Does anyone keep alpacas?

[slipperandpjsmum]

I know they are not horses but thought I would give it a go on this topic.

Thanks

We nearly did once! Let's just say that they aren't the most exciting animals in the world! They spend most of their lives staring Vaguely at things!

No, my dads friend does though. Very territorial over land and people, plus if worried will herd everyone else in the field into the stable and defend it

I used to work on an alpaca farm, beautiful animals but very tricky to handle!

My friend has some-they spat at our poor pony but like others have said,do a lot of staring.They make a very odd noise too.

Thanks for your replies - especially as its not quite the right topic!

CMOTD does your Dad's friend keep them as pets, or for something else?

When you say tricky to handle Wetthemogwai what do you mean? I have been on a couple of course but I suppose the animals we spend time with there were very compliant given they spent their days being handled!

They are pets and herd guardians - she has an enviable place with very pampered animals, and the alpacas deal with the foxes.

Well they're naturally very wary of people (and dogs and rabbits in some cases!) so restraining them to clip, medicate or weigh them is very hard work. You have to really fight them to keep them still and it takes a lot of practice and strength to do it right without any of you getting hurt.
The farm I worked on had just over 200 alpacas so although we spent all day with them it was impossible to get all of them to be really used to humans and handling and like you say the ones on your courses would've been used to a lot of handling (when I was at college the ones there were the same!)

Its hard work and an expensive business but it seems to be getting more popular so there must be something in it! I loved it though and really miss working there :)

I used to look after alpacas, not 200 at a time though, only three. I liked them a lot, thought they were much much easier to care for than horses and slightly more entertaining especially when attempting to interact with them beyond dumping hay and alpaca pellets (?) in their field.

Are you getting some?