Alpacas are amazing and fun animals to watch! All of our alpacas are female. We got Trixie, an unregistered pet alpaca first when she was six months old. Next was her friend Leila who has great fiber but an underbite, making her show career a non-starter. We found Kayla, Rosie and Laurel on a local farm shortly after that, and finally Matilda in her retirement came to live with us when she needed some new alpaca friends! There are two types of alpacas, Suri pronounced “SOO-ree”, and “Huacaya” pronounced “wah-KAI-ya”. All of our alpacas are Huacaya. Huacayas are known for their fluffy, teddy bear-like fleece, while Suris have a straighter, silkier fleece.Â
Our Alpaca Care Routine
We’ve found that taking care of the alpacas is fairly simple- they get fed 2x a day with all of our other animals. We feed Kalmbach Alpaca Crumble – we find it is easier for them to eat and we have much less coughing/choking hazard with the smaller mix. They also have access all the time to hay. From time to time they will take treats if we have something particularly fun, they have to be in the mood though. Sometimes it is carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, watermelon or apple slices that peak their interest. Other times they want to steal a bite of the pigs pellets (squeals of joy) or of the chicken scratch.
Our alpacas do get an ivermectin shot once a month for menengial worm prevention. Meningeal worm, also known as Parelaphostrongylus tenuis, is a parasite that can cause serious neurological issues in alpacas, along with other small ruminants and camelids. It is transmitted by white-tailed deer, and the parasite’s life cycle involves intermediate hosts like slugs and snails. While deer are generally not affected, the parasite can cause significant damage to the nervous system in other animals. We also give CDT every other year during shearing.
Alpaca Shearing and Fiber Processing
When we first got our alpacas we didn’t know a thing about their care and routines. We learned quickly what we needed to be prepared for and what to do. Along the way we joined groups on facebook and googled different farms and websites to learn about their best practices. Along the way we found Elijah Yeager, a local (out of Michigan) alpaca shearer and hired him the first season to shear our alpacas. That went well, and as his business grew Elijah teamed up with Top Knot Shearing, and they are our go-to company.
There is a lot of lingo that a new alpaca owner may not know. All the shearing terms, blankets, first, second, thirds. Toenail trimming is pretty simple, and the teeth check and filing down as the alpacas need it. The first year since we didn’t know anything we asked them to shear the girls and bag the fiber as they thought it would be best. The blankets went into one bag, labeled with each girls name. Then the second cuts from each, labeled 2nds and put in their own bags. Finally the 3rds. We didn’t know what we were going to do with it, but we were told as long as it was clean and dry it could stay in the bags indefinitely. When we finally got around to doing something with the fiber, we dug into the 2nds (saving the blankets for eventual use) and played with hand spinning, felting and stuffing little crochet figures.
When the shearers come to shear an alpaca they set up mats on the ground and restraints for the alpaca. They put their legs in the restraints and stretch the alpaca out. The alpaca skin is fragile, and stretching them out is safer for shearing and prevents knicks from the blades, and allows easier access to get the entire back done in one continual “blanket”.
Shearing an Alpaca “Blanket”
Alpacas Before and After Shearing
Hand Spun Yarn Trade
In the Alpaca Farm Life Spinners, Growers 50/50 group on Facebook I found someone willing to do a trade. We as the producer send fiber to the spinner. In exchange for spinning the fiber into yarn, they keep half and send half back as the finished product. This was great, and we got some really fun chunky yard out of the first two blankets we had done.
To do the trade we had to take photos of the fiber so the spinner could see the quality of the fiber, that there isn’t too much vm (vegetable matter/hay in the fleece). Photos were also taken of a close up of the “staple length” of the fiber itself, the length of the individual strands. Alpacas tend to have a staple length of 2-4″ if they are shorn once per year.
This was a good choice for our first yarn we had made, and allowed me to crochet some fun alpaca hats, scarves and blankets.
Fiber Processing Mill for Alpacas
In my research for fiber mills, I found one in Michigan, Grand Alpaca Company not too far from our farm. I knew nothing about the process or pricing, so I sent an email to the company with questions and got a call back from Cherish. She answered all my questions, and gave advice on how to get started. First was reserving a spot in line and putting down a deposit toward the fiber processing. Next was to input each alpaca’s name and fiber amount that would be sent in for processing. Being my first time ordering a finished produce of yarn, and felt, I really had no idea what I was asking for. Cherish advised me to fill out the forms as best I could, and put a note on each for her to give advice as far as what each fleece would be best suited for once it arrived at the mill. Then we spoke again, she offered her suggestions and I said yes to everything since I didn’t have a clue what we were talking about. I knew I wanted yarn I could crochet with, so we got a few different weights, and with the fiber not suitable for yarn we had some sheets of felt made with the machines to be able to cut out boot insoles. With the final left overs we opted for some core spun rug yarn, thick and colorful as it had all the colors of our girls represented.
Once I got that first fiber processed and returned to me I could really see what I was ordering. With each yarn finished product there is a little card attached that shows the weight of the raw fiber, how much the final product weighs, and the weight and ply of each. This made ordering the second year much easier, since I knew more of what I wanted for crochet. As far as what to expect for costs – the shearing itself in 2025 cost us about $700 for all of the shearing (for six alpacas), shots, toenails, and teeth. The fiber processing of all six girls 1sts (blankets) and some seconds in 2024 totaled just shy of $2k. It’s not an inexpensive hobby to be sure, but gifting a blanket called a “Trixie” and being able to visit the girl who’s fleece made it…priceless.