Alpaca Information

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The Basics

How big are they? Are they mean? Do they spit? How long do they live? What are they good for?

  • Adult alpacas get to be 150-200 pounds. They stand about three feet tall at the shoulders (withers). They can be five feet tall to the tips of their ears.
  • Babies (crias) weigh 15-19 pounds.
  • Alpacas are gentle animals. Unlike most domestic animals, alpacas have never been wild. Their relationship with humans extends back more than 5,000 years. In fact, they may have been the world's first domestic animals.
  • Yes, they spit, but only very, very rarely at humans (unless you get caught in the cross-fire!) Most often they spit when they are jostling for position at feeding time or when a female receives unwelcome advances from a male.
  • Alpacas live 15-20 years.
  • Alpaca fiber is softer, stronger, and warmer than wool. Almost all the other US supplies of this kind of luxury fiber, like cashmere, are from foreign sources.

Investment Potential

Are they like emus? How much are alpacas worth? Why do they cost so much? Do I need land to invest in alpacas? What does it take to get started? Are there tax advantages?

  • Emus are flightless birds. Alpacas are livestock. To harvest an emu, the owner has to butcher it. To harvest alpaca fiber, the owner shears it once a year. For the emu thing to work, consumers had to change their eating habits. For alpaca demand to hold steady, people just have to continue to enjoy soft, warm clothing and blankets. No, we don't think there is any similarity between emus and alpacas.
  • Expect to pay $10,000-$20,000 for a bred female that is of solid breeding quality. Males are all over the place, as they are for many species. Top-quality herd sires have sold for well into six figures. Many owners, though, will sell decent males for $1,500 or even less to help move their males.
  • Alpacas reproduce very slowly. Gestation is about 11-1/2 months. There are only about 100,000 alpacas in North America. If they were all sheared at once, their fiber would keep a commercial mill busy for only a few weeks. Because of this gap between supply and demand, the value of alpacas is expected to hold constant for the foreseeable future.
  • No, you don't need land to invest in alpacas. Curly Eye will board and care for your animals--with visiting rights, of course--at prices that will still allow a good return on your investment. Ask about our Crias for College investment program.
  • If you do decide to keep your alpacas yourself, you can keep 5-10 animals on an acre of pasture, depending on local conditions. The Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association estimates that you'll need about $55,000 to get started with animals (one bred female and one maiden), a small barn, fencing, veterinary expenses, feed and other supplies for the first year.
  • Like any other investment, alpacas carry risks. But most other investments are not insurable for 100% of their value as alpacas are.
  • Many of the expenses involved in keeping and raising alpacas can offer tax advantages. See your tax advisor about this.

Routine Care and Keeping

What do they eat? How much time do they take? Are they disease prone?

  • Alpacas eat grass and hay. Most owners supplement this with a little grain each day. Nothing fancy. In fact, alpacas don't do well on high-protein diets.
  • We spend up to an hour a day with ours. We scrub out and refill the water buckets, give each animal a cup of grain, rake up the hay they've rooted onto the floor and add more as needed, and clean up the dung piles. Then we usually halter one or two and go for a walk. This keeps halter training in place and gives us an excuse to mess with them a little longer.
  • Dung piles? Alpacas only go to the bathroom in one or two places. (They'll even stand in line to wait their turn!) These piles need to be cleaned up each day so that they don't track dung around and get it in their fleeces.
  • Every month they each get a shot of wormer to protect them from meningeal worm and gastrointestinal parasites.
  • Every couple months their toenails need to be trimmed. They don't have hooves like horses or cattle. Their feet are soft pads with toenails on top.
  • Once a year, they need to be sheared, or heat stress would be a real danger during the hot months.
  • During the summer, we offer to squirt their legs and bellies with water. They almost always take us up on the offer!

Alpacas and the Environment

Do they tear up the landscape? What about agricultural run-off from pesticides, herbicides, and animal waste?

  • Alpacas live very lightly on the land. Their soft padded feet and their light weight mean that they don't tear up the landscape.
  • The fact that the dung piles are cleaned up daily means that there is a minimum of run-off from alpaca waste.
  • Alpacas have three-part stomachs that digest hay and grass very efficiently. They don't eat a great deal, nor do they require or even do well on rich, high-protein diets. This means that the need for herbicide and pesticide application on their pastures is minimal if you use them at all.
  • Alpacas don't challenge fences. The real need for fencing is around the perimeter of the alpaca pasture-barn area to protect them from predators.
Alpacas In Yard