Alpaca Experience in the Cotswolds.com

Welcome to our Alpaca Experience in the Cotswolds site

About Us

Twelve years ago Andy and I moved into Ivy Cottage on Christmas Eve, there had been a delay between the solicitors and we didn’t get the keys until it was dark, the house hadn’t been lived in for a while and wasn’t very welcoming, Andy thought I was mad as I put up Xmas decorations so that visitors wouldn’t look at the cobwebs. We bought the cottage as we wanted a place with land with the intention of having horses and dogs when we eventually stopped travelling with our work.

I had seen a picture of alpacas and fell in love with them, the day after I stopped working away we went to an alpaca open day at a breeders premises, we were only looking and hoping to get a little closer to them as you would with horses but mainly we find that you look at them in a paddock and that is as close as you get. We bought our first two pet boys Apollo and Beacon on this day but couldn’t take delivery until September 2007 as there was a movement restriction due to foot & mouth.

Our knowledge of alpacas was nil apart from articles I had read in magazines, when the boys arrived in September I had expectations of being able to handle them and have a relationship but quickly realised I was wrong, we were told they are a herd animal and not domesticated and you won‘t get close to them, yes I was disappointed but spent a lot of time being around the boys to get them used to me. It was a nightmare catching them when we needed to check them over and trying to cut their nails was an education, they either squealed, lay down or in Apollo’s case he jumped up like a very large heavy dog, we had to ask for help from our local alpaca breeders who were fantastic, Nick Atkins being a big guy caught Apollo and held on tightly while Sue quickly cut their nails they were the only people who could handle our two, they are also very caring for any animals they handle. Gradually Apollo and Beacon began to come and eat their bucket feed but still wouldn’t let me touch them.

In June we went along to Atkins Alpacas for the annual shearing, we were quite nervous not knowing what to expect but we had a great time and learnt so much and the boys behaved well. Nick and Sue had arranged for two New Zealanders to come across to do the shearing they also had breeders bring their alpacas as the price was cheaper if you had the maximuim animals to shear, we counted about seventy done that day, everybody mucked in and we are looking forward to next June when we have volunteered to help all day.

The following month we went on a Camelid Dynamics course which was very informative and great fun, it is something we could have done with before we bought the boys but at least we now know how to do it properly and why the boys reacted as they did. As the two boys couldn’t eat the grass in our paddock fast enough I offered grazing to Nick & Sue knowing that they sometimes wanted fresh grazing, they brought along three yearling alpacas who were going to be sold as pets, two whites and a grey. Whisky is the grey, I didn’t realise that alpacas are colour prejudice so Whisky was known as Billy no mates as the other two stayed together. Well we couldn’t believe it as soon as we opened the paddock gate Apollo and Beacon came down and took charge, Beacon is fawn and took charge of the two whites while Apollo being brown took Whisky although the herd all get along well together.