Alpaca Books and More!

When starting a farm, alpaca books can guide you through the process and help you avoid mistakes. These books are written by people who deal with alpacas and provide the basics that a novice needs to get started raising alpacas.

First, we have created a childrens activity book with an alpaca theme. You can get the Alpaca Counting Book for your child to learn some preschool skills.

Below we have listed our favorite books that helped us when we were starting our farm.

We have only listed alpaca books that we personally read and liked and feel will benefit the novice. Of course, if other alpaca owners have another alpaca book that they feel is worthy of the list and we haven't read it, we will glady take suggestions. Don't forget Llama books. They are helpful, too, because they are camelids and have very similar behavior to alpacas. The purpose of our alpaca book list is to help those starting to get good information so they can be successful.

The very first book we used was:

The Alpaca Book by Murray E. Fowler

This comprehensive book takes you on a journey through alpaca history, husbandry, training, feeding, farming, and much more. It's a great reference book. We have read through it several times over the years. Easy for a beginner to understand with enough details to be useful to established breeders. Great book for an overall look at alpacas. This book is hard to find and can range in cost from $75.00 - $400.00!

This is One Of the Books That We Feel is a Must Have:

Llama and Alpaca Neonatal Care by Smitth, Timm, and Long

If you are going to birth alpaca cria on your farm, we highly recommend this book. Easy to understand field manual for breeding, birthing, post-partum, and cria care. A must have for novice breeders.

What About Handling and Training Alpacas?:

The Camelid Companion by Marty McGee Bennett

Marty is a well respected llama and alpaca trainer. She believes people need training, not the animals. Great tips on handling camelids. This book relates a little more to llamas, but includes info useful to alpaca owners, too. This book can help you solve problems and avoid creating problems in the first place.

Here's One Of the Felting Books We Like:

The art of Feltmaking by Anne Vickrey

Wonderful, creative wet felting projects for kids and beginning adults. Projects include: bracelets, puppets, masks, stuffed animals, and wall hangings. Lots of felting fun.

And You'll Want Needle Felting Books to Get Really Creative with Alpaca Fleece:

Needle Felting: Art Techniques and Projects by Anne Vickrey

Great for needle felting beginners. Has five simple projects that get increasingly difficult as you go through them. Will show you how to make a fairy.

For More Advanced Work:

New Felt using the felting needle by Birgitte Krag Hansen

If you really want to take your needle felting to new heights, get this book. Covers flat felting, human figures, animals and reliefs. This book really inspired us to try new things and to improve and develop our own techniques. Highly recommended if you plan on selling your needle felting.

These are the alpaca books and fiber related books that helped us. Maybe they can help you, too.

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