Alpacas are becoming better known in the UK all the time. Many people who have a spare half-acre or so are jumping at the chance to have intelligent attractive lawn mowers that produce wonderful fleece into the bargain! Each costing about the same as a pedigree dog, but with much lower maintenance costs, keeping a couple of “pet” male alpacas is becoming very popular; they can be halter trained and love having a change of scenery by being taken for walks. Equally many people are getting involved in the breeding of alpacas. Many people choose to buy the top quality stock but others will use cheaper breeding females that can be mated with good quality males to breed up to a higher standard. These females will cost significantly more than gelded males but still represent a viable investment.

If you think you may want to enter your alpacas into classes at shows, or when you come to sell progeny, then it is important to have a registered or listed animal. Generally, the registration and listing of alpacas on a database is a very valuable tool, as parentage information needs to be available on all the UK based herd to promote sound breeding practices. Show organisers and the future purchasers of your stock will require that they be registered.

All alpacas in the UK were registered onto a database of foundation stock some years ago, and their offspring are thus entitled to registration status. In order to protect the UK from speculative importers, who may try and make money by importing and selling substandard stock, import screening was introduced.

Health and phenotype screening of alpacas prior to importation is available to all importers. There are costs (to the importer) involved, but alpacas, which pass screening, are known to be of at least a minimum standard, and thus the purchaser is reassured. Alpacas, which reach the minimum standard, and their offspring, are entitled to be registered. Thus all alpacas in the UK should by now be registered.

Even if you are considering buying low priced alpacas it is important to safeguard the future of your investment by checking that they are registered. You can also check if the seller is a signatory to the British Camelids Sales Code of Conduct.

Back to Library Index