Information

Herd animals

Alpacas are herd animals and you keep them at least per 2. A single alpaca will experience a lot of stress from being alone and will eventually become ill and die. Therefore always choose two or three alpacas. An alpaca meadow for two alpacas is at least 500 m2 in size. This minimal size ensures that they get enough exercise and that there is enough grass to graze.

If you choose to take a mare and a stallion in the pasture, you can be 100% sure that breeding will take place. A mare is a self-ovulator, ie she ovulates when she is mated.

When the foal is sexually mature, you will have to make choices. If it concerns a stallion, you can have him neutered or sold. If it is a mare, the father will have to be castrated, or you will sell the foal. Or you stake off a piece of pasture and split it up. Stallions and mares of the same bloodline should absolutely not be kept together in a pasture.

Planting

Most alpaca pastures are open grassland. Trees and shrubs may also be placed in the meadow, but make sure that they are not deadly specimens for animals such as yew and rhododendron.

However, they are also fond of leaves, especially young plants. If you decide to plant a hedge, place it outside the fence at a distance from the wire. If the hedge is too close, they will pull the shrubs through the wire to eat the leaves! Young trees are also very likely to be plucked empty when the branches are still low. Here you can possibly put a fence around the trunk so that they cannot reach it directly.

Sufficient hay available

Dry feed such as hay must be available in unlimited quantities. They don't eat much, but it has to be of good quality and dry. Alpacas quickly find their stable. If you make a hay rack there, the hay will always stay dry and without mould. Other solutions are covered hay racks and hay bags. You simply hang the hay bags in the stable, so they stay dry, but they are also movable! (see webshop)

Clean up manure

Alpacas are house trained by themselves: they choose one permanent spot in the grass where they both defecate and pee. So their stable almost always stays clean!

Incidentally, they regularly change their permanent fertilizer spot. Such a permanent manure spot is also useful for cleaning up. Do this regularly, because because they eat all day long, they produce quite a lot of manure.

A smart way to clean up the manure is the paddock cleaner. It not only absorbs manure, but also parasites. This way you keep the soil and animals a lot healthier. Empty the manure in a fenced off place where the animals cannot reach. And make sure there is a cover on the ground so that the parasites in the manure do not come into contact with the soil and spread back into the pasture.