Alpacas may also fight over resources like food, water, and prime real estate. ?.+|"W /\DQISzgsY Or, in the most extreme cases, talk to your livestock veterinarian. An aggressive alpaca is an anomaly caused by overexposure to humans that may require intense retraining, re-homing, or culling. A popular option seems to be using a squirt gun (or a hose) to simulate spitting to reinforce better behavior. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. If you look at our alpaca photos, youll clearly see we spend a lot of time with our alpacas. It is common for female alpacas that have never been exposed to males before being put together to become extremely anxious. The animal perceives humans as another alpaca and as they mature, can show extreme aggression toward people. And do what you can to squash bad behaviors before they get worse. And honestly, all it really took was patience, some love, and allowing Faith to progress at her own pace. The males are more aggressive than the females and they establish . However, if you dont have a large, local herd to do your retraining work for you? 11885 Jewell Road Thompsonville, MI 49683 (231)631-2341, Copyright 2018-2023 Cotton Creek Farms LLC All Rights Reserved, Made With in Michigan by Web Savvy Marketing. Alpacas can learn verbal commands and be taught to take action based on these commands. Its totally normal. The more I personally interact with alpacas, the more I become highly annoyed with everything I read about understanding and managing alpaca behavior. Theyre gentle, on the smaller end of size (as far as livestock go), and are nimble, graceful, gentle creatures. R]=`?K8Nl8LC4 Im a Michigan native. The most important thing to know about alpaca body language is that an alpaca invading your personal space and nibbling at your clothes is not cute and should be pointedly discouraged. So much so that someone fell in love with her a few months later, took her home, and immediately had her close, eating out of her hand, and eagerly interacting. As the alpaca owner and breeder, it is your responsibility to create the proper herd structure and physical boundaries to create a safe and healthy environment for your herd. Ive had two incidents where Teddy and Levi went from being loving to wanting to dominate me in play. But what its called will depend on who youre talking to. Once you start to build up that trust, youll be able to feed them pellets out of your hand which will continue to build that trust. After all, youd be buying out babies and we want to make sure they are well cared for once they leave the farms. Do you think gelding the boys (even though they are no where near the girls) would help end the behavior? A typical bale of hay weighs 60 pounds. My family has always loved being outside and gardening. So really, he is the one I worry about and the reason I wouldnt camp out in high school. They play fight and goof around like teenage humans, but they also leave out all the drama teenage girls can bring. They can tell one human apart from another and they can learn how to adapt to different humans and each other. His spunky attitude will help make him an excellent herdsire if his fiber and conformation support it. So yes, it is perfectly acceptable to do so. Alpacas are generally gentle creatures, but they can exhibit aggressive behavior if they feel threatened. They may also kick if predators are too close. I had my fill of this quickly and I would find myself doing manners training in the barn with the girls in the depth of February winter nights. So, the owner talked to another alpaca owner and sent her ill-mannered wether to live with a herd of male alpacas (a mix of studs/machos and wethers). And, as you consider adding them to your menagerie, make sure you find and work with a reputable breeder. Alpacas have two kinds of spit. The alpaca herd is similar to any community, group, or even gang. Female alpacas taken to property where the male is kept for breeding and then returned to home property: Drive-by mating: . Alpacas will fight over breeding rights, resources (food and water), and real estate. Rubbing, Leaning, or Sticking a Nose in Your Space. Adel is the only alpaca on our farm that will allow this interaction and this is because my son showered her with attention since she was six months old. Before I talk about standard alpaca behavior, Id like to review my history with our alpacas. Notice I did not say one of the herd. All three are mellow and just plain go with the flow alpacas. The more human interaction we offer, the more we learn about alpaca behavior, and the more we know our alpaca herd. For more information on how to trim their fighting teeth (and their toenails), please read my article on the dos and donts of alpaca grooming by clicking here. Add in the elements of different environments and females and you will have even more variance in the males temperament. The real one is green and full of stuff theyve been eating. I know many owners who were attacked by a male llama or alpaca, who was previously a sweet pet, even after gelding, when the animal had not learned to respect humans and thought of them as equals. Alpacas are not often aggressive. Four of these five alpacas arrived together and then we had to patiently wait for baby Adel to come once she was weaned from her mother. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Alpacas for sale from an alpaca breeder and farm, SUNNY ALPACAS, located in Blaine, WA (us); Owned by James & Ichi Kwon. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Receive product coupons, farm announcements, new articles. 3. They feel safest in a herd and they are at the peak of mental and physical health when they are in a herd. They communicate through body language. I started acting more like an alpha by waving my hands at him and shooing him away when he approached me and seemed to invade my personal space. if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'savvyfarmlife_com-leader-1','ezslot_9',106,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-savvyfarmlife_com-leader-1-0');This one is a little complicated and not necessarily a negative or positive behavior. Alpacas may nip at an annoyance. Kalista was always trying to move into her position, but she didnt have the personality passed onto her from Micay so she was no match for Ariana. The big problem turned out to be that the corporate white collars had bought them at 8-12years old having spent their WHOLE life on a farm with littler interaction. HWF$HjYglU+5$Bw(&K'E+Q8t#dV[oCqqiJ(z{`[@_nDv|\zPWi> "iei.