Do They Spit?

This is the number one question we get asked about our alpacas at Art Farm. Alpacas and their distant and much larger cousins, Llamas, seem to have a reputation for spitting.

The answer is yes they do on occasion spit, but not usually at humans. Spitting is an alpaca's only natural defense (believe it or not), so generally they only spit if they feel threatened.

One of the alpacas did once spit at our goat, Kandinsky, but the goat was asking for it. She kept getting in the face of Harry Potter, the light colored little fella to the right, so Harry let Kandinsky have it in the face with a great huge wad of green, digested orchard hay. Kandy looked enormously surprised and humiliated and backed off immediately.

Mostly, alpacas are sweet and somewhat shy creatures that are easily halter trained. Their fur is as soft as it looks. They have huge eyes and very long lashes. They do not have hooves. Their feet are much like a dog's, with pads on the bottom and large toenails. They are camelids. Their natural habitat is in the Andes.

These two, Harry Potter (so named because he has a tuft of fur on his forehead that resembles a lightening bolt), and Mr. Weasely, the brown one, are about 80 to 100 pounds beneath all the fuzz.