Alpaca Behaviour and Handling for New Owners

Never Alone: Why the Herd Matters

• Separation is stressful: research on alpacas has shown that separating one animal from the rest of the herd is very stressful for it
• They bunch together in danger: the alpaca that spots a threat gives a high, shrill call and stares towards it with ears pricked, and the rest of the herd gathers
• Never pen one on its own: an alpaca penned alone will be distressed; if you only want to work with one, keep its companions in the pen with it or right alongside
• Move the group, not the patient: if one alpaca needs looking at, bring the whole group in, keep a companion with the patient in the catch pen, and let the others go
• They hide illness: a sick alpaca stays with the herd and tries to look normal for as long as it can; by the time it separates itself or cannot keep up, it may be seriously ill

Reading Ears, Tail and Neck

Alpacas mostly communicate with their bodies. In a quiet, settled herd, small shifts of the ears, tail and neck are usually enough to keep the peace. The postures below are based on a published behavioural study of a Huacaya herd.

What Your Alpacas Are Saying

• Humming: the sound you will hear most; it can mean contentment, but it can also mean worry or distress, for example after a move or separation, so read it alongside the body language
• Alarm call: a loud, high-pitched, staccato bray that warns the herd of danger; when you hear it, look where the herd is looking
• Clucking or clicking: a friendly or submissive signal, often given with the tail flipped up over the back
• Snorting: a warning, often before spitting, and the sound a female makes when she is refusing a male
• Orgling: the gurgling sound a male makes during courtship and mating

Why Alpacas Spit, and How to Stay Out of the Way

• Mostly aimed at each other: spitting is mainly between alpacas, over food, personal space or rank; people usually get hit only when they are in the line of fire
• Individuals differ: some alpacas spit readily, others almost never do
• A sign of high arousal: it usually comes with strong emotional arousal and is often preceded by warnings such as blowing air out of the mouth
• Females and males: a female will spit at a male she does not want to accept; males spit at each other when they fight
• Feeding time: squabbles at the trough are a common trigger, so do not stand between alpacas competing for food

Catching Calmly, in a Catch Pen

Catching is a skill you learn, not something the alpaca learns. Done well, it takes a minute or two and each catch gets easier. Done badly, by chasing, cornering and grabbing, every catch gets harder.

• Use a small pen: a catch pen of roughly 8 by 8 or 9 by 9 feet; it holds the alpaca so you do not have to (see our setting-up guide for building one)
• Leave the escape route open: do not stand right in front of the alpaca or too close, and angle your shoulders away; an alpaca that feels it could leave is the one most likely to stand still
• Approach from behind the eye: move smoothly and steadily, not from straight in front
• Balance, not force: a balanced alpaca carries about two-thirds of its weight on its front legs, with its head in line over its neck and shoulders; an alpaca pulled off balance panics
• Do not chase: chasing a frightened alpaca round a field risks injury to you and the animal; if it is not working, stop and try again later

A Halter That Fits the Head, Not the Nose

Alpacas are semi-obligate nasal breathers: they breathe almost entirely through the nose. On most adults the nose bone ends only about an inch in front of the eyes, and the rest of what looks like the nose is soft cartilage. A noseband that slips forward onto that cartilage squeezes the airway. The alpaca feels it cannot breathe, and panics.

• Open the noseband fully before you put the halter on, every time
• Tighten the crown piece first: the strap behind the ears must be snug enough that the noseband cannot be pulled forward off the bone
• Check it: tug the noseband forward; if it reaches the edge of the bone, tighten the crown piece further (press gently on the nose: if it gives, that is cartilage)
• Then take the slack out of the noseband, without tightening it; you should still fit a finger or two inside, so the alpaca can chew and ruminate
• Recheck after about ten minutes: nylon stretches and fleece compresses, so a crown piece that was snug can work loose
• Take it off when you are done: avoid leaving a halter on overnight

Teaching an Alpaca to Walk on a Lead

• When to start: one specialist trainer advises not before about four months, when youngsters are too small, insecure and short on attention; a school-farm guide gives three to eight months; starting at a year or older is no problem
• Short and often: lessons of around fifteen minutes, two or three times a week; if in doubt, fewer lessons rather than longer ones
• Start in the pen: teach the meaning of the lead inside the catch pen, with a companion present, before going anywhere else
• Do not pull steadily: a steady pull teaches the alpaca to lean back against you; instead give small, repeated forward signals on the lead, and give complete slack the moment it takes a step, so it learns that the slack means "yes"
• Keep the line soft: there should be a slight curve in the lead; a straight, tight line means too much pressure
• If it bolts, give it line: holding fast causes more panic; a longer lead, folded so it cannot wrap round your hand, lets you let it run out safely
• Use a narrow space: a short, narrow laneway alongside the pen keeps the alpaca walking straight without you having to hold its head

Handling for Injections and Vet Visits

• Get them in before the vet arrives: leave yourself plenty of time so neither you nor the animals are flustered; a chased, cornered alpaca will not give true readings of temperature, heart rate or breathing
• Inject from across the body: lean over the alpaca and inject on the far side, so that if it moves away from the needle it moves into you, not away
• Under cover, out of the herd's way: a small pen for examining an ill alpaca works best under cover and away from the rest of the herd, apart from its pen companion
• Ask for help early: if an animal cannot be handled safely, reschedule, get a more experienced handler, or talk to your vet about sedation

Friendly Is Fine, Pushy Is a Warning

A cria that is handled too much, or raised more by people than by alpacas, can come to see humans as part of its own herd. Once it matures, it treats people the way it would treat other alpacas, including challenging them for rank. In males this can become genuinely dangerous.

• Early warning signs in a cria: coming up to you with its head lowered and tail up over its back, sniffing at your crotch or feet, pulling at laces, rubbing against you, or lying on your feet
• Warning signs in a young male: rearing up at the gate or along the fence when food arrives, standing broadside with the tail out when you walk into the paddock, or running at you with the head low and weaving
• Do not hand-feed males, and do not cuddle or pet cria as if they were lambs or puppies
• Orphans stay with the herd: an orphaned or bottle-fed cria should be kept with the nursing herd wherever possible, not raised as a pet
• The fix is alpaca company: a pushy young male needs more activity and more alpacas of his own age, and less or different contact with people
• Breeders also report that males can single out one person to challenge, sometimes a man as a rival, sometimes a woman as someone to dominate

Good Handling Habits