Raising Alpacas

If you are considering purchasing an alpaca online, know it is buyer beware. You have to do your due diligence or you will be scammed out of your money.

A lot of people assume if you mix a white alpaca with a brown alpaca you’ll end up with fawn alpaca. Well, that works in mixing frosting, but it doesn’t work in breeding alpacas. There is a lot more science that goes into the color outcomes of alpaca breeding.

The question would seem straightforward, however, you have uniformed hobby farms raising these species together not realizing the mental, physical, and genetic issues they are introducing to their livestock.

This summer we’ve had a lot of farm visitors and we’ve sold quite a few alpaca. One of the questions we receive with each visit is which gender is better for pets and fiber animals – male vs. female?

You’ll have a very good understanding of each alpaca’s demeanor and temperament if you spend a lot of time interacting, listening, and watching.

Alpaca birthday parties can be great fun. No matter what the weather, you can have tons of fun just feeding and hanging out with the alpacas on the farm.

It appears the larger our alpaca herd grows, the happier the alpacas become. I am apparently adopting herd mentality, because the more alpacas we own, the happier I become.

Last week was busy and completely full of 4H fair activities for the Northwestern Michigan Fair in Traverse City. It was our first year at the fair, and I can safely say, it will not be the last.

On May 25th, Gina and Bill brought Princess, Dolly, and Reba to our farm. We were all thrilled with the new arrivals and were also excited for Princess to deliver her cria.

When she went into labor on May 15th, it was a completely different story. While she did wait for my husband to leave, she slowed her birth down and waited for assistance. She did so because her baby wasn’t positioned correctly and she knew she was in trouble.

I didn’t know what to expect when we adopted Faith and Stormy, but I’m sure glad we took the chance and brought our adopted alpacas home. Now that they are farm residents, I simply cannot imagine what life would be without them.