[AlpacaTalk] Re: First alpacas
Hi Mandy, You will love owning alpacas, they are wonderful animals.
Here's my experience on a few of our alpacas. We purchased a gelding
that someone had "won" in a raffle or something and had never been
interested in, he just hung out on an alpaca farm. He was a first
generation Chilean, totally not interested in breeding at 7 yrs of
age so I purchased him as a companion and had him gelded so he could
live with my two girls. He was extremely shy, flinched if you moved
you arm too quickly. Would stay back watching but away from the
others who always wanted treats.
It took him 6 months or so to get to the point where he'd eat treats
out of our hands. We've had Desi for five years now and he's
our "self appointed" girl guardian. He's quite the gentleman, waits
for the girls to get their treats before he comes in for some
himself. He's no longer so afraid of people and he has won an extra
special place in our hearts.
Noelle was a very friendly alpaca when we purchased her the same day
as Desi. She was well halter trained and didn't mind being touched.
She is now 7 years old and has had only given us one baby every other
year (all boys of course) and the one I felt last year never arrived,
we are still stymied about that! Well now her demeanour is very
stand-offish, doesn't really like being touched but is first in line
for the treats! She also will not lead at all. When we halter her
up, clip on the lead, we've got a stubborn donkey on our hands. It
takes one of us with the lead and one pushing her rump to get her to
go one step. Why has she changed? She does not appear sick, we have
our girls checked regularly by the vet and had a lot of bloodwork
done after she never had the cria this year. why has she changed
personality? We don't know, we still treat her the same.
Another thing I have found with skittish alpacas, they are a lot
calmer if you avoid eye contact. Then you're not so threatening. I
have a boy that was born to us, is now 3 and still runs away from me,
unless I avoid eye contact, then he can watch me without feeling like
I am a threat.
We had two babies one day apart last year. Have treated them both
exactly the same. One is friendly, one is skittish, why? We do
believe they learn from their mothers those first six months. They
can also learn behaviour from other alpacas. In the case of these
two crias Gretchen follows a friendly alpaca around and copies
everything he does. Toby does not have an affilliation like that
with another alpaca.
Anyway, my twenty-two cents worth!
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posted by Chaddo at 10:30 AM
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