Excitement can be curbed with verbal, hand, and facial cues that are consistent. While they will eat from my hand (though there is still some trepidation), Im unable to actually touch them. Ariana is still the alpha, but Kalista has given up the fight for dominance. Dolly has become even more chill and Reba has become spunkier. Charging may also be a normal way to teach unruly alpacas to behave. I made Faith my special project for months and would slowly work on approaching her. Alpacas are herd animals with very limited ability to protect themselves. But go read this next (and before you buy an alpaca). You really have to have the alpaca from a young age to teach them this is a non-threatening action for them to allow it. This meant I needed to reinforce their sense of security, without disrupting the group dynamic and the natural alpaca behavior that is set in place by the fact that these are livestock animals that have a herd mentality and a social hierarchy in place. An unbred female alpaca can completely change her personality when a male arrives. She is also an alpaca, but she is a milder alpaca. If it is at all possible for you to avoid causing this situation, do so. The first is a warning and is simply a small amount of saliva and air. Sounds include humming, snorting, grumbling, screaming, screeching, clucking, and snorting. Id suggest locating a third alpaca if possible. Mothers will hum and click to their young, especially during their first couple of weeks, so that their babies can learn their voices to find them in a crowded farmyard full of others. Elementary is the little guys aged one and under. Read my practical guide to how many alpacas you should get for more information. This isnt a behavior that should be allowed or encouraged by humans. Love your blog, Rebecca. The 4-H had called us and asked if we could adopt two alpacas that needed to be rehomed. But the other two are still struggling. 8. Is the stomping a sign of frustration or something else? Remember their first purpose is as livestock and as members of a working farm. But they may hum even louder if something happens to annoy them. Friendly Stormy became aloof, while quiet and quirky Reba became spunky. 2. I would say virtually all of our alpacas have changed their personalities once they become pregnant. Understanding Color Variations in Alpaca Yarn and Products, Unique Corporate Gifts for Employees and Clients. Males who persist may be calmed down by gelding. As the human it is my job to maintain the appropriate boundaries, so the young alpacas do not confuse me with an alpaca. This is a situation best avoided. Are alpacas safe or are they dangerous? Having trained many animals before I took on the challenge. What we didnt realize was the ladies had the same personality as Gena and Bill. Usually this aggression is directed towards other male alpacas or llamas - which can lead to vicious attacks on young males when they get old enough to be perceived as rivals. Add in the elements of different environments and females and you will have even more variance in the males temperament. The worst display of dominance in alpacas happens when a male charges another individual, whether an alpaca or a human, and launches into them with all four feet off the ground. Dont back down for a minute and make sure Tommy knows he is second to you. The bred females tend to stand back and just watch as if this is the entertainment for the day. In the most severe cases of Berserk Male Syndrome, offending males must be euthanized for the safety and wellbeing of the humans on the property. Alpacas rub, lean, or inspect things with their nose. End of life is something we alpaca farms in the US need to work on to produce a more sustainable industry. He rears up on his hind legs and comes toward me. Remember that aggressive alpacas are almost always human-caused. Any tips? Females mature faster than their male counterparts. The leader, or alpha, tends to watch over the herd and will influence the behavior of the other alpacas in the herd. Thanks. Personalities change you youll see a different set of behavior in some of them. Alpacas may nip at an annoyance. It may take another six months or six days for them to feel comfortable and build trust. I realize now that i was probably encouraging the behavior. Its her way of signaling she sees you and her effort to create a friendly encounter. Alpacas are generally gentle creatures, but they can exhibit aggressive behavior if they feel threatened. If you let an alpaca bump into you and you tolerate other rude behaviors, it will take that as submission from you and strive to rise above you in the herd hierarchy. This thus reduces the options for using alpacas, which is why older nonbreeders are turned into pets. I learned several things quickly by watching them. Heres my synopsis of that story. After four months, the wethered male was able to come home, albeit as a wholly reformed and well-mannered alpaca. Some alpacas begin to recognize physical items and recall their usage. If you treat an alpaca poorly, they wont soon forget it. When I am in the barn, spitting is usually not present and if I give a look or a no maam they all quickly take note. If you want to read about how fierce of a guard these gentle creatures can be, youll want to read my article about how alpacas protect lambs and sheep or my other article about how safe they are from coyotes. Alpaca pregnancies shift personalities drastically too. It will take time, and effort, and even then it may not work. My family has always loved being outside and gardening. 