Help, cannot get my new girls into smaller enclosure

[Deb Wellinghoff]

I am a new to alpacas, our young fiber males have been with us since mid-June and they are wonderful to work with and more comfortable here each day. We have three bred females (all maidens) that arrived on our farm two weeks ago. They are sweet girls and are quite calm as we move about the pasture with them. Now for the challenge, the girl's pasture is large (about 3/4 acre) and we have a very nice smaller enclosure on the edge of this area with a new shelter constructed just for them. The first week the girls were here we did not have much problem, they would follow us into the enclosure where they are fed their grain supplements. While they were wary in this smaller area they still were not panicky a bit. Now I cannot get them to go into this area which is becoming quite frustrating. This is where we feed them (or would like to) and where their shelter from the weather is located; I have tried using my poles to herd them into the enclosure but as soon as we get halfway there one of the girls (the one who does not like the shelter area) will bolt and of course the other two go along. Any suggestions on how I can herd them into this area? I am worried they are not getting sufficient nutrition if they do not eat the supplements. I also need to be able to get them into this smaller area so that we can handle them when needed. Our vet will be coming out to the farm in the next week to draw blood so that we can have a baseline panel on each of the animals (need to do this as we had a death already and the necropsy was inconclusive). My goal/desire is to have the girls trust us and we want to have all handling be as calm and stress free as possible. This evening our herding attempts felt much more like chasing and I know this will do nothing toward our goals of treating the alpacas with kindness and respect. Any thoughts/suggestions/guidance would be appreciated.

[OHL]

Deb,
My first guess would be that the area you are herding to may be set up so it isn't clear that the animals have somewhere to go. Sometimes alpacas see things differently than we do - especially when we have a goal in mind. (:

Where are your fiber males in relation to the females? If they can be herded into an area adjacent to the barn to act as "bait," your females may be more inclined to head that way and not be worried about the safety of the area.

If you can take a couple of pictures or draw a diagram for us of your set up, we may be able to make simple recommendations to help you herd by yourself effectively.

My best suggestions without seeing your place is to recruit more people for herding for a while so you don't teach them how to evade you, but work on teaching them how to herd where you want them to go. You can also use a herding tape to help make a better "funnel" to get them into the gate/opening more easily.

Good luck & I'm sure the group will have more suggestions to help you out.

Sara

[Marty McGee Bennett]

Excellent advice from Sara as usual! Depending on the shape and size of your pasture consider errecting a herding fence that you might leave up. It can be fiber glass fence posts with hot tape (both available from many companies Kencove is just one) you can leave it up to help herding until your animals are more confident about coming in. Also an intermediate sized area adjacent to your catch pen (9x9 or 8x8) is crucial for herding success. Make sure that when you do get your animals in that you don't use the common corner grab wrestle approach to getting your hands on them- that will be a huge disincentive for them to come back! There is quite a lot about herding in the Camelid Companion and in several articles in the library in fact there is an entire section in the Guild Library devoted to herding. Remember to scroll down below the forum... if you are a guild member there is a whole section with tons of information.

[Deb Wellinghoff]

Thank you Sara and Marty for your words of wisdom. I do have herding tape and have used it very successfully with the boys. Unfortunately the area for the girls is laid out differently and I am hesitant to try the herding tape as I might just be teaching them how to avoid it. Sara is absolutely correct I believe about the alpacas thinking they do not have anywhere to go. There is thick wooded area on the outside of the fencing in this area. We chose this area specifically for the shelter from the wind/snow that is provided by this natural windbreak. The temperatures get very low here for extended periods with lots of wind . . . . . . . . . while we thought this was a good location when doing our planning I guess we did not try to think like an alpaca! This beautiful 24x16 shelter may end up being hay storage by the time winter arrives. If that is the case we will be building another shelter in a location deemed more suitable by the alpacas. I have attended a 2 day basic clinic and learned volumes. Still need to get my handling facility erected which will be done tomorrow, that should at least make it possible for the vet to draw blood without a battle. I will also try to erect a herding fence to help the situation as suggested by Marty. Thanks again.

[OHL]

Deb,
If you already have the shelter built, I would just make it somewhere pleasant for them to be and I think they will learn to use it. Try feeding them near and then inside of it so they associate it with good things. I don't think you need to build a different shelter unless you want to. Alpacas are very adaptable, but cautious.

Good luck and let us know how things are going!

Sara