Blue eyed white alpaca with piebald cria.

The Alpaca Association of New Zealand recognises 12 colours: black, dark brown, medium brown, light brown, dark fawn, medium fawn, light fawn, white, dark grey, medium grey, light grey and rose grey (or roan). 

In Peru where alpaca fleece is produced in huge volume they recognise 22 colours including several hues of white.

Black alpaca is really black, we often use the term “blue black” to describe the blackest alpaca fleece. Unlike sheep’s wool the black doesn’t fade, it stays black. 

Having said that, black crias are sometimes born with brown tips to the fleece but the fleece is black at the skin; these crias will be true black when shorn.

Also some finer fleeced animals can fade a little at the tips after a year of being exposed to New Zealand’s strong UV light, but this bleaching is insignificant when the fleece is spun and turned into yarn. 

If you have a jersey made from black alpaca fleece it will stay black – unless perhaps you wear it outside all day every day for 12 months. 

Browns are rich in colour and can have a reddish mahogany hue, or a golden ginger hue, and fawns follow suit.  Dark brown is almost black, light fawn is almost white.  When they’re dry, light fawn alpacas look white, but when wet, or when the fleece is spun, the fawn is visible.  In most cases alpaca fleece will look darker when spun, so dark fawn looks quite brown when it is turned into yarn.

Grey is one of the most interesting colours.  Silver grey is really a mix of black and white while rose grey is a mix of brown and white.

Darker greys have more black or brown and less white, while lighter greys have more white.  Grey is actually formed by a “white marking” gene, a silver grey alpaca is really a black animal with a white pattern which gives a grey effect and a rose grey is really a brown animal with the same white pattern. 

Some rose greys can look quite mauve, others can look silvery brown and still others look fawn. The grey pattern can be evident on any colour base, the darker the base the more “grey” the animal looks.

There are at least two other white marking genes – tuxedo and piebald.  If an alpaca is tuxedo it will have white markings somewhere on the face, neck or front feet and legs. 

The white markings may be extensive, or may be almost unnoticeable with just a white spot somewhere on the face or under the chin. 

The back of the neck will always be coloured – the white does not extend that far.  Piebald animals on the other hand tend to have a lot more white on the body, and the white will quite likely go right around the neck.

Breeding for colour is an interesting exercise.  Black is recessive so if the sire and dam are both black you would expect a black cria. 

The white marking genes are dominant over solid colour.  If a silver grey sire goes over a solid black dam you would expect half the progeny to be grey and half to be black. 

However, if the dam is not solid and is carrying a different white marking gene (tuxedo or piebald), the use of a grey sire can cause the cria to be white with blue eyes. 

We call these “blue eyed whites” – or BEWs for short.  In these cases the sire will have thrown the white marking gene that displays as grey and the dam will have thrown the white marking gene that displays as tuxedo or piebald, and the cria will have inherited both, causing the blue eyed white phenomenon.

The blue eyes come about from a lack of melanin and are a startling sky blue colour.  Some BEWs have eyes which are completely blue, others may have dark eyes with small sky-blue spots. 

It is said BEWs are deaf, caused by the lack of melanin.  Those of us with BEWs in our herds watch their behaviour to try to establish whether they are deaf or not, and the general consensus seems to be that some are and some aren’t. 

Even though the BEW cria to a grey sire and tuxedo or piebald dam appears as a white animal it is still genetically black, and when it matures and is mated to a solid black alpaca the resulting cria will be black – but it will inherit and exhibit one of the white marking genes carried by it’s BEW parent. 

So, if the BEW alpaca is female with a grey sire and tuxedo dam, and she is always mated to a solid black sire, her cria will be either grey or tuxedo every time.

Not all BEWs are the progeny of black and grey parents.  It is the opposing white marking genes that cause the BEW cria, and these white markings can be on any colour base. 

A rose grey sire and a brown tuxedo dam could produce a BEW cria that is carrying brown and not black, so it’s cria in turn will be brown tuxedo or rose grey.  A fawn “rose grey” sire and a fawn tuxedo dam may produce a BEW cria that will throw only fawn. 

It’s difficult to see the white markings on a fawn base, and impossible to see them on a light fawn or white base – consequently two apparent “solid” white alpacas can produce a BEW cria because in fact both are carrying white marking genes; you just can’t see the white pattern on the white base.

Another alpaca coat pattern is appaloosa. Appaloosa alpacas tend to have a dark tip to the nose, dark markings around the eyes, dark ears, dark feet and dark sweat glands on the legs, and dark spots on the body.

Some dark fawn alpacas have vicuna markings – these animals are light coloured under the belly and inside the legs.  This is the wild pattern and is not surprising – after all, the vicuna is very likely the ancestor of the alpaca.