Alpaca love cold weather

All the Alpaca seem to be happy out there in the cold. As long as they have a nice heated water bucket, which prevents their water from freezing in the cold weather. Alpaca seem to be like camels and drink is spurts. Sometimes the alpaca drink a large amount of water and at other times they seem to hardly drink much at all.

I am certain they consume less water in the winter than they do in the summer time as I am the one who fills their water buckets.

In the mornings when it is very cold the alpacas often have frost on the top of their fur.

I know they prefer the cold weather to the hot weather. They have told me!

I know they hate to get their hair cut and I am not looking forward to this, this year except for the fact that we could use some more alpaca fiber to work with.

I have 2 alpaca hats now. They don't seem to mind I am wearing their fiber on my head. At least they haven't said anything. I know they are slightly overweight, or so the vet says. But the Alpacas swear they are starving to death, but the vet says I am feeding them too much. Go Figure! I would prefer that they be a little fatter in the winter time as I think this will help them stay warmer.

But after wearing alpaca hats, gloves and socks for a while now I know how warm their fiber is.
And some of them already have pretty thick coats.

They often don't have the sense to come in out of the rain, so I guess they don't mind the rain. And I know from wearing my alpaca hat that alpaca fiber repels water. When it is a heavy down pour they go into the barn and run in sheds.

I am already looking forward to the spring and the warmer weather but I know they aren't.

Popular belief is that you must shear your Huacya Alpacas every year and we do. But I often wonder what they did on their own when they were in the wild before they were domesticated.

I know the cashmere goats run themselves against trees and eventually shed all the cashmere off and leave it blowing in the wind. Or stuck to the trees or bushes. In any event if you don't get the cashmere off the goats they take care of it themselves. So somehow they are fine without any help from us in the fiber thinning department.

I do have a new alpaca male that I rescued, who was living with a few calves. I don't think he was sheared last year so it looks like he has two years worth of fiber on him. The man that sold him to me called him an alpacer. So if anyone is looking for one alpacer or doesn't know what an alpacer is, I have one. An alpacer is an alpaca that hasn't been sheered I guess!