You can keep 7 or 8 alpacas on only one acre of land and they will not pull up the roots of the plants they graze on. So alpacas are considerably easier on the land than most other livestock. They need some kind of pasture as well as hay. Orchard grass is a good choice. Most alpaca breeders also give some pellet-type feed such as Llama Feed. You can get this at the farm store. Pregnant and/or nursing females definitely should have this extra pellet type feed and more pasture is good as well.
You will need to give worming shots or paste about 1 time every 30 days and most breeders also give a mineral supplement. You can buy the worming medicines in a local Farm store. Ivomec (for cows) works as does Panacur. Alot of alpaca breeders now prefer Dectomax which is similar to Ivomec but seems to be a little stronger. You will have to give these worming meds by the alpacas' weight. Some breeders give vitamin shots, especially Selenium and vitamin E. We use shots at the Mount Airy Alpaca Company because we feel that injections are the surest way to make sure each alpaca got the right amount of wormer. Do not listen to any "expert" who claims you don't have to worm pregnant alpacas, alpacas in very cold weather, etc. Look at the current RESEARCH yourself before denying your alpaca protection from a deadly parasite (Meningeal Worm) that will cause a painful, horrible death.
We give 3 shots of CD& T to our crias, one per month for the first three months of their lives. We give all of our alpacas CD&T one time per year. This is the shot that prevents Clostridium and Tetanus. It is illegal in Maryland for anyone but a veterinarian to give a rabies shot so we have our vet give all of our alpacas a rabies shot each year excepting those crias under the age of 3 months.
You will also need to trim the alpacas' toenails. You can use a regular pair of small garden shears for this. Your alpaca cannot walk well with overgrown toenails and they could also get an infection or injury from lack of toenail care. We also look into the ears of each alpaca each month to check for ticks. We like to weigh each alpaca as well, but you can also run your hand down the back to judge if the alpaca is over or underweight or close to perfect. This is called "body scoring." While a livestock scale is optional, a cria (baby alpaca) scale is a must. You really need to make sure that babies are putting on weight after the first 24 hours.
All alpacas should be shorn once a year in the spring! We get many calls each year from people who have not made plans to have their alpacas shorn until it is summer and then they finally realize that most shearers will not shear in the summer. It is very dangerous to shear a heat stressed animal because you are adding to the stress by shearing it. If you have trouble finding a shearer or don't have equipment, do it yourself with scissors but no alpaca should ever go through the summer in full fleece! Our shearing customers often make their appointments one year in advance.Most types of fences will do for alpacas who are not prone to escaping the way goats or dogs sometimes are but don't use barbed wire and remember, there is almost no fence that a newborn cria cannot slip under or through. These should be watched carefully in the first few days of their lives. The main purpose of your fence is to keep out dogs and other predators. If you have roaming dogs or even coyotes, fence to keep them out.
Alpacas do not need a fancy barn but they do need shelter from the cold wind and, especially, the sun. When it is hot out, they should have cool water to drink and their water should not be too cold in the winter either. We use rock sand (not real sand!) for bedding but dirt is OK too. Straw is messy, smelly and will contaminate the fleeces of your alpacas. We run large fans in our barn on very hot days.
Never keep an alpaca alone! Alpacas need other alpacas for company and are happiest with others of their own kind, ie: females with females, young males with one another or a gelding as a babysitter and breeding males with other breeding males of similar size and weight. Breeding males will fight so make sure that you have removed or leveled off their fighting teeth before putting them in a field together. If you plan to have a breeding farm, you will have to have more than one pasture and more than one section in your barn.
Take time to be around your alpacas. Look at them, touch them, know their normal behavior. Handle your alpacas on the halter and lead and in the barn so that they are not afraid of you. The more time you spend with them, the easier it will be to catch any potential problem early and fix it more easily.
I am also webmaster of: www.Scottsmoor.org and www.Orlando-self-storage.com
Kate Perez, info@mountairyalpacas.com
Webmaster of MountAiryAlpacas.com
last revised May 12, 2009
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