# Alpacas & goats



## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

Thinking about getting an alpaca for fleece. 

Is male or female better?

Will it be ok with the goats?

I have the goats on free choice alfalfa - will that be ok?

Any special minerals/meds/wormer needed?

How often will it need shearing?

Anything else I need to know?

TIA


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Gelded male or female would be fine. OK with goats depends on the individual animal. The high protein in alfalfa will make the fiber courser. They are like sheep and can't have a lot of copper. Must be fully shorn annually.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I'm not a pro, I'm sure Karen will be here to help you more lol but I have one.
First I have one because I started out with 2 a intact male......stay away!! Unless you plan to breed then give him his own pen. He started out nice but then started humping my goats. Gave him his own pen and when he tried to attack my daughter threw the fence he was gone! 
I keep Tina with the goats. She loves her goats! She is the funniest thing in the world. If the cows get close to the fence she will get between the goats and the fence and stand there and spit on them till they leave. She will also stay with any doe that kids and will keep the other goats away. She loves babies 
She eats the same as the goats. Alfalfa and whatever grass grows along with leaves and what not. I'm not sure if the alfalfa is ok free choice but she does fine. Maybe it will be different with a male ??? (Again Karen lol)
Minerals, when I first got mine I asked this and was told think sheep with the copper. There is no way to keep her out of the goat minerals but I have yet to see her eat it. I have another mineral out with no copper and she will nibble it and the goats don't touch it.....they like the one with copper better.
I shear mine once a year. I'm part of a alpaca group on FB and some people will do a half shear (just the body not the neck). And some will do it 2X a year. I just do it once a year though
Anything else- they kick!!! Totally blew my mind the first time. They are not easy to shear but I get it done. They also need their nails trimmed (I've yet to need to do it) their front teeth sometimes need to be trimmed (year 5 and hers are starting to get long) they LOVE water, oh boy do they love water. I had to get a kiddie pool to keep her out of the goats water trough. They are not these sweet loving cuddly things. They kinda just want to be left alone. The only time mine likes me is during the summer when I have a garden hose lol. Super easy to halter train. I don't keep the fleece on mine and I hate having to shear her but I wouldn't trade her for the world. She lefts me know who is going to kid, she is funny to sit and watch her chase squirrels out of the pen and even though she probably weighs 90 pounds thinks she can take on anything. Totally worth her feed bill


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

And she beat me to it lol


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## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

If we get a baby (cria?? I need alpaca terminology help lol) will it do well with the goats because it was raised with them?

How big do alpacas get?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

What do you mean by getting a cria? They can get to be 150 to 200 lbs.


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## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

Instead of getting an adult alpaca.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

The youngest they should be weaned from their mom is 6 months old. Not sure how well only one would do. The goats could be pretty rough.


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## Lunaroso (Oct 22, 2017)

My mother in law has alpacas and is trying to bring them to our farm with our goats. Nooooooooo thanksssssss. She sheers them annually. I’ve seen the males humping the goats before. They do get a little sassy sometimes also. She has one male that no fence can contain. It blew my mind what he was able to break out of.

Not to mention it takes a lot of work after you sheer off the raw fiber to get any type of finished project.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I have just a female now and she loves the Goats and the Goats love her. Sometimes the Goats will push at her and she will spit in their face and all is good in the world. Her biggest love in life are the kids, she is right there with them when they kid and she is actually my go to on who is going to kid. She stays with kids when moms go to eat and I am the only one allowed to mess with kids without getting the evil mewing sound and death stare. She is not worth the feed or the energy to shear her but she is happy and keeps me entertained so she’s a lifer. 
Males that are not fixed NEVER EVER have with the Goats. I think it was actually Karen who warned me when I first got the pair but I was hard headed and didn’t listen. He would hump my Goats he would bite their legs he was just a nasty little very bad name. I still wanted a baby so kept him till the day he tried to kick my daughter threw the fence. This is a alpaca who would come up for loves or would lay down do you could love on him. I NEVER would have guessed he would have turned out the way he did. But to be totally honest even the female seemed to be happy the day he was loaded up and left. She never visited him threw the fence when they were apart, she is a goat just ask her lol


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Weren't they adults when you got them?


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I want to say he was like 9 months old when I got him and she was a year and a half. I don’t have his papers any more but he was a bit younger then she was. Once he hit about 15 months he just turned into a pain in my behind and just kept getting worse. She on the other hand was a little stand offish when it came to the Goats but after that first kid was born she joined in with the Goats. The only bad thing about her is she does not like it when the bucks breed. She won’t turn mean at them but more it annoys her and she doesn’t understand maybe??? I’m not sure she makes the mewing sound and follows them around so I just take her out and put with the two retired girls just to play it safe. I don’t want the bucks turning on her


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

She probably does understand, the bucks just don't understand her. She would want bred as well.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

That could be although she acts very angry about it but she also acted very angry when the male tried to breed her. I did keep him for a year and no babies so either she really didn't like him or he wasn't old enough because no baby 
But this is her, she really does adore the babies


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