Alpaca Health Checks

Series Summary

Alpacas are domesticated animals originating from South America. Similar to llamas in appearance, alpacas are often kept in herds and are valued for their fiber, or fur. Alpacas have been domesticated for thousands of years and images of alpacas can be found in ancient Peruvian art. In general, alpacas are very social, gentle, and intelligent, and get along very well with humans as pets. Though all alpacas are capable of spitting, this behavior is generally reserved for other alpacas and rarely is aimed at people.

In this free video series, our expert will show you how to care for alpacas. You will learn about keeping alpacas healthy, weighing alpacas, and vaccinating alpacas. You will also learn about sheltering alpacas, keeping alpacas clean and keeping alpacas comfortable in all weather. Get tips on diet, veterinarians, and weaning. If you are interested in owning alpacas, let our expert show you everything you will need to know about caring for this interesting farm animal.

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Jill Bergman and I am going to talk to you about something that we do every month with our Alpacas to insure that they are healthy and to keep track of how they are doing. I'll tell you first what we do. We weigh them every month and we check their teeth to make sure their teeth are okay. That they are growing in just fine. I can tell by feeling how her teeth are. Her teeth feel good. Another thing we do is we call this body scoring. I don't know if you can catch this but we put our hands right here on the Alpaca, right here at the top of her withers and we see how much fat she's got going right here. And she feels just great. If she's too thin, she'll have an angle more like this. And if she's too fat, It'll expand like that. But this little gal right here is just perfect. This is Isabella and she is a wonderful, wonderful Alpaca."