happy healthy breeding females at 18-20 years of age. Alpaca gestate for 11 and a half months and so have one baby a year. They are also sheared only once a year, usually in the spring. The quality of their fleece decreases with age as the micron count goes up and more hair grows adding 'prickle factor'. The goals of a fleece breeding program include breeding animals whose fleece stays fine even as they age.

According to our spreadsheets, the fleece from one Alpaca can support three animals for a year in terms of feed and vet care and so forth. Fleece often has minimum quantities in pounds in order to be processed at a mill and there are economies of scale, more fleece, less cost processing per pound. So keeping some gelding boys to round our our fleece production seems smart.

Alpaca are potentially multi-purpose and are easy on the environment and thus meet permaculture standards. They eat a relatively low protein grass feed and not much of it and consume little water. Their feet are soft and padded on the bottom with a toenail on top so they don't pound the ground into submission (like horses & cows). They nibble off of plants rather than tear them up by the roots (like sheep). In South America where Alpaca are plentiful, they are sheared for fleece, and extra males are processed for meat as well as fleece covered skins which make everything from clothing to rugs.

In the U.S. they are kept for fleece and for breeding and sale. Since there are only about 50,000 animals in the United States (at the time of this writing) and imports of new animals are closed, nobody is eating them. There is a market to sell these lovely creatures for premium prices. Think about how valuable fancy pedigreed race and show horses can be and you'll get the idea.

Alpacas in Avalon

In the forseeable future, Alpaca will be big business here in Avalon meriting their own web site and logo so come back and visit "Alpacas of Avalon" for a lot more information. Meantime, we are posting information here on Animated Human.

We made the decision to primarily keep Alpaca for fleece purposes. Since white fleece can be combined for processing and dyed any color, we've chosen to purchase and breed for high quality white animals. This is also the direction the industry took in Peru where the majority of these animals and maufacturing involving Alpaca fleece products exists now.

When breeding white animals you can end up with a colored animal (statistically speaking breeding white to white you will get a white only 54% of the time unless you know for sure you have a 'Super White' homozygous animal). So we are also prepared to welcome new family members of other colors and work with that fleece as well. But when purchasing animals or selecting studs, we look for the best white fleece we can get.

Alpaca Housing

We have built a small barn that consists of two three sided shade shelters which attach to a central indoor storage area for feed and supplies and could be used as a vet room, plus fencing to keep the Pacas in and the coyotes out. The shelters provide ample shade and wind break for these animals who tolerate cold well but don't like to be out in too much heat. A few finishing touches are still needed, and a paint job, but it is serving well enough even in its unfinished state.

Update Fall 2006

We finally got the barn painted! Traditional red. Looks spiffy though.