About Alpacas

The Alpaca is a fascinating species, originally domesticated in South America about 6,000 years ago. From their origins to current practices, we’ll briefly cover the basics of Alpaca care in these pages.

Alpaca Basics

We often get asked lots of questions about Alpacas as a species. Here, we’ve tried to cover most of the more frequently asked questions: Alpacas Basics.

Alpaca Types

There is only one species of alpaca, but two fleece types, often referred to as breeds. To find out more about the different types and for images highlighting the differences, find out more on our Alpaca Types page.

Husbandry

Alpacas are charming, intelligent, produce fabulous fibre and are fun to own. As there will always be more questions than answers, here are a few basics on alpaca welfare and maintenance to help you get started…

Fibre

Alpacas are the most colour diverse, fibre producing animals in the world. There are five main colours, which can be sub-divided into 22 natural shades… Find out more about Alpaca Fibre here.

Birthing

Most crias are born, get up, and feed on their own – without any assistance.  However, on occasion they may need a little help so we’ve put together some information on the process and some pictures of a textbook birth that took place at Spring Farm. Find out more in Alpaca Birthing.

Toe Nail Trimming

Toenail trimming need not be stressful or time consuming. Training an alpaca to accept having its feet picked up and toes trimmed, is better from an early age and appropriate handling is essential.  We’ve put some guidelines together about handling alpacas for a stress-free trim in Toe Nail Trimming