What colour?
May 25th 2008 23:30
If you’re registering alpacas you need to state what colour they are. The AAA (Australian Alpaca Association) has a chart with 12 colours on it and you need to pick the closest to the colour of the alpaca you’re registering.
Here’s D’Entracaseaux, Donald for short. Donald was born 23 December at 11am. He’s a little guy who, on first appearances looks to be a very light fawn colour.
When his fleece is opened though he’s a medium fawn, or might even be closer to the dark fawn on the chart. Some would say he’s closer to a rose grey colour.
In any case, Donald likes to roll and cover himself in dirt so he’s often a dirty grey colour, on the outside anyway.
Alpacas come in a huge range of colours, so it’s often very difficult to decide which colour they are, from the chart. Some alpacas have turned up at shows registered as light fawn and been told by the show stewards that they’re white, or as medium fawn and been told they’re rose grey.
I heard of one alpaca, registered as light fawn, who was moved to the white class by a show steward, then rejected by the judge as being a light fawn.
Some alpacas start out white and go fawn later. To tell white from light fawn you really have to put a piece of white paper up against the fleece, right in near the skin. Even then, it’s still often a guess.
As well as the whites v. light fawns, we have fawns and browns here so we get to choose which shade of fawn or brown needs to go on the rego form.
We haven’t shown alpacas for years, so it’s not such a problem for us. I love all the different colours and as long as they’re lovely and soft and nice natured, I don’t really mind what colour my alpacas are.
It’s still a bit of a lucky dip with alpacas. I’ve heard cases of blacks having all white crias and visa versa. There are breeders who are breeding for just white or just black. They get very disappointed when a lovely medium fawn appears (especially if they paid $2000 for the mating).
I’m just happy to get a healthy, beautiful little cria. The colours are all wonderful, even if I can’t decide what colour they are.
Here’s D’Entracaseaux, Donald for short. Donald was born 23 December at 11am. He’s a little guy who, on first appearances looks to be a very light fawn colour.
When his fleece is opened though he’s a medium fawn, or might even be closer to the dark fawn on the chart. Some would say he’s closer to a rose grey colour.
In any case, Donald likes to roll and cover himself in dirt so he’s often a dirty grey colour, on the outside anyway.
Alpacas come in a huge range of colours, so it’s often very difficult to decide which colour they are, from the chart. Some alpacas have turned up at shows registered as light fawn and been told by the show stewards that they’re white, or as medium fawn and been told they’re rose grey.
I heard of one alpaca, registered as light fawn, who was moved to the white class by a show steward, then rejected by the judge as being a light fawn.
Some alpacas start out white and go fawn later. To tell white from light fawn you really have to put a piece of white paper up against the fleece, right in near the skin. Even then, it’s still often a guess.
As well as the whites v. light fawns, we have fawns and browns here so we get to choose which shade of fawn or brown needs to go on the rego form.
We haven’t shown alpacas for years, so it’s not such a problem for us. I love all the different colours and as long as they’re lovely and soft and nice natured, I don’t really mind what colour my alpacas are.
It’s still a bit of a lucky dip with alpacas. I’ve heard cases of blacks having all white crias and visa versa. There are breeders who are breeding for just white or just black. They get very disappointed when a lovely medium fawn appears (especially if they paid $2000 for the mating).
I’m just happy to get a healthy, beautiful little cria. The colours are all wonderful, even if I can’t decide what colour they are.
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