Alpacas?

[EverythingDucks]

Anyone here have alpacas? I haven't done much research yet so I don't know much about them. Are they expensive? Can you make much money off their fur? Are they worth it? If we so get some it won't be for quite a few years so I'll be sure to do lots of research and give them the best life possible.

 

[feliciadawn]

I don't have any, but I did shepherd alpacas in Ecuador. They need cold weather or they can keel over from heat exhaustion. Your location tag says Florida -- I doubt if that can be made to work. Same goes for llamas as well.

 

[EverythingDucks]

I don't have any, but I did shepherd alpacas in Ecuador. They need cold weather or they can keel over from heat exhaustion. Your location tag says Florida -- I doubt if that can be made to work. Same goes for llamas as well.

I dosnt think about that. I've seen them at local farms around here so I figured it wasnt too hot for them.
Do you think it would work if their fur was kept short?

 

[feliciadawn]

Do you think it would work if their fur was kept short?

I don't know. I found this link that has info re heat stress --https://www.thealpacaplace.co.nz/articles/health-and-welfare/heat-stress/

However, if it were me, I wouldn't want to insist an animal live so far out of its natural habitat. When I was shepherding the alpacas in Ecuador, we were high up on Chimbarazo, by some standards the highest mountain in the world. From a village at about 16000 ft, we walked several hours up the mountain each day to allow them to graze. The alpacas enjoyed rolling on the frozen ground and eating alpine flowers. I was so cold I had to drag my sleeping bag up the mountain to keep from frostbite while they munched. It is hard to imagine an animal adapted for that climate truly being comfortable in Florida.

 

[feliciadawn]

Some picts of alpacas in their natural habitat. The person in the picture is my then 13-year old son. Note that this mountain is on the equator -- if it were lower altitude it would be steamy. However, we are at about 16000+ ft in the picture, the ground is crunchy with frost and precipitation is all snow.

 

[EverythingDucks]

Some picts of alpacas in their natural habitat. The person in the picture is my then 13-year old son. Note that this mountain is on the equator -- if it were lower altitude it would be steamy. However, we are at about 16000+ ft in the picture, the ground is crunchy with frost and precipitation is all snow. View attachment 2305412View attachment 2305413View attachment 2305414

That awesome! Beautiful pictures!
Thanks for all the info too. I've been thinking about what kind of livestock I might yet in the future sometime. Before deciding on any I'll be sure to do lots of research. For now, alpacas may not be the best unless I move up north sometime. They sure are cute though!

 

[feliciadawn]

They are cute. Unfortunately, they did not want to be cuddled, even though I was freezing and they were all fluffy!

 

[Fuchsia]

We have had seven alpacas now one. I live in NY so it gets fairly hot in the summer and our alpacas seem to by ok as long as you sheer them in the spring,we didn't sheer them two years ago and they got really hot And their fur was a complete mess. But our alpacas and cows also have a pond for water mostly but they go In it to cool of so our alpacas don’t get that hot. Also once we had just one alpaca and she thought she was a cow. LOL!
They are not friendly because if you have an alpaca that is like a pet they think they are human and go crazy and you have to put them to sleep We kept their wool after we sheered them and took it to a couple different places to have it made into yarn but it was really expensive so after that we bought a spinning wheel and spin it into yarn ourselves it’s a lot cheaper!
I do recommend getting them but just not for pets.
Sorry this is so long.

 

[Meredith Brouillette]

They are mega cute, but thanks for sharing they are not as friendly. Now I can convince my daughter not to get one