Any other alpaca families?

[Buddhamom]

My sister and I have a herd of 40+. Actually only 3 of them are ours, she has aquired the rest but we keep them all at the same farm and I was just looking for others to chit chat about how wonderful and friendly they can be.

[Chicky2]

Don't have any, but interested in learning. What is their purpose on your farm? Meat, fiber, etc?

[spring978]

My son LOVES Alpacas we stop to say hi to them on the way up the river he tells us they took the moon.

We are moving to our new farm home this spring and would like to have them. I would love to hear all that you are wiiling to share on raising and caring for them.

[Buddhamom]

We just love ours. The one thing I really like about them is they are good stewards to the earth because unlike cows and horses (which I have had both), when they poop, it doesn't hurt the grass underneath. They are really easy to take care of and only cost about 1.00/day per animal depending on whether they are pregnant or not and not including vet bills. We use ours for fiber as well as show, sell and trade/barter. We have gorgeous woven rugs, fleece filled comforters and yarn we make and sell too. I have never heard of anyone eating them and we are vegetarian/vegan so that would not be something we would do anyway *LOL* Here is the farm site if you want to see some of them. Oh and the gorgeous little girl with the alpaca on the website is my daughter

www.alpacastreet.com/shaij_criations.asp

[koofie]

They're in our 5-10-15 year plan!!!

[Chicky2]

Originally Posted by Buddhamom

We just love ours. The one thing I really like about them is they are good stewards to the earth because unlike cows and horses (which I have had both), when they poop, it doesn't hurt the grass underneath. They are really easy to take care of and only cost about 1.00/day per animal depending on whether they are pregnant or not and not including vet bills. We use ours for fiber as well as show, sell and trade/barter. We have gorgeous woven rugs, fleece filled comforters and yarn we make and sell too. I have never heard of anyone eating them and we are vegetarian/vegan so that would not be something we would do anyway *LOL* Here is the farm site if you want to see some of them. Oh and the gorgeous little girl with the alpaca on the website is my daughter

www.alpacastreet.com/shaij_criations.asp

Neato website! Thanks for posting it.

Please forgive my ignorance about this, but you use animal products, so that means you can't be vegan, correct? It is my understanding that a vegan would not use animal products or byproducts at all.

[Buddhamom]

You are correct on your definition about veganism. I am the vegan in the family which is why I put vegetarian/vegan family. My husband does wear wool but consumes no animal products and my two daughters are ovo vegetarian. I forgot to mention that for those who like to use manure in their gardens (we do not) there is an abundance of poop that is easy to clean up. We go out every other day and rake it up which is easy since they are just large raisin shaped

[Chicky2]

Thanks for the clarification. I am just a curious person, lol.

Those are beautiful rugs, btw.

Alpaca scat sounds like goat scat, lol.

[sparkygirl74]

We have talked about them...my husband loves them, lol, but we might be moving in the next year so that would put it off for awhile.

[Buddhamom]

It is exactly like deer , rabbits and goats. Except their gestation period is 11 mo. We love the personality of them. We keep the chickens housed in the pastures with them and they have a great symbiotic relationship, the chickens break down the poop by eating the byproducts and the alpacas keep them safe from predators. The only thing I could do without is a few of them spit at each other at feeding time so I have to keep my dreads wrapped up because the spit comes from deep in their stomaches and is this awful smelling green stuff. Those few are ones that we got as adults and they are set in their ways But most of them just wait until the troughs are filled and eat happily