alpacas

[Dixie Bee Acres]

Other than their wool, or whatever you call it, what are alpacas good for?
Are they eaten? What about dairy? You can milk cows, goats, even sheep, but can you milk an alpaca?

How hard or easy are they to care for? What if any are their specific or special rrquirements for food, health, shelter?

[hercsmama]

My understanding is that in Peru, and other countries they are eaten, and milked as well.
In this country, they are pretty much strictly a fiber animal.
There are two types, the Suri, which has fiber that looks like dread lock hanging off them,(very cool) and the Huacaya (sp), which is fluffy looking.
As with most fiber animls, the older they get, the coarser the fiber becomes, so young ones are preferred. I suppose you can go ahead and eat the older ones, I'm not sure I want to though...guess if I was hungry enough..

I'd love to get a few of the Suris', but my understanding is that there are not very many of them in this country, and they can be very expensive.
The Huacaya's are much more common, and can be had for a few hundred dollars all day long.
This is of course, for non show animals. The show ones are crazy expensive!
As far a feeding, they do fine on prairie grass, I've been told not to feed alfalfa, but then had someone tell me a small amount in the winter is ok. I'm just going to avoid it when we get ours, to be safe.
Good fencing is required, but any livestock requires good fencing.
Here's a decent article with some good information, sorry it's Wikipedia.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpaca

[KIT.S]

They're good food, too. No harder to butcher than veal or lamb, and mild, non-fatty meat. The hides are quite saleable when tanned. I haven't heard of anyone milking one, but if yours is calm enough, I'd try it.
Kit

[Dixie Bee Acres]

Thanks for the info. If they are primarily just a fiber animal, I don't think I'm interested in getting any.

[Dixie Bee Acres]

Kit, thanks for the additional info.

[sisterpine]

I suspect the issue with eating them is the initial and maintenance cost of keeping them till time to butcher.

[spur]

They are like any other animal as far as eating. If you like the flavor they are great. They have a mild flavor and aren't usually fatty. The cost to raise one to butcher weight is the same as a goat or sheep or any similar sized animal that is grass fed. They are like any other fad. The money is with the first breeders in the market selling breeding stock. The fad here is winding down as we speak. Ten or fifteen years ago when they were ' new ' around here they would fetch 2, 3, or 4 thousand each easy for breeders . Now they are starting to show up at the local livestock barn as people have a lot of them and can't get feed money out of them. Reminds me of the Haflinger horses that were a big deal twenty years ago. First ones imported from Europe were bringing crazy prices. Now on any given day you can see several advertised on Craigs List, broke to ride and drive for $500 bucks.