Alpaca Farm Basics at Walnut Creek Alpacas

Alpaca Farm

Alpaca farming is a wonderful adventure. It can be a little scary if you have never raised livestock before. Keeping alpacas, raising and breeding, is easier than you might think.

For more in-depth information on alpacas we welcome you to visit our selection of alpaca books that we use as references.

Alpaca Tips

Our alpaca barn is a combination of hay barn and pens with a central location to make feeding time much easier. Always plan ahead for growth. It helps to have extra pens as you will soon find out those extra pens get used up quick for weaning, quarantining, pasture rotation, and more!

The fencing is very important and don't forget about the gates. My husband drilled into my head from day 1... close and secure every gate behind you! It only takes once to learn that lesson and yes I did! :) Never use fencing where the alpacas can get their head through.

Take a good look at the pasture the alpacas will be grazing on. It would be ideal if you could remove all of the poisonous plants before your alpacas arrive. We have a big place and we have so many weeds here that it was and still is impossible to get everything pulled. I tried but never could keep up with all of the weeds. One of the things we learned over the years is that as long as they have plenty to eat they typically do not touch any of the poisonous plants. You might be thinking it would have been easier to use weed killer. We never use any kind of weed killer no matter how safe it might appear to be. We've heard to many horror stories over the years about alpacas dying after a weed killer was used.

Your alpaca's health is extremely important and a good experienced camelid vet is worth their weight in gold. If you are unable to find a camelid vet then find an excellent vet that is willing to learn. Your vet can easily call one of the universities for help when needed. Here in Oklahoma we rely on Oklahoma State University.

One thing to note is these wonderful animals are very stoic and they can hide an illness from you without you realizing anything is wrong. If your alpaca is down and appears sick, don't wait, call your vet immediately!