What do some of you think of Canadian imported alpacas....or lines from other countries?

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Permalink Reply by Rick Horn - All American Alpacas on February 6, 2010 at 12:04am

Never done it, but here are my thoughts:
If they are ARI registered, it can be a good thing. Canada does have some very nice animals.
Find out beforehand what it will cost to import them. I'd personally only buy if the price included delivery to the US.
Do your homework on the breeder. In Canada and the US, there are reputable breeders, and those that aren't. If you're not comfortable doing business with the breeder on a handshake, pass, as contracts can not realistically be enforced.
Rick
--
Rick & Pati Horn
All American Alpacas
35215 Avenida Mañana
Murrieta, Ca. 92563
http://aaalpacas.com/updates.html
(951) 217-0306 Fax (951) 679-8696
Life is good!

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Permalink Reply by Jami Barnett on February 6, 2010 at 12:07am

Thank you rick for your opinion. I appreciate you posting your thoughts/opinions even if you don't have the actual experience because I am naive and have no experience purchasing at all! : )

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Permalink Reply by Margie Phipps on February 6, 2010 at 11:02am

Jamie, I have two girls that I bought from Canada. They were at a farm here in KY and had already been through the importation etc. The farm in KY has been working with the Canadian farm for several years. The Canada farm has been extremely easy to work with and even gave me an extra year to pay off my girls when we had trouble selling our Flroida home before moving to KY. I would not hesitate to buy from them again.

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Permalink Reply by Don Marquette on February 6, 2010 at 2:19pm

Hi Jami,

We have purchased well over 100 alpacas, and about 10 from Canada over the years. We had good experience with all Canadian purchases, except for running into US border control issues. I believe it is more risky, because of potential legal logistics ,.......and for that reason buying from Canada better be a lower price. There are also many border protocols that need to be followed to the T, or you risk wasting your time going up to bring them down, only to be stopped at border and returning them back to Canada until you follow the correct protocol. Working thru brokers is a must.
Make sure they are ARI registered. There are some very nice untapped bloodlines up there for our market, then again, they exist in the States also.
Back when we were buying from Canada, alpacas were selling at a 50% discount to US alpacas, so it was worth the extra hassle .

Don Marquette
the AlpacaRosa

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Permalink Reply by Rolf Barbakken on March 18, 2010 at 4:20pm

I have never bought from Canada myself, but I do notice quite a few good alpacas going from Australia to Canada, so they should have some interesting bloodlines.

For some reason the EU trusts Canadians more than Americans, so it's easier for us to import from Canada than from the USA. Not sure why.

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