Welcoming alpacas into your life is a joyful experience, but it also comes with unique challenges: alpaca husbandry, or the day-to-day management and healthcare of alpacas, is often an area many owners struggle with. Giving injections, trimming toenails, or assessing body condition can become nightmare tasks for some owners. Here, I'll share my initial struggles with husbandry and what has helped me become a more skilled alpaca handler.
Joyful beginnings
When my first alpacas arrived at my farm, I was ecstatic. Those long-necked, graceful camelids entertained me daily with their gentle grazing and unique personalities. I couldn’t stop grinning. That elation lasted a few months until my first alpaca healthcare task—administering injections and trimming toenails. My grin turned into a sour mood as I faced the reality that handling alpacas was more challenging than I had imagined. The animals I thought were fluffy beauties seemed to transform into spitting, kicking, and rearing monsters overnight.
The reality of alpaca care
Welcome to alpaca ownership: here are some needles
Being an alpaca owner involves regular healthcare tasks. Unlike cats or dogs that you can easily take to the vet for vaccination, alpacas are farm animals that require health management on-site. Alpaca owners, much like horse owners, must perform most of these tasks themselves, including:
Giving injections
Administering oral medication
Trimming toenails
Checking body condition
Herding animals (e.g., moving them to a pen, shelter, or new paddock)
Providing first aid for cuts
Applying creams or sprays
Assisting with shearing
Loading animals onto a float
While it might seem straightforward in theory, these tasks can be surprisingly difficult. Even if you have experience with other farm animals, alpacas' unique physiology and behaviours require specific understanding and techniques.
My initial struggles
In my early years of alpaca ownership, I sustained numerous injuries: kicks to my legs and groin, injection pricks, back strain, falls, and many others. Getting spat on the face was nothing compared to an alpaca rearing up and crushing my arm on the gate. The most bizarre incident occurred when my partner, helping me give injections to a pregnant female, was dragged across the yard as he held onto her neck. That day, he almost separated from me in anger.
Managing your emotions and expectations
Common feelings in your alpaca journey
It's normal to experience a range of emotions early in your alpaca journey, including frustration, anger, disenchantment, and feelings of failure. However, it's important to understand that these feelings are part of the process and that things can improve as you learn about alpaca behaviour and specific techniques to handle them calmly.
Just use force, right?
Using force to control alpacas during husbandry tasks is not the solution. Force, restraint, and mobilisation often lead to alpacas turning their freeze or flight mode on. Instead, we needed to find another way to accomplish healthcare without stressing alpacas and frustrating owners.
Gentle handling is the key
One of the most rewarding aspects of owning alpacas is building a strong bond with them based on trust. Research on llamas and alpacas concluded that “gentle human-animal interactions correlated to calmer animals.” How you interact with your alpacas can significantly impact their behaviour and well-being. Positive, calm, and gentle handling from the start will help your alpacas feel secure and build trust over time.
Tips for positive interactions with your alpacas
Approach slowly: Always approach your alpacas slowly and calmly. Sudden movements and noises can startle them.
Be patient: Building trust takes time, so be patient and consistent in your interactions.
Respect their space: Give them space to move around, and don't force interactions. Don't pick leaves from their fleece or "pet them". Allow them to come to you when they feel comfortable.
Learn about camelid behaviour: Alpacas are unique animals. Don't force them to be like you – understand their point of view and work in a way that suits them.
The right setup helps
Creating a low-stress environment
A properly designed handling system can keep alpacas calmer and reduce stress during husbandry tasks. Chasing alpacas around a yard or cornering them only raises their stress levels and flight response. Instead, design a system that feels natural for them. Consider the following:
Laneways that connect paddocks to each other and lead to your handling area
A handling area, composed of a small yard, where you can bring the animals from the paddock
Square pens inside the small yard, about 8-9 feet on each side
A race or crush area
A non-slip surface (grass, gravel, rough concrete)
Other tools that help me immensely are herding tapes and wands, which act as extensions of my arms. Wands are fantastic for directing alpacas to certain areas without having to grab them or use our arms as "barriers."
Working on yourself
Staying calm and centred
One of the things I noticed was that my alpacas were calmer when I was calmer. Thus, I had to work on myself first. This means only doing husbandry when I’m in a good frame of mind—no tasks when I have a headache or feel off. It's also important to gauge the weather: I find very windy days unsettling for me and the alpacas. Another lesson I learned was not to do any husbandry if I had to be someone afterwards: the pressure of working with time constraints was a sure way to inject stress into my handling.