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. Be present and around as much as possible, sit down on the ground so they can see you as a non-threat, and give them the grace of time. Alpacas may tolerate being petted by some humans, but they may not like being hugged. 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. Based on my research, even the best alpaca owners may accidentally get kicked on rare occasions. Pregnant females will give off a different sent in their urine than an unpregnant female. Why wouldnt you sit on the ground near a mature breeding male? Lol. There is a difference between Im excited for dinner and Id like to mate you. Let them grow up with their own kind and learn the social rules from their fellow alpacas. They learned my stern mom look meant to tone down the behavior and cease the spitting. Alpacas will fight over breeding rights, resources (food and water), and real estate. The alpaca is sniffing the urine or dung pile to get additional information on the alpacas who used it. A slap may surprise an aggressor into reevaluating his decision to mess with you. Its always best to ask their owner for permission. And remember that with some it may never happen. Some of the information weve been given has had slight variations, while other information has completely contradicted the best practices of another farm. Overall, Ive found alpacas to be more trainable then family pets like dogs or cats. Force good manners. Alpacas originate from the vicua, which is a South American camelid. This can just be a display of curiosity. 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. Required fields are marked *. Dolly, Reba, and Princess Aurora are all now pregnant and they have shifted their personality slightly. Intact males fight one another on breeding rights over the females. Males reach sexual maturity quite a bit later, at around three years of age. If cameras are an option, I would highly recommend that route. =), thank-you for your informative infoi have only boys and right now have a younger/maybe 7 yr old mounting an older arthritic 12 yr old often with many screams coming out of the older one. There is no golden rule for managing alpaca behavior. To demonstrate their strength and . Also, you mentioned that gelded males should not be housed with females, will they still try to mount them even if theyre gelded? 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. I indulge in all of it, as I appreciate them as much as they appreciate me. To make matters worse, if you spend time visiting alpaca farms and ask each breeder the same question, youll most likely receive different answers each and every time. It is true that alpacas are quiet and peaceful. In any case, all of my research was most enlightening its both liberating to know that aggressive and dangerous alpacas arent something that just happens. This instantly made me love her and want to bring her home. Spitting is a sign of aggression or dominance that is often used as a pecking order mechanism with other members of the herd. Last year, 2 young male alpacas were introduced to an existing herd of 6 males. Dont attempt to touch the top of the head. However, if you dont have a large, local herd to do your retraining work for you? They have no teeth, horns, or hooves. One cannot discuss alpaca behavior without touching on the issue of Berserk Male syndrome. I spend several hours a day with them in the barn (doing feeding and other chores) Whatever you want to call it, though, its a problem. The next point of confusion involves alpaca herds and the need for maintaining this balance. Teeth can be groomed back into the shape they should be, but this requires expertise and should not be attempted by a novice. Everyone always asks about spitting. One extraordinary alpaca lived to be 27. 