Most people who ask us about alpacas as pets are picturing something between a dog and a sheep. They are neither, and the gap between the expectation and the animal is where things go wrong.
Here is the honest version.
The single most important rule
Never keep one alpaca alone. They are herd animals and a solitary alpaca is a distressed alpaca. Two is the minimum and three is better. If someone offers to sell you a single animal as a pet, that tells you something about the seller.
A wether kept with sheep or a horse is a different situation and can work, but on its own with no other stock it is not fair on the animal.
Why wethers
A wether is a castrated male and it is the right animal for this. They are calm, they have no breeding drive, they do not fight, and they are considerably cheaper than a breeding female whose value sits in her progeny.
Entire males are not pets. They can be aggressive as they mature and they need managing.
What they are actually like
Curious rather than affectionate. An alpaca will come and inspect you, follow you around the paddock and watch everything you do, and most of them would still rather you did not put your hands on them. That is not unfriendliness, it is prey animal wiring.
Some become genuinely relaxed about handling, particularly if they were handled young. Others tolerate it and no more. You do not get to choose which.
They hum. Constantly, quietly, to each other. It is one of the genuinely lovely things about having them.
They do spit, mostly at each other over food and rarely at people. An alpaca that spits at a person has usually been mishandled or is frightened.
What they need, realistically
- Shearing every year, without exception. This is a welfare requirement, not a cosmetic one. An unshorn alpaca through an Australian summer can die of heat stress. Budget for a shearer or find a local one before you buy the animals.
- Toenails trimmed several times a year.
- Drenching and vaccination on a regular schedule.
- Teeth checked as they age.
- Shade and clean water, which in western Sydney summers is not a small thing.
- Secure fencing. Standard sheep fencing. Not barbed wire.
The land requirement is modest. A few animals do well on a small acreage block, which is why they suit the semi rural fringe around Sydney so well.
The nice surprises
They are easy on the ground. Padded feet rather than hooves, so they do far less damage to pasture than horses or cattle.
They use a communal dung pile, which sounds like a small thing and is not. It makes paddock cleaning simple and it keeps parasite pressure down.
And you get a fleece every year. It will not make you money, but it is a genuinely nice thing to have, and if you do not spin, someone in your local guild will be delighted to take it off your hands.
Who should not get alpacas
- Anyone who will not handle the animal. If catching, drenching and holding for a shearer is not something you will do, this is not your animal.
- Anyone wanting a pet that comes when called and enjoys being touched. Get a dog.
- Anyone who wants just one.
- Anyone whose block has no shade.
Before you buy
Go and stand in a paddock with some. Half an hour with actual alpacas tells you more than any amount of reading, including this. Any decent breeder will let you.
Ask who you ring in twelve months when something is wrong. A seller who will still take your call is worth more than a lower price.
We breed at Mulgoa
Black Regal Alpacas is in western Sydney. We breed mainly black alpacas and we do sell wethers as companion animals. We would rather talk it through with you than take an order, and we will tell you honestly if we think it is not the right fit.
See also: what alpacas eat, what they cost to own and alpacas as guard animals.