Low-stress handling and training
Handling and training your alpacas in a low-stress manner is crucial for their wellbeing. Stress can lead to health issues and negatively affect their behaviour. Enrolling in a handling course can provide invaluable hands-on experience and expert guidance. Animal researchers stress the importance of developing our skills in appropriately handling farm animals:
“Novice caretakers should especially seek such knowledge, ideally in practical low-stress handling courses, where they learn to observe the animals’ behaviour, recognise their signals and learn how to best handle and train them.” S Waiblinger et al, 2006
Key handling techniques
Observation: Spend time observing your alpacas to understand their body language and signals.
Containment: Use pens and crushes during healthcare.
Gentle restraint: When necessary, use gentle restraint methods that minimise stress. It's amazing what less force can accomplish! Rather than holding on to the neck of an alpaca as if it's a lifesaver bouy, use less force and aim to balance the alpaca.
Consistent routine: Establish a consistent handling routine to help your alpacas feel secure.
Positive reinforcement: Feed your alpacas in your handling area so they are not frightened to go there when it's time for husbandry.
The alpaca is not wrong
Applying empathy
It's easy to blame the animal when something doesn’t go as planned, but this doesn't help the situation. “You bad alpaca!” “You naughty thing!” I've heard even worse uttered by some alpaca owners. However, expletives or blaming don’t accomplish anything. When I feel anger or frustration, I pause and breathe, removing my emotions to understand what happened. Was I rushing? Was it too much too soon for that particular alpaca? Was I trying to move that alpaca away from the rest of the herd?
Applying empathy helps. Imagine going to get your blood taken, and the nurse screams at you for feeling woozy or wriggling your arm. That would make things worse. It is crucial to have empathy and understand that each alpaca is unique and has its own behaviours. Our job is to observe and understand them so that we can better care for them.
Learning takes time
Embracing continuous learning
Don’t expect to read a book or attend an alpaca handling course and become an expert overnight. Learning takes time and is incremental. Knowing and understanding something in your head is one thing—it’s another thing to develop the skill to apply it in different scenarios.
Mistakes will happen, but don't be too hard on yourself. Instead, take notes on what worked and what didn’t, and give yourself time to digest new learnings.
Tips for pleasant alpaca husbandry experiences
DOs
Only do husbandry when feeling well and centred, both mentally and physically.
Prepare in advance: draw medication beforehand, and prepare the pens and handling area.
If you are working with a partner or helper, ensure they are calm. If they become frustrated, send them away.
Perform tasks during the best weather. Avoid the heat of the day, stormy or very windy days.
Breathe and calm yourself before, during, and after tasks.
Take your time. Never schedule husbandry if you have to be somewhere afterwards.
If you have many alpacas, work in batches. It's okay to give injections to a few today and the rest tomorrow.
If it doesn’t work, leave it for another day.
Occasionally, film yourself doing husbandry to watch later and see what you could improve upon.
Reflect on what went well, what didn’t, and why.
DON’Ts
Rush or try to achieve a certain number of animals during a session. Rushing or working against time is a sure way to create stress for you and the alpacas.
Yell, call names, or blame the alpacas. It never helps.
Yell, call names or blame your partner. If a disagreement occurs while you are working with someone, take a tea break. Assess whether you can work together again or if you are better off finishing the husbandry by yourself.
Use helpers who don’t follow your philosophy or are not happy to be there. Alpacas will pick up on bad energy and frustration.
Try to do tasks because they are due TODAY. Injections can wait a few days if not the best day; toenails can wait until shearing.
Give up on giving husbandry and caring for your alpacas. If you can't do something, contact the breeder you bought the alpacas from and see if they can teach or help you. Otherwise, reach out to other alpaca owners in your region.
Owning alpacas can be a rewarding journey. There will likely be ups and downs along the way, particularly as you learn to provide healthcare and improve your handling skills. You'll ensure your alpacas thrive by building a strong, trusting relationship, handling them with kindness, providing a low-stress handling environment, and maintaining their health.
Be kind to yourself as you journey with your alpacas. Remember, handling skills take time to master.
Useful tools and resources
Camelidynamics is a kind, efficient, safe, and science-based approach to training and managing llamas and alpacas developed by American Marty McGee Bennett. You can take the online course offered on her website or buy her book, The Camelid Companion, available in Australia from Alpaca Dynamics.
Alpaca Dynamics also sells wands, herding tapes and other camelid handling tools.
I offer regular workshops at my farm for prospective or current alpaca owners. Check the workshops page for upcoming alpaca courses.