=x]W~qg /KM8E?x ;]bi E3Oo7_y Ym Elementary is the little guys aged one and under. Alpacas can spit for several reasons. Since we have two young males right now, we have to watch this closely. They may also kick if predators are too close. While I didnt need to shift any alpaca behavior with this group, I did want to make sure the chill alpacas didnt feel overpowered by the diva alpacas. Young alpacas approaching older members of the herd use tail raising as a sign of submission and to show that they arent there to challenge anyone. My rule of thumb is just when you think it will never happen, it does. Do Alpacas Fight Each Other? Alpacas communicate not only with body language but also through a series of vocalizations. My caveat to this is they are highly intelligent livestock and this does impact how one would interact with them. What we didnt realize was the ladies had the same personality as Gena and Bill. It always seems that just when you think it will never happen, the trust emerges, and the alpacas relax. As the weeks progressed, Stormy grew her love for us. Alpacas can watch and react to facial expressions of humans. The leader, or alpha, tends to watch over the herd and will influence the behavior of the other alpacas in the herd. Just like people, not every alpaca is an extrovert or touchy feely. Thank you so much! This is because they no longer have the option of breeding and producing offspring. A slap may surprise an aggressor into reevaluating his decision to mess with you. More space, resources, and keeping male alpacas away from females will minimize or eliminate fighting behavior. I have worked with one a lot, she trusts me the most. Not once did the alpaca mean to spit on me personally. It will become a bigger problem as your cria turns into an unruly, aggressive adult. She was super pleasant and sweet, but the bottom line was she cared about nothing else beyond her next meal. Middle school is the guys who are two to four. If youve ever witnessed mating with an aggressive male, youll know why. . Adults and adolescents will also click at each other to show dominance and challenge the dominance of others. Spitting is not something that an alpaca walks around doing for no specific reason. The oldest male (Tommy) is 7 years old and he is super friendly. This website is where we're sharing everything we've learned. The treatment is usually directed toward managing social groups, establishing normal conditions when possible, and maintaining welfare. Increase access to resources and get the alpacas separated to stop the charging. CASE DESCRIPTION A female alpaca, kept at pasture with 12 other female alpacas, 2 crias, and 5 goats, was evaluated because of clinical signs of aggression. You want to personally know and deeply understand your herd. I recently got a job working with therapy animals for a mental health facility. How should the caregiver respond if it happens again? Even mother Kalista and daughter Sienna offered little grace to each other when personal space and feeding came into play. Everyone always asks about spitting. We will spray their underbelly and armpits, which seems to be the favorite spots. The female varies too. Just to protect themselves from a potential life-threatening situation. Alpacas are herd animals with very limited ability to protect themselves. And they settled in, their alpaca behavior shifted. This has happened in the two previous years also with two alpacas being added to the herd each year, all alpacas obtained from the same local breeder. Males can get aggressive and sometimes fight other alpaca males. They have sharp fighting teeth that can be used in defense or in fights over breeding rights. Why wouldnt you sit on the ground near a mature breeding male? Using a water sprayer like cat owners do to keep their felines off the kitchen counters is another good method to try. Everyone is more tolerant of each other and they all know I am the alpha human mom. Alpha alpacas expect to be treated with respect and this pertains to both humans and the alpaca herd. Males are known as 'machos'. Do not allow these behaviors to continue. And it needs to be remedied. Savvyfarmlife.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Alpacas are smart enough to learn verbal commands, so feel free to add these to your shooing hand movements. Ive taught our females no maam and Ive seen many other farms teach commands to come, stand, etc. And she does so with interest and happiness for the treats. I believe I have an interest in livestock alpacas. Some may argue with me on that approach, but for the peace and stress level of the herd, I thought it was necessary. Sure, theyll defend themselves (and their herd adopted or actual) from small predators. But the other two are still struggling. Of those males in high school, one is the Fonzi of the group. Teddy and Levi are just reaching this point. We have the two sexes well separated (separate barns and pastures and no shared fence lines) as we are not breeding at this time and have not done so for 10 years. Something went wrong. Benefits & Uses This thus reduces the options for using alpacas, which is why older nonbreeders are turned into pets. Also, thanks for posting all of this, Im surprised Ive been doing things right, you really helped me feel more confident! Just like the average teenage boy, they argue and then they quickly move on. In that case, its a sign that resource access needs to be addressed. It is only when this happens that you will be able to fully understand alpaca behavior and better see how your actions can influence it in a positive or negative manner. If it is at all possible for you to avoid causing this situation, do so. This group made an excellent addition to our alpaca herd, because their behavior offset that of the Crystal alpacas. Even mother Kalista and daughter Sienna offered little grace to each other when personal space and feeding came into play. I literally taught our adult alpacas no maam without even trying to do it, which makes me think I could have trained them for so much more if I was paying better attention. He commands all the attention of the ladies and everyone wants to breed him. Really appreciate the detailed response. Weve worked on halter training with ladies at 5+ and at 13+ years old. For alpacas that are already charging and trying to knock you over, you may try pulling your knee up to your chest so that they hit that and feel more discomfort with it than they would just hitting your chest. Backyard Homestead HQ is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies. It may also be a natural reaction if resources are limited. They learned my stern mom look meant to tone down the behavior and cease the spitting. You can minimize fighting by increasing access to resources and separating males from females. Then again, thats also sobering to realize that we can be such a bad influence on such an amazing animal! They may pretend to bite while playing fighting. Do you know of any places that have disabled alpacas? 1. When the girls fight over food or are too much in my face, a no maam, we dont act like that here is what they get from me instead of food. This isnt a behavior that should be allowed or encouraged by humans. Often referred to as Berserk Male Syndrome, and more recently referred to as Aberrant Behavior Syndrome (ABS), this is aggressive, un-mannerly behavior, and possibly will lead to extremely dangerous behavior in llamas and alpacas. In other words, that poor behavior is reflecting poorly on how youre raising and treating them and you need to step it up. . If the behavior hasnt gone too far, it is fixable. Vin is the oldest alpaca we have and the matriarch. It will take time, and effort, and even then it may not work. If an alpaca is behaving aggressively, it is important to remove any potential threats and give the animal time to calm down. 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