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. That is a tough one, especially since separation isnt a real option. hard to separate them and only have 4 fiber boys total. They may also kick if predators are too close. They fall into the pet category when they fail to meet the quality standards needed or they age out. If you look at our alpaca photos, youll clearly see we spend a lot of time with our alpacas. For more ideas on how to manage fighting alpacas, see my full article on why alpacas fight right here. As such, they can be a great addition to your backyard homestead. Backyard Homestead HQ participates 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. After getting hit with a few mean spitballs, the males usually get the point. Alpaca Behavioral Adaptations If you do need to retrain your alpaca yourself, other alpaca owners have shared experiences where theyve been able to retrain alpacas using a combination of implements and help from the rest of the herd. Sometimes the movement of the nose to sniff the air pulls up the alpacas lips in a way that. Since we have two young males right now, we have to watch this closely. They're ready for mating by the time they reach 30 to 36 months. I want the activity to continue to build trust and not degrade it. In some cases, alpha males will immobilize the head and neck of a weaker or challenging male in order to show their strength and dominance. I need baby step guidance. Something went wrong. They were bred to produce high-quality fiber for the rich and wealthy. They eat and lay close together without incident. Alpaca farmers typically do not breed alpacas for pet usage, but they default to this as they age out of their working years. A female alpaca spits when she is not interested in a male alpaca, typically when she thinks that she is already impregnated. This leaves me to Teddy and Levi. Flash forward ten months and the girls no longer spit at every whim. She would not eat from a bucket or our hands, so I would go out in bitterly cold winds to open spaces to work with her on this task. This was their primary purpose and why they are referred to as producing the fiber of the gods. In addition to producing high-quality, hypoallergenic fiber, alpacas also produce offspring, hides, poop, and meat for sale. What Alpacas Are Good for? Hi There! Calm little Reba will not quickly tell other alpacas how she feels. They may pretend to bite while playing fighting. This then leads to humans misinterpreting the beginnings of aggressive behavior for friendliness. And it needs to be remedied. Thats normal behavior. Of those males in high school, one is the Fonzi of the group. Im planning on having an alpaca herd some day and want to mainly focus on tourism and healing with the alpacas. The stomping of feet is an indicator of being upset or stressed. 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. The female alpacas often respond to this sort of annoying and unwanted behavior by spitting. Spitting should be a rare occurrence. Just know that re-training an aggressive alpaca isnt an overnight fix. Their behavior was just the opposite of the Crystal Divas and Micays offspring. If theyll adopt another species, that may work. It also assumes that aggression is the result of natural alpaca behavior when, in fact, it The best thing you can do to prevent dangerous alpacas is simply to prevent it in the first place. However, this behavior should not be encouraged by humans (doing so can cause them to learn abnormal, aggressive behaviors).SpittingThis can be the first line of defense for some alpacas. They are just as lovable as the girls but come with a lot fewer disagreements. Neither had ever had a barn, so they opted to stay outside the first few weeks. Weve worked on halter training with ladies at 5+ and at 13+ years old. Berserk llama syndrome (usually shortened to BLS ), aberrant behavior syndrome, or berserk male syndrome (as it is more pronounced in males) is a psychological condition experienced by human-raised camelids, particularly llamas and alpacas, that can cause them to exhibit dangerously aggressive behavior toward humans. My caveat to this is they are highly intelligent livestock and this does impact how one would interact with them. You can either build up trust or degrade it with each encounter. So, it is a lot of shifts in behavior in just a short amount of time. Alpacas and their usage are signals of farming, livestock, and operating a farm as a business. That said, when our breeder males have been around the females, I would not consider doing so, as their behavior is greatly influenced by the breeding process and hormones. The Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldog breed has an athletic look with a . Looking at the five girls, their personalities, and how theyve changed over the last few months is a great example of nature vs. nurture. This is most commonly seen in bottle-fed males who grew up around people more than other alpacas. Indie was actively seeking interaction with me this week and there was a noticeable difference in her level of comfort and happiness. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. Alpacas know if one alpaca is receiving more attention than others. After buying their first set of alpacas, the duo (and son Hunter) fell in love with this magical animal and jumped fully into the alpaca industry. In all of my experience with alpacas, Ive never met an overly aggressive one. Keep in mind that rubbing against you, biting at your clothes and shows, and rolling around on your feet are NOT affectionate behaviors, but rather precursors to more dangerous aggressive behaviors. 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