About Alpacas

Alpacas originate from the South American Andes of Chile, Bolivia & Peru. They were a cherished treasure of the ancient Inca civilization and played a very important part in the Incan culture. The alpaca provided the natives with food, fuel and clothing.

With the Spanish conquest of the Incas,came the almost total annihilation of the alpaca. This cherished animal survived only because of it's importance to the Indian people and it's incredible ability to live at altitudes and under conditions which cannot sustain the life of other domestic animals.

Following Sir Titus Salt of London's discovery of the fabulous qualities of the alpaca fibre in the mid 1800's, the alpaca regained its prominence. Today there is worldwide commerce in the alpaca and its products.

• Alpacas were first imported into Canada in about 1986.
• Alpacas are small and easy to handle.
• Alpacas are easy keepers - eating only two square bales of hay per month in the winter. Several alpacas can graze on only a few acres of grassland during the summer months.
• Alpacas are extremely hardy and are adaptable to most climates, altitudes and conditions.
• Alpaca fiber is one of the worlds finest and most luxurious natural fibers and comes in twenty two natural colors. They are shorn once a year. In ancient Inca civilization, alpaca fiber was only used by royalty. Now we are enjoying this fine material.
• Alpacas gestation period is approximately 11 1/2 months and they have a productive life of about twenty years.
• Alpacas are one of the few animals that can postpone labor (for up to two weeks) if they sense bad weather coming.
• Adult alpacas weigh from 100 to 185 lbs. and stand approximately 30 to 38 inches at the withers. When born, the average cria (baby alpaca) weighs about 16 lbs.

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Q. What are alpacas used for?
A. Alpacas provide an excellent investment opportunity and the most luxurious fiber in the world. The fleece is noted for it's fineness, light weight and luster and makes the finest garments known.

Q. What other reasons?
A. Alpacas make excellent companion animals. They are easily trained , so therefore can be handled by children. They are simply the most lovable animal on this earth.

Q. What do alpacas eat?
A. Alpacas are easy keepers. They eat approximately two square bales of hay per month per animal in the winter. In the summer time, they graze on grassland. A mineral supplement is also usually given . You must also see to it that they always have plenty of fresh water.

Q. Are alpacas smart animals?
A. Yes, very much so. They are very alert and quick to halter train. They constantly communicate with each other through body posture, tail and ear movements and sounds. The most commonly heard sound is their humming. You may also hear a screeching sound from them, which is their warning call.

Q. Do alpacas spit?
A. Yes, but only at each other if the are angry with one another. Rarely do they spit at people.

Q. Are alpacas easy to look after?
A. Yes. They are small and easy livestock to maintain. Basic shelter is required to provide them with protection from heat in the summer and freezing temperatures and winds in the winter. High fences are a good idea to keep predators out. Alpacas themselves, do not challenge fences. To make pen cleanup easy, they have a common dung pile. Yearly vaccinations and deworming are required.

Q. How much land is required to raise alpacas?
A. Alpacas are ideal for small acreages. Four or five alpacas can be easily grazed on one acre of land. This makes it possible for small acreage owners to own alpacas and enjoy a healthy investment opportunity.

Q. How do you transport alpacas?
A. Alpacas travel very well. They are small enough to be moved in a mini van, station wagon, utility trailer or horse trailer. Once you are moving they lie down which is called cushing.

Q. What do you call an alpaca?
A. Babies are called crias. Weaned crias are called weanlings or tuis. The adult males are called machos and the adult females are called hembras.

Q. Are alpacas dangerous?
A. Definitely not

Q. Are alpacas pack animals?
A. They can carry a small child or light back pack. Heavier loads are meant for their cousins, the llama.

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Alpaca - A native animal of the high Andean plateau in the mountains of South America

Agisting - Caring for someone else's animals

Blanket - Prime fleece from shoulder, mid-section and rump on both sides

Britch - Fiber from the rear / tail area of the alpaca

Classing - The grading and sorting of various qualities of fleece into a uniform group or line of fiber

Clip - Refers to the sum total of fiber harvested in any one shearing season

Conformation - The manner in which the body is formed

Cria - A baby alpaca

Crimp - The regular wave formation or corrugation found in Huacaya locks of fiber

Cuticle - Microscopic outer scale-like surface of the alpaca fiber

Dam - Mother of a cria

Fineness - The diameter of natural fibers measured in microns

Fleece -The fiber from a single, live alpaca in the shorn and unwashed state

Gestation - The length of a full term pregnancy

Grading - The process of defining the average micron count of select quantities of fleece

Guard hair -A medullated animal fiber in which the diameter of the medulla is more than 60% of the diameter

Hembra - An adult female alpaca

Huacaya - Type of alpaca which has soft pillow-like fiber which grows perpendicular to their body

Incas - Ancient natives of South America

Lock -A small, pencil-size bit of fiber that tends to cling together when shorn from the alpaca

Luster -Amount of light reflected by the fiber

Macho - An adult male alpaca

Medullation - Fiber that has a central core which is made up of air-filled cells

Midside - An area midway between the front and rear legs on the side of the alpaca

Noils -The short alpaca fibers removed from the comb in the process of manufacturing tops

Orgling - The noise a male makes while breeding

Roving -A slightly twisted sliver or roll of alpaca fiber, also called the rove, produced during processing before the fiber is further drawn and spun into yarn

Ruminant - Three stomachs

Second cuts - Short fibers which is created during the shearing process if the shearer does not cut the fleece close enough to the alpaca's skin, and then takes another cut to clean up the alpaca before removing the first cut fleece

Shearing - The removal of fleece from an alpaca by the use of power clippers or blade shears

Sire - Father of a cria

Skirting - The separation of lesser quality fiber and foreign material from the prime quality fiber of a particular fleece

Staple -Refers to the length of a lock of shorn alpaca fiber

Suri - Type of alpaca with long lustrous curls of fiber which grow parallel to the body

Top - A continuous, untwisted strand of combed alpaca fibers from which the shorter fibers or noils have been removed by combing

Tui -An alpaca that has been weaned from its mother

Uniformity - Consistency of charactistics within a fleece or collection of fiber, e.g. crimp, length of staple, color, fineness, etc.

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