Alpacas
Posted by: sanspeur
17th Mar 2010 06:41pm
I have 3 alpacas on one and a half acres in Tasmania. They are great critters: easy on the land as they have pads, not hooves; no vet bills as they're so robust; friendly; good guardians for other animals; high value fleece, which I spin.
Question - does anyone know of a tree or shrub that alpacas DON'T like to eat? I want to plant a few shade trees but saplings all get eaten!
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Comments 14
julzngemz
Waiting to move to the country so I can get 2 alpacas, I have a miniture goat who eats any tree so this is an interesting topic for me:)
Alpaca
I know people who have eaten the alpaca meat but I'm too much in love with my own animals to be able to taste the meat that is available at a Butcher about 35 km from me.
Updating my herd - I now have 15 alpacas. Two are to be sold when the weather cools down. We had a little boy born on 12/12/12 and and little girl born on 19/12/12. Both have Christmasy names - he is Kris Kringle and she is Holly Noelene.
stretch
has any one ever eaten the alpacca meat it is supposted to taste like dear meat
stretch
sorry but i was under the impression that alpaccas and goats were very similar they will have a go at nearly any thing
have you ever eaten an alpacca
they are supposted to taste like vanasen
hope like crazy they are not the farm pets
sanspeur
I'm saving up for fencing - looks like it'll be the only way to have big shade trees where I want them. Although there's one large shrub in one of their paddocks that's self-seeded and they haven't eaten it - I'm going to take a branch of it to the local weed guru and get it identified (and make sure it's not a prohibited weed species). If it's OK, I'll take cuttings and plant it - not very tall (about 3 metres) but a few of them would make a good shelter belt. I'll post its name when I know it as I'm sure other alpaca owners would be interested.
Anonymous
alpacas will eat every plant , they like all shrubs as well, sorry to say
sanspeur
Hi Sophie, thanks for your response - for some reason my reply to you didn't go to you, it went to me!
blondie72
So cute! They're adorable.
One question though - Do they spit at you like llamas & camels??
sanspeur
Alpacas do spit (and it stinks!), but mine only spit at each other, not often & mainly when they're each trying to get the first bit of apple when I give them their treats. I think they'd spit at people if they were really afraid of them. Mine are just a bit wary and stand-offish (see my post below) - but yesterday 2 of them let me stroke their necks, for the first time. Patience and gentleness is paying off!
Alpaca
I would suggest you ask the alpaca association (via their website for advice on this. There are some trees and bushes which are very toxic to alpacas, so be careful. I have three wethers and four female alpacas, plus one little girl and two little boys born within the last two weeks. They really are all pets, and I love them to bits. I have "Obsessive, Compulsive, Alpaca Syndrome". I live 40km north of Adelaide.
sanspeur
Great ideas, thanks, Bez. Hadn't thought of a fodder hedge. One small section gets waterlogged in winter so I'll put in a willow there (NOT the invasive kind!) for both shade and beauty, but the rest will be natives. Most of the 100 or so trees I've planted here - where the alpacas can't get to them - are natives, but there are just a few exotics too. Rowan to keep bad spirits away, Japanese maple for the incredible autumn colour, buddleja for butterflies. For me, permaculture includes visual and olfactory feasts!
My little property is called 'Sans Peur'. Oui, francais.
Bez70
Hi Sanspeur (is that French for 'without fear')? If you are going to go to the trouble of fencing off an area, it might be an idea to include some natives or plants that would be suitable as a shelter belt or ones that could be hedged as a fodder source. Just make sure it is not a noxious weed in your area, or poisonous to ruminants & if you have a talk to your local Landcare group there might be funding or something available.
sanspeur
The alpaca association emailed me and said they'll browse on just about anything, so I'll save up for some fencing materials and enclose my saplings.
sanspeur
Thanks, Alpaca. Love your self-diagnosis!
I looked through the alpaca association's website but found nothing about non-toxic but repugnant trees. I've emailed them and hopefully someone there might know if there's even ONE plant that alpacas hate. If I could only afford to fence off a couple of tree corridors...
Congratulations on your newborn crias! How lovely!
My 3 old boys were not treated well by their previous owner and it's taken 3 years of patience to get them to trust me enough to let me handle them gently.