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Food: In our area of the country, AGWAY is our most versatile farm supply/feed store. AGWAY is also known as Southern States in some areas of the country. We have used several feeds: an AGWAY brand llama and alpaca maintenance feed, an AGWAY brand llama and alpaca lactation and gestation feed, and a feed "Buckeye alpaca maintenance" feed. The food comes in a 50-pound bag and if you order a lot (a ton or more I’m told), you can get a discount and perhaps free delivery. We’ve never ordered that much. Our Agway store is only about 30 minutes away and so we just pick up feed when we happen to be passing by in that area. I get the Buckeye at a local feed store that’s on my way home from work. The food costs about $15.00 per bag, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. Our girls love the lactation and gestation food, since it has a lot of what appears to be molasses and is sweeter than the other food. Their next favorite is the Buckeye food, as it is a palletized form of grain. When our vet made his initial visit, he reviewed the tags on each bag, liked our selection of feeds and suggested that we mix all three, with more of the lactation and gestation formula than the others because Black Magic, Aphrodite and Kava were all underweight. The vet suggested that we feed them quite heavily (12 cups a day—6 in the am and 6 in the PM) until their weight improves. That figures out to be about 2 pounds of food per animal per day, a little more than recommended by most persons that you see recommending how much grain to feed the animals. Nowadays, we have sufficient experience to know the proper amounts to feed our animals. It turns out that the alpacas have educated us humans. They have a decided preference for the Buckeye food; some are that fussy that they will not eat the Buckeye/Agway mixture! During the summer, the amount of pellets that we feed is significantly less than the amount we feed in the winter. One certain way to know if you are feeding the right amount of food is to gauge how hungry the alpacas are. If they are not really hungry or have a ho-hum attitude, we cut back on the food until they appear hungry when we show up at the barn. Hay: Every book we’ve read regarding alpaca hay and almost everyone we talked to told us to get a relatively poor quality hay (orchard grass or grass hay). We were told to not to feed clover hay (alpaca gets sick) or timothy hay (too rich) or alfalfa hay (much too rich). The timothy and alfalfa hay will also cause the fiber micron count to increase and make the fleece less valuable. As a result, we bought 20 bales of hay (grass) from a local farmer for $3 a bale delivered. The result: none of the girls would eat any of the hay! When we discussed this with the vet, he looked at the grass hay and advised that he’d recommend that we switch to a hay containing some timothy. We currently feed a hay that is mostly orchard grass with about 15-20% timothy. The vet advised: you folks are in the breeding business, not the fleece business. You must get your alpaca weight up to normal and if the fleece quality degrades, that’s too bad! The health and well being of the pregnant female and her unborn cria is paramount consideration. Minerals: Our advisors have suggested that we should feed some minerals. Our vet said that it wouldn’t hurt but wasn’t very enthusiastic about it as he felt there was a sufficient amount in the pellets and the well water we provide. . We decided to get some and ordered from Useful Llama Items, a catalogue of many diverse feed supplements, items for weighing animals, serving and carrying equipment, etc. . They have a mixture especially for alpacas. Costs about $1.00 a pound and comes in 25 and 50 pound sacks. Result: they wouldn't eat any! We recently have installed salt licks in all the stalls. Previously, we had been advised that the alpaca couldn't lick the salt blocks because of the way the tongue is in the alpacas mouth. Our animals were never told that they couldn't lick salt blocks so they are just enjoying the experience immensely. There action is more like a chewing action than a licking action, but they certainly love to munch on the salt blocks.
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