[Familyofmonkeys]

There is an Alpaca expo in Hamilton tommorrow....looks like a good day out for the kiddies. At least I hope so....we're off first thing in the morning :)

http://www.alpacaexpo.co.nz/

Here is the location:

http://www.mysterycreek.co.nz/index.php/pi_pageid/30

[sizzlingbadger]

We were hoping to head for it but only remember Thursday :o Too far for us to go unfortunately.

Hoping they hold it again next year as we've got alpacas :D

[Familyofmonkeys]

We were hoping to head for it but only remember Thursday :o Too far for us to go unfortunately.

Hoping they hold it again next year as we've got alpacas :D

Ooooo......how do you find keeping Alpacas? OH would like us to get a couple when all our kids are out of nappies.

[thezorbster]

Ooh Sizzling Badger - do you breed them or do you just keep them as pets? How easy care are they? We want llamas or alpacas so interested to hear how you find them. Did you have them in the UK or is this a new thing?

Questions questions.......:)

[sizzlingbadger]

Totally new to the alpacas :D Still on a very steep learning curve with them at the moment :uhoh

They're great, we're hopefully going to start breeding next year (if we ever get some money together !). At the moment we have a pregnant female and cria and two boys just about to be wethered (they'll be pets).

We find them very easy to work with, this was confirmed after an hour and half chasing the sheep down to separate the lambs from mums ! Where as the alpacas are very curious especially if you leave a gate open :D

The younger you can get the pet alpacas the better, that way you can get a real bond going with them. We've found ours a little difficult but they're settling down nicely. They do spit and kick but only if they feel threatened, tend to spit at each other and can make a really odd 'screaming' noise when they feel threatened as well. Only heard it a couple of times but it's not actually that bad. Most of the time they wander around 'humming' and eating, they eat a lot less grass than most other animals so another benefit on a small section.

For a novelty factor they get 100%, we've even got the neighbour intrigued whose only ever kept sheep and horses :nice1

[Familyofmonkeys]

How much land do you have....wondering how many Alpaca we could realistically have on 2 acres?

[sizzlingbadger]

We've got 7 acres and could probably hold around 20 alpacas :) Currently only got less than half in use, 4 paddocks, with 6 lambs and two ewes to try and keep the grass down (not working though) ! !

Not sure what you would be able to hold on two acres, does depend on how well your grass grows. You also need a dry area in case they get rye grass staggers.

If you really want to find out more then google alpacas Auckland, there's quite a few places around that will happily talk to you and give you advice :) We've visited quite a few now and each place has some good advice. Where we finally bought from felt comfortable to us and we knew straight away that they had good quality alpacas.