What kind of care do alpacas require?
A small herd of alpacas is quite easy to care for. Fresh water, access to good hay, a daily grain supplement, and some mineral salt takes care of all their nutritional needs. As natural foragers, alpacas will eat almost anything your pasture provides, including (thankfully) blackberry vines. There are some plants poisonous to camelids. Our bookshelf has a reference to a very good book on this subject. For shelter, alpacas need a simple, 3-sided shelter, though they’ll appreciate a barn if you have one. Alpacas are generally shorn once each year, often in early May here in the Pacific Northwest. Shearing is generally a job for someone well-trained, but it is relatively easy to work with a local farm to get in on their shearing party. In southern climates, heat stress may become more of an issue: special cooling arrangements may be required. But here in the Northwest, timely shearing, shade, plenty of water, and on hot days a nice fan is about all they need. Like other livestock, alpacas
