We met this little alpaca on the streets of Melbourne AUS. She is a 6 mth old female i.e. still a juvenile. Her owner (an eccentric older fella) keeps her in the backyard and parades her round St Kilda once a month or so - complete with a donation collar. We met them Ackland St, and from a distance I honestly thought "gee that looked like a bigggg dog!" and how wrong was I!
Anyhow, after meeting Miss Alpaca, I did some reading;
- She could grow up to 5 ft tall, approx 110-170 lbs and live for 20 years
- Alpacas have straight ears and were bred for their fur. Ilamas are about 1-2 ft taller, have bent ears and were bred for strength.
- They have 3 stomaches!
- They do get wet and shaggy like a dog because their fur is not oily like sheep's
- According to Peru, home of alpacas, there are 52 colour classifications. The same colour range is considered as 12 in AUS, and 16 in the US
- Recommended 4,356sq ft per alpaca. Therefore our apartment can hold 23% of one
- They are house trainable since, in the wild, alpacas do their 'business' at the same dung heap. However, as cited from Wikipedia, females tend to all 'go' at the same time therefore create a bigger mess in a pack situation
- Not all alpacas spit. The little one we saw, for example, doesn't (she is also trained/ encouraged not to)
- You can buy one for around USD 100 (a gelded male)
It would be kinda cool to have one in the backyard... if I had a yard...
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