When you're looking to buy Alpacas one of the most important things is fleece. After all, that's what Alpacas are bred for - their fleece. Breeders all over the world are endeavoring the bring fleece microns down. Lower the micron - better the fleece.

I wouldn't worry too much about white markings on the face or feet of a coloured Alpaca. The most valuable fleece is found on the 'saddle' which is the area over the back and down the sides of the body. Uniformity of colour across the saddle fleece is very important. Any white marking on a females face and or feet can normally be bred out in cria using a solid coloured stud male. The same theory seems to apply to multi or parti coloured alpacas (the ones that fleece colouring looks more like a cow).

Fleece quality can be improved with selective breeding of poorer quality females to high quality males.

With females, being a good fertile mother is also a sought after trait as this is extremely important too with fleece quality production and obviously the survival of the cria.

Paca Info Tid Bits

A baby Alpaca is called a 'cria'. Pronounced cree-a

Alpacas are induced ovulators such as cats and rabbits. Which means that they can be bred any time of the year as they don't experience 'heats' such as dogs.

Gestation is approx. 11 - 11 1/2 months or 335 days. Good breeding females will be re-mated about 2 weeks after giving birth. I feel it is fair to so though that a female alpaca (in our experience) gives birth to two cria's every 3 years.

Cria's weigh approximately 6-8kg (16 -20lbs) at birth.

Alpacas are members of the Camelid family.

Alpacas fleece has medullated or hollow fiber, with very warm insulative properties. Their Fiber is almost free of guard hair and is a "no itch fiber".

There are over 20 natural colours of Alpaca fiber. Alpaca fleece is the only natural fiber that comes in black.

Alpacas live for 15 - 20 years with females being able to produce live cria at 15-16 years of age.

Alpacas are ruminants with three stomachs. They chew their food (cud) like cattle and sheep. They convert their food efficiently and only eat 2 bales of grass hay per month. A horse eats the equivalent to 20 - 30 Alpacas. Alpacas don't have any top front teeth, just gums. They have front bottom teeth and teeth further back in their jaw that chew their cud. Male alpacas have 'fighting teeth' which are very sharp teeth located towards the top back side of their mouths. These teeth in the wild are used to castrate other males, ensuring the strongest male is the herd 'stud'. Most breeders have the fighting teeth of stud males trimmed off. Your shearer should trim the front teeth and also fighting teeth at the time of sheering.

Alpacas need to be shorn once every year. Suri alpacas can be left with two years fleece growth on them. This also can depend on where in Australia you live. For us in Queensland, we shear all of our Alpacas once a year, because having a long, dense fleece in over 40C humid heat is not going to be very comfortable for anyone. For stud males too that are left with long fleece, this can reduce their fertility in Summer because of the heat.

Alpacas cost any where from $400 for a fiber quality or pet wether up to $100,000+ for a superior stud male (this is also relevant to your location in Australia and drought conditions).A stud quality male (yet to have progeny on ground) should be less than a 'proven' stud male and prices go up depending on their pedigree, the cria's they have produced and their own fleece qualities. Weanling females are usually cheaper than breeding age females. Pregnant females are more and their price also depends on the stud that they have been mated to.

Alpacas are gentle, inquisitive, intelligent animals and are fairly easy to train. With a few repetitions they will pick up and retain many skills such as accepting a halter, loading in and out of a trailer and being led.