Our first three alpacas arrived in October 2019. Alpacas must be kept in single-sex groups and a minimum herd of three.
Holly, Cara, and Honesty all came from a local BAS-registered alpaca farm where they had all been born. All three are BAS (British Alpaca Society) registered which means they have a unique pedigree identification number which allows anyone to track their parentage and ownership. They are also microchipped. BAS exists predominately to ensure well-being of alpacas, and as member’s ourselves we adhere to the welfare standards to maintain a happy and healthy herd.
We had purchased Cara and Honesty with the expectation that they were both pregnant, however only Cara was. Alpaca pregnancies are quite tricky to detect, they have a long gestation period of around 11.5 months. Pregnancy scans are not routinely conducted, with breeders relying on females ‘spitting off’ to indicate a pregnancy which isn’t 100% accurate.
Fleur was born to Cara in July 2020. Our very first cria (Cara’s first too). A beautiful, snow-white bundle.
We then decided to breed the girls again, and in summer 2021 welcomed three boy alpacas. Alpacas must be kept in single-sex herds, even if the males are castrated. As luck would have it, having three male alpacas meant these were the perfect starter herd and could be kept together. Once they were old enough to leave their mothers we delivered them to a wonderful new home at a farm. We are still in contact with their owners and it’s lovely to see them grow and their personalities develop further.
