AUBURN – In the shadow of the barn, Morelia Candia is surrounded by alpacas.

A round brown alpaca nuzzles a thin brown one. A mother and baby wander by. Dozens of youngsters and females mill around, watching Candia curiously with ears flicked forward.

“It’s very difficult to choose a favorite,” Candia said, and she wrapped her arms around the neck of Cristobal, a deep, chocolate brown alpaca with a fuzzy round head and a teddy bear face. She kissed him on the nose. “Everybody is special to me.”

All 75 of them.

Established in 1999, Andes Alpaca Farm started with just five alpacas. Nine years later, the Auburn farm boasts several show winners and prized breeders. Their thick coat, called fiber, is cherished by knitters for its cashmere-like softness and variety of colors. Some of the alpacas are sold as pets to people who have the room for large animals but don’t want the work of horses, sheep or cows.

“They look all the time like they’re smiling,” Candia said of the alpacas. “So you come home, you look at them and how can you help smiling?”

Related to llamas, alpacas stand about 36 inches tall at the withers and can weigh between 100 and 200 pounds, according to the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association. The babies, called crias, weigh 14 to 22 pounds or more when born.

Two dozen alpacas are expected to be born on the Andes Alpaca Farm this year. The latest addition, Belinda, was born two weeks ago.

The young alpacas and females are kept separate from the adult males on 10 acres of fields and barns. They spend their days playing in the fields or eating grass, hay and pellets.

Candia knows all the animals by name.

“Though it may take me a couple of minutes for the ones born last year,” she said.

Alpacas communicate with low hums and high pitched cries. Around Candia, there is a lot of humming, a little curious nudging.

Although Candia is partial to alpacas with round faces and teddy bear looks, she doesn’t have a single favorite among her 75. They each have their own personality – timid, outgoing, curious, oblivious – and Candia simply can’t choose one over the other.

“Even the one I call the SOB,” she said with a laugh.

With 75 alpacas to care for and more on the way, Candia can’t give them as much individual attention as she’d like. But she gets plenty of group time.

“I love them,” she said.

Have an idea for a pet feature? Contact Lindsay Tice at 689-2854 or e-mail her at [email protected]