Re: [AlpacaTalk] Girls or boys?
I absolutely recommend getting a few fiber boys if you don't plan to
show and don't want to breed, at least for now. They don't have to be
gelded. I have heard of plenty of difficult to handle geldings so for
alpacas it doesn't really make them more manageable. Fiber males can
frequently be found for $250-1000. I personally would never pay more
than $500 for a fiber male. Sometimes, people even give them away! We
actually donated some fiber boys to some 4H people last year, and
some of them had really nice, very fine fleece but weren't breeder
quality.
Girls will be more expensive. There are very few non-breeder girls
out there, and they're usually priced much higher than fiber boys.
And, they must be kept separate from males because even geldings will
"breed." Very few non-breeder females have been spayed, so if she's a
non-breeder due to issues that make pregnancy life-threatening or
that she always loses them pre-term, she absolutely should not be
kept with males, intact or not. And, as we've discussed before, a
gelding will over breed her and cause sever uterine damage and
infection is likely.
I think starting with the fiber boys is a great way to get
comfortable with them. If you later choose to have breeding females,
you may be able to change fencelines to accommodate both, or you may
just find new homes for your fiber boys.
Heather
On Jan 26, 2009, at 12:34 PM, Caryn Law wrote:
> Hello everyone!
>
> When I (hopefully) buy my first alpacas this year (probably two to
> start
> with), I'm wondering...
>
> I don't plan to show alpacas. I'm interested in owning them purely
> for the
> fiber as I'm a handspinner who would like to use their fiber for
> handspun
> products. We aren't interested in getting into the breeding aspect of
> alpacas right away as we don't want to overextend ourselves and
> want to get
> experienced with just owning them before breeding. But I know that
> if I want
> to expand my herd, I'll either have to buy from someone else or have a
> breeding female. On the one hand, I like the idea of having a
> breedable
> female eventually (so I would want to start by owning females) for
> this
> purpose, but on the other hand breeding females are very, very
> pricey, and
> I'm wondering as a fiber-only owner if I'll want to just stick with
> buying
> my alpacas from someone else, in which case I suppose I could go
> with either
> boys or girls.
>
> Any advice? As far as owning both, I'm not sure I want to do that
> -- our
> pasture is one large plot with two small divisions in it that total
> three
> paddocks, but the paddocks aren't separated enough, I believe, to
> allow for
> proper seperation of the sexes.
>
> Looking forward to hearing from the experts!
>
> Also, is there a particular time of year that's best for buying your
> alpacas?
>
> - Caryn Law
> Issaquah, WA
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posted by Chaddo at 12:49 PM
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