| Fundamentals - FAQ |
| What is an alpaca? |
The alpaca is a South American camelid, closely related to llamas and camels. DNA studies show that the modern alpaca is probably descended from the vicuņa, a South American wild animal that roamed the Peruvian Andes. This domestication was presumed to have dated from 6000 to 7000 years ago. Alpacas are about 3 feet tall and weigh between 110 and 200 pounds. Alpacas tend to be gentle and have a gentle hum that they often use for communicating. Alpacas are most prized for their soft fleece. The fleece from alpacas must be sheared yearly and it is used in a similar fashion to sheeps wool. However, alpaca fleece tends to be stronger and softer, and comes in 22 natural colors. Often people who are allergic to wool clothing have fewer or no sypmtoms when wearing alpaca clothing, due to less lanolin in the alpaca fleece. |
| What makes an alpaca gelding so special? |
Geldings are the most versitile alpacas on any farm. Many are farm mascots and companions to other alpacas. They provide wonderful fiber used for making luxury fiber clothing. They can aid veterinarians in providing plasma for new born cria in need of any extra boost to their imunity. Please read the following articles to find out just how special these geldings can be: The The Unsung Hero is an excellent article by Linda Berry Walker of WoodsEdge Wools Farm, LLC. It illustrates just how versitile and important geldings can be to a successful alpaca farm. What is the Value of a
Gelding Alpaca? is an excellent article covering many of the wonderful
qualities of geldings. Take a few minutes to review many of the valuable
rolls for geldings that are discussed in this article. Our thanks to
Northwest Alpacas for letting us reprint this
article.
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| What care do alpacas need? |
Click here to read Editor's Musings from the Spring 2006 issue of Alpacas Magazine. This is a preface to the Minimum Standards of Care for Llamas and Alpacas document in the next link. Reprinted with permission from AOBA's Alpaca Magazine. Click here to read Minimum Standards of Care for Llamas and Alpacas as published in Alpacas Magazine. Reprinted with permission from AOBA's Alpaca Magazine. Click here to read Recommended
Practices in Caring For Llamas & Alpacas as published in Alpacas
Magazine. Reprinted with permission from
AOBA's Alpaca Magazine.
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| What facilities are required for alpacas? |
Alpacas require a safe enclosure that will protect them from local predators. Usually a 5-foot fence with 2" X 4" mesh will help protect them. Do not use fencing with 4" X 4" openings as alpacas may stick their heads through the openings and become stuck. Two to eight alpacas can comfortably live on one acre. Alpacas are suseptable to parasites, so ideal facilities will include additional pastures that allow for rotational grazing. Along with a secure pasture, alpacas will need shelter that can protect
them from extremely cold weather, wet weather and also provide shade during hot
weather. A small three-sided shelter is usually easy to build and will provide
the required protection.
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| Why do I have to get at least two alpacas? |
Alpacas are herd animals. They must have alpaca buddies to thrive. Alpacas housed with no other alpaca companion will not do well, and it is unethical to keep alpacas in a non-communal environment. It is often best to start with three geldings so they will feel a part of a herd, but as few as two can be raised together without problems. |
| What is the difference between a Suri and Huacaya? |
Suri alpacas have long fiber that grows long into distinctive locks. These locks drape off the sides of the body and may have a silky feel to them. |
Huacaya (pronounced Wuh-kai-ya) alpacas has shorter fleece that tends to be fluffy with soft, crimpy fiber. |
| How much do they cost? |
Alpaca geldings seem to be running from $400 to $1200 US Dollars as of November 2006. |
| Where can I buy geldings? |
Check with your local alpaca breeding farms. Most farms will produce some males that they will not want to use in a breeding program. They will take those males and have them gelded. If they are too young to be gelded, you may want to buy them anyway so you can get their training off to an early start. They can be gelded around 18 months or at an age you veterinarian recommends. If you can't find a local farm, or if you want to check for more variety, take a look through the AlpacaNation site. A large number of farms throughout the US and Canada have their farms represented there and will also have the alpacas they have for sale listed. Another option is to see if any alpaca geldings are available through
rescue organizations.
Click here for a list of rescue organizations that may have
gelded alpacas available.
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| How do I pick geldings that will be right for me? |
First, make sure you know why you want to get alpaca geldings and then talk to farmers to determine if they have alpacas that fit your needs. In other words, if you want to get involved in producing high quality fleece products, you will want to get geldings with the highest quality fleece. The farm where you are shopping should be able to provide you with fleece test results that will give you quantitative information on the fleece quality. If they don't have that or you are in doubt about what the numbers mean, feel the alpaca's fleece and see if it has the feel of something you would like to wear. On the other hand, if you want an alpaca for agility, you may not care about its fleece quality, but will definitely want an alpaca that will work on lead and be willing to work with you so it can learn how to move through obstacles. |
| What does it mean to me if my alpaca is registered? |
It depends upon what you want to do with the gelding. Most activities don't require registration. However, there are a few activities that AOBA sponsors that requires your alpaca be ARI registered to participate. Therefore, if you want to participate in those activities, you will need to purchase an ARI registered gelding. Do NOT buy an unregistered alpaca or a CLRC (Canadian registered) alpaca with the expectation that you can register it with ARI later -- only cria out of two ARI registered parents can be registered with ARI. If the activities you want to pursue require an ARI registered alpaca, you should be able to see the ARI registration papers before you buy your alpaca. |
| Where can I talk to other alpaca owners? |
People interested in alpaca geldings meet on the internet in a Yahoo group. Click here to join the Alpaca Geldings Yahoo list. |
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Page last updated on 28-Dec-2006 11:29 PM
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