Alpaca Feed question

[affacat]

We now own 2 adult and one 6 month old alapca.

But... We have no idea how much feed to give them. They have 1.5 acres or so to graze, we also have alpaca Feed and alfalfa pellets to supplement... But literally no idea how much to give them per day. We know not to overfeed... But we aren't sure what amount that would be.

Help please!

 

[igorsMistress]

I know nothing about Alpacas, but @WthrLady can you help?

 

[WthrLady]

I know nothing about Alpacas, but @WthrLady can you help?

I'm here! Going up to read.

 

[WthrLady]

We now own 2 adult and one 6 month old alapca.

But... We have no idea how much feed to give them. They have 1.5 acres or so to graze, we also have alpaca Feed and alfalfa pellets to supplement... But literally no idea how much to give them per day. We know not to overfeed... But we aren't sure what amount that would be.

Help please!

Morning!!!
Congratulations on your new fur family.
Are your adults both female, one with a cria?

 

[WthrLady]

We now own 2 adult and one 6 month old alapca.

But... We have no idea how much feed to give them. They have 1.5 acres or so to graze, we also have alpaca Feed and alfalfa pellets to supplement... But literally no idea how much to give them per day. We know not to overfeed... But we aren't sure what amount that would be.

Help please!

Your feed pellets should be on the back of the bag.
We feed twice a day, and add tim grass pellets in the summer, and alfalfa/tim grass in the winter only. They can get fat on alfalfa.
I would also recommend free choice alpaca minerals if you are not feeding a high quality pellet like Mazuri, which I HIGHLY recommend. I know it's not available everywhere.
Mazuri adds the minerals in for you.
If you are feeding Mazuri, Complete life is for cria and adults and like I said is by weight.
I use hangning buckets, like for goats, the adult weight buckets are mounted higher and the cria get a bowl. You might have to make a pvc rail box for her food bowl to keep the big girls out.
We also have free choice hay in a rack feeder, goat sized so they can pull and yank hay when they don't want to go out in the field, or the grass isn't in.

 

[ThinMintTheChicken]

We now own 2 adult and one 6 month old alapca.

But... We have no idea how much feed to give them. They have 1.5 acres or so to graze, we also have alpaca Feed and alfalfa pellets to supplement... But literally no idea how much to give them per day. We know not to overfeed... But we aren't sure what amount that would be.

Help please!

I don't know how helpful this will be if you don't have these scoops (3 qt, got them here: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/3-quart-feed-scoop) but this is how I usually feed our alpacas.

Black line is how much I feed 4 adult females +1 cria
Yellow line is how much I feed 4 adult male alpacas
Green line is how I would feed 3 alpacas
Red line is how much I fed our 2 pairs of male alpacas before we combined them in the same stall/pasture


I also usually feed 4 large flakes of hay to our females + cria
3 1/2 flakes to the 4 males
Used to feed 1 1/2 flakes to younger males and 2 flakes to our adult males
I would estimate that you give yours about 2-2 1/2 flakes of hay
^^This is for the night
In the morning the females and males get 2 flakes each for the day and they also get time out in the pasture

Kind of a confusing system, but I've been doing it for almost 3 years without any issues.

 

[igorsMistress]

I'm here! Going up to read.

Thanks for responding

 

[BYC Project Manager]

Hi @affacat - for more in-depth information regarding raising Alpacas please check out the Llama & Alpaca section on our sister site: https://www.backyardherds.com/forums/#llamas-and-alpacas.42

 

[affacat]

Morning!!!
Congratulations on your new fur family.
Are your adults both female, one with a cria?

All female. I do not believe any blood relation but id need to double check. It was a rather quick purchase... We had planned on getting alpaca, and even built a shed to that end, but weren't completely ready yet when the right deal came up.

Online research isn't helping, since many seem to make it overly complicated

 

[affacat]

I don't know how helpful this will be if you don't have these scoops (3 qt, got them here: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/3-quart-feed-scoop) but this is how I usually feed our alpacas.

Black line is how much I feed 4 adult females +1 cria
Yellow line is how much I feed 4 adult male alpacas
Green line is how I would feed 3 alpacas
Red line is how much I fed our 2 pairs of male alpacas before we combined them in the same stall/pasture

View attachment 3082929
I also usually feed 4 large flakes of hay to our females + cria
3 1/2 flakes to the 4 males
Used to feed 1 1/2 flakes to younger males and 2 flakes to our adult males
I would estimate that you give yours about 2-2 1/2 flakes of hay
^^This is for the night
In the morning the females and males get 2 flakes each for the day and they also get time out in the pasture

Kind of a confusing system, but I've been doing it for almost 3 years without any issues.

We have a scoop like that. I assume you mean 1 scoop to green level once a day?

We just bought two hanging feeders (the frame kind where they can pull hay out from anywhere). Sounds like two big flakes per alpaca in the morn, and one big flake per alpaca at night, give or take?