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The Premier UK Alpaca Breeder
Established 1989
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| Home > Alpaca Care |
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| Alpaca Care |
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General guidance on preparing for and caring for your Alpacas 
PREPARATION
Farm Layout
With careful advance planning it is possible to have a farm layout which will facilitate your feeding regime, and minimise time required for general handling and moving the alpacas around. As your herd grows, time spent planning in the early stages will pay huge dividends in time saved overall. A central area of shelters, storage and catch pens is ideal.
Water
It is important to have a supply of fresh water available for your alpacas.
Fencing and paddocks
Sheep fencing or close railing is adequate for alpacas. Have sufficient paddocks so that you can rotate the usage of them, to minimise pest build-up, and therefore minimise risk of disease. Check paddocks before putting alpacas in them, and remove any dangerous objects and poisonous plants such as ragwort. Fence off any poisonous hedging, such as laurel or privet.
Stocking Rates
Stocking rates vary throughout the country, dependent on rainfall, fertiliser etc., but can be anything from 4 - 10 per acre. Remember you will need to rest and rotate paddocks.
PURCHASING
Prior to purchasing your alpacas, visit a few farms, and decide whether you would like to keep male alpacas for fibre and/or as wonderful field pets, or if you would like to start breeding alpacas. Look at the colours available and decide on your preference. If you are already a hand-spinner, or would like to learn to spin, you may like to choose pinto alpacas, so that you can blend your own shades. Pinto (multicolour) fleece can be mixed with rose grey or silver grey fleece for machine processing.
Choose alpacas which look good to your eye - straight legs and balanced body shape. The fleece should be even-textured over the whole blanket area, with guard hair showing only on the bib-front and a little on the neck, if at all.
Check that males for breeding have even-sized testicles, as breeding from males with unevenly sized testicles can result in sexual abnormalities in both male and female offspring.
Females should be checked for normal appearance of the perineum, as hermaphrodites are known to occur in alpacas.
You may like to buy young alpacas, to give yourself time to get to know them and handle them, or you may decide to go ahead and buy in-calf females, or a breeding group. There are many ways to get started in alpacas, and whatever way you choose, you will have the reward of having beautiful, intelligent, sensitive yet productive animals to enjoy for years to come.
FEEDING
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| Suri and Huacaya crias |
Firstly, make sure your alpacas have a supply of clean water.
Alpacas should have an area of grazing, preferably arranged in at least 2 paddocks, so that the paddocks can be rotated. Ensure that the paddocks are free of noxious weeds such as ragwort. It is advisable to offer ad lib. hay, even in Summer.
In winter make sure that your alpacas have access to good quality hay or haylage, and give them a daily mineral supplement such as ‘Camelibra’. This product was developed specially for alpacas by Growell Feeds, in consultation with Claire Whitehead, BVM&S, MS, MRCVS. Always condition score and weigh if possible every month to be sure your feeding regime is working. Pregnant females should be gaining weight. Keep records of all condition scoring and weighing.
If alpacas start to lose condition, we feed fiberjest, which is high in protein, in addition to the hay or haylage and Camelibra. Fiberjest can be fed twice daily, or ad. lib., depending on the alpaca’s need or situation. When changing feeding regimes, make it a gradual change over several days.
GENERAL CARE
Vaccinations
Suggested clostridial vaccinations are as follows: Lambivac, Heptavac-P Plus (includes Pasteurella), Ovivac or Ovivac-P. Your vet will advise on which of these is the best to use in your area, although they are not licenced for use with alpacas in the U.K. Heptavac gives protection against Lamb Dysentery, Struck, Pulpy Kidney, Braxy, Blackleg, Tetanus and Black Disease. Dose a cria at 2-3 days with Lamibvac, then again 2 - 3 weeks later, then give annual boosters of any of the vaccines, starting at 6 months of age. Do not dose within 1 month before birthing; ideally dose females when they are ‘open’. The dose is 2 ml.
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| Suri Mum and cria |
Worming
Ideally, do fecal samples, and then your vet. will advise which wormer to use. You can give Ivermectin injections at 6-monthly intervals ( May and November are good times for these) if no other animals are kept; inject more often if sheep or other animals are kept in the same field (your vet will advise). Alternatively give a drench wormer such as Panacur, at 4x the sheep dose rate. It is a good idea to rotate worming products to avoid resistance building up..
Foot care
Keep a regular watch on nails, which should be trimmed if necessary, so that they do not protrude beyond the end of the toe, with the foot lying comfortably flat, not twisted. It can be done with lamb foot-rot shears, or even sharp rose secateurs. Clear the dirt out so that you can see where the toe is, then trim carefully, as sometimes the toe grows down the nail. A lot of toe-nails will simply break off naturally.
Teeth
If the front teeth protrude in front of the upper palate, it may make grazing difficult for the alpaca, and so it will be necessary to trim the teeth back. Your vet can do this for you with clippers or dental wire. However, when we consider that the alpacas may live 20 years or more, we really need to make sure the alpaca’s teeth will be functional for a long time. So consider calling in a horse dentist, who understands how the entire jaw works, the front teeth for biting, and the back teeth for grinding. He can re-shape your alpaca’s teeth to maintain efficiency for many years to come. In adult males of about 4 years old the fighting teeth need to be trimmed back level with the gums to prevent the males doing damage to each other when sorting out the pecking order within the group.
Illness
How can we recognise when an alpaca is sick? Try and get to know your healthy alpaca by looking carefully at him at least once every day - that is the best way to be able to recognise when something is not right. An alpaca which looks under the weather is probably ill, as an alpaca tends only to look sick when it is really in need of help, so if in doubt, call your vet for advice.
Once a month it is a good idea to feel a position about 8 inches along the spine from the neck, to see if your alpaca is in good condition. If the spine feels sharp, then the alpaca is underweight; the reason could be long teeth in need of trimming, or worming may be necessary; or perhaps just an extra ration of food may bring him back up to par. You may need to feed the thin alpaca apart from the others. |
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