Having considered why you want to keep alpacas; for breeding, for fibre or as pets, you have decided you want to go ahead. So what are the next things to think about?

First, you must have somewhere to keep your animals. You will probably be starting with two or three but if they include pregnant females, your herd will soon expand.

What space and pasture do alpacas need?

On the high altiplano in South America, the animals can wander freely as far as they wish. However, they wander because they are looking for food which isn't abundant or of good nutritional quality at those altitudes.

Here in the UK, we can offer them lush grass on which to graze and this can, in fact, be too rich a diet and can cause diarrhoea. It is a good idea to limit the area that they can graze in the early summer to avoid this problem.

The grasses in the UK are more nutritious than that on the altiplano and they contain more sugars. For the same amount of grazing, UK grasses provide greater amounts of energy but less mineral content.

Animals also get less exercise than they would in their country of origin as their food source is readily to hand. Without care, they will get fat and yet they can still have a mineral deficiency.

When pasture is improved, the number of species is reduced and those that are shallow rooted and thus grow more readily when treated with chemical fertilizers are favoured. These species are high in energy and high in protein but low in minerals and consequently are not the best for your alpacas.

Rough grazing may be more suitable but alpacas do not eat docks, nettles or thistles so you will have to control these or they will take over the pasture.

The British Alpaca Society recommends a stocking rate of 5–6 per acre but this assumes that you are able to provide adequate grazing and even space to operate a grazing rotation in order to minimise any build up of problems in the field such as worms. If this occurs, the pasture needs to be left empty over a hard winter with several frosts which kill most of the worm larvae. Your vet can test dung samples for worms and advise on any treatment required.

If your pasture can become wet, your alpacas need an area of higher, firm ground. They rarely suffer from foot rot but they should not be left standing in wet ground.

Liver fluke can cause severe problems in alpacas, causing them to lose weight and generally look dull. They may have diarrhoea. A snail which is an intermediate host for the liver fluke can only survive on boggy, wet ground which does not dry out completely in summer so this must be born in mind when choosing pasture.

As well as grass, your alpacas should be given hay or haylage. When the grass is lush it does not provide sufficient fibre for the alpaca's digestive system.

The alpaca has three stomach fermentation chambers. Microscopic organisms or gut microflora digest the fibre and release the plant energy, producing chemicals which are absorbed through the stomach wall. To work efficiently, the microflora need a suitable environment.

This must be void of oxygen as the digestion process is anaerobic. The microflora must receive a constant supply of ground up grass as well as water. The fibres are ground up by the animal regurgitating the contents of its first and second stomachs and chewing them further.

The more fibre there is in the diet, the longer the animal will chew the cud. Efficient digestion depends on maintaining the correct acidity level in the gut.

This will tend to increase if there is not a stable mat of chewed plant fibre and microorganisms and can result in a tendency for ulcers to form on the lining of the stomach.

Alpacas tend to use specific dunging areas which is useful as it makes it easier to clean the paddock. This should be done regularly and machines are available to help with this task.

Water is important. All living creatures need water but when we have so much rain it is easy to forget how important it is. The more dry matter your animals eat, the more water they require and you must provide a constant source of clean water for them.

On a daily basis, an alpaca will need to drink 5–8 per cent of its body weight of water. The water content of grass is typically 50–80 per cent . That of hay is around 10–12 per cent so the more drier foods your animals are eating, the greater their water requirements.

Nursing dams will require more water as they are producing milk which contains 87 per cent water. Active and growing animals will also require more water, as will pregnant females. This means that you must ensure that there is a plentiful supply which is always available.

As well as water and fibre, the alpaca needs protein, vitamins and minerals. Proteins are vital for all living organisms as they are part of the building blocks of the body. Different feeds provide different levels of protein with grass, hay, haylage and silage being extremely variable.

In order to assess the protein that your animals are getting, you need to have your feeds analysed. There is more protein in early grass which is growing rapidly and early-cut hay is higher in protein than late-cut.

The protein level in cereal grains can be 8–13 per cent and that in lupins and other members of the pea family is higher at 25–45 per cent.

Animals require different levels of protein at different times in their lives. For general maintenance, they need 8–10 per cent.

During gestation, the level is 12 per cent. A lactating animal requires 13–15 per cent. In the first nine months, the growing cria needs 12–14 per cent and this drops to 10–12 per cent for the next nine months.

In the UK, pasture has varying levels of certain minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, magnesium, cobalt and selenium and it is possible for your alpacas to suffer from mineral deficiency.

In order to prevent this, you will need to give a supplemental feed, mainly to supply sufficient minerals. Getting your pasture analysed will enable you to provide the right amount of these minerals.

Alpacas cannot tolerate high levels of supplemental feed so these have to contain higher than usual mineral levels which would prove toxic to other livestock. Various mills are now producing camelid feeds especially formulated for alpacas.