Introducing new alpacas

[heburn3438]

Hi all,

I currently have 2 2yo wether males who have been together their entire lives, and I'm now in the position where I want to get some females to start enjoying the next phase of alpaca ownership.

I have the opportunity to get a couple of mums with cria at foot from the same stud as the 2 boys.

I was just speaking to the breeder who said that the females need to be kept in a separate paddock from the boys even though they're wethered.

My property has a hilly 2 1/2 acre area divided into 2 at the moment where the alpacas live and I have visions of looking out the back window up the hill and happily seeing a mob of alpacas grazing together.

Is it true that you can't have wethers and females together?

Is there a way of introducing them so that they won't fight?

Does the whole situation change if the females that I buy have cria at foot?

Should there be a minimum age at which the cria are introduced to older animals?

I learnt the (very) hard way bringing in new chooks to a flock (lots of fights and bloodshed for about 8 weeks) and I really don't want a repeat of this in the alpaca kingdom.

I really appreciate any guidance you can offer before I commit myself. I am prepared to hold off purchasing and put up more fencing if that is the best suggestion, but ultimately I would like them to all live a happy co-existence.

I'll hit the books over Easter to see if I can find anything in any of my text books, but I would also love to hear from the experts on the forum with your experiences.


Have a wonderful, happy, safe Easter wherever you are in the world - especially downunder with us - Marty!

Heather

[Marty McGee Bennett]

Hi all,

I currently have 2 2yo wether males who have been together their entire lives, and I'm now in the position where I want to get some females to start enjoying the next phase of alpaca ownership.

I have the opportunity to get a couple of mums with cria at foot from the same stud as the 2 boys.

I was just speaking to the breeder who said that the females need to be kept in a separate paddock from the boys even though they're wethered.

I have geldings and females in together and always have. I don't think it is a problem at all. Unless the males were used for breeding and were gelded very late and recently.

My property has a hilly 2 1/2 acre area divided into 2 at the moment where the alpacas live and I have visions of looking out the back window up the hill and happily seeing a mob of alpacas grazing together.

Is it true that you can't have wethers and females together?
I don't think so

Is there a way of introducing them so that they won't fight?
I would just put them all in together and keep an eye on them for a few hours.
Quarantine is a different issue. You many want to keep them separate for health reasons although I have to say that provided the two groups are healthy I don't see any problem with putting them together pretty expeditiously.

Does the whole situation change if the females that I buy have cria at foot?
Not in my experience

Should there be a minimum age at which the cria are introduced to older animals?
if they are with their mothers the mothers will protect them if the geldings got out of line which I doubt. Usually it is the geldings that get the raw deal they will most likely be at the bottom of the heap.

I learnt the (very) hard way bringing in new chooks to a flock (lots of fights and bloodshed for about 8 weeks) and I really don't want a repeat of this in the alpaca kingdom.

I wouldn't worry. We mix animals up all the time at the training center geldings and females that have never met and they do fine


I really appreciate any guidance you can offer before I commit myself. I am prepared to hold off purchasing and put up more fencing if that is the best suggestion, but ultimately I would like them to all live a happy co-existence.

I'll hit the books over Easter to see if I can find anything in any of my text books, but I would also love to hear from the experts on the forum with your experiences.


Have a wonderful, happy, safe Easter wherever you are in the world - especially downunder with us - Marty!

Heather

Tell us more about the wethers.. age, when gelded etc...

[heburn3438]

Thanks for replying Marty.

I guess from your comments that I might be worrying unnecessarily, and perhaps the breeders might have been given poor advice themselves at some stage.

I bought the boys when they were about 18 months old and as far as I can remember I think the breeder said that they were gelded at about 12 months old. They never mated with a female and prior to me buying them they had lived with all the other young entire and gelded males.

The breeders have a lot of paddocks and keep the mums and young cria in one paddock, young males and wethers in another, stud males in their own paddocks, and the older and/or pregnant females in another paddock.

Your point about quarantine is important and thanks for raising it. My boys have only ever been on 2 properties, the breeders and mine, and they returned to the breeders in December for shearing for the day. The females have only lived at the breeders property.

I have the facility to keep them physically separated for a few days or weeks if necessary but they will be just across a wire fence from each other so they could be sniffing each other if they got close enough. Of course, if mum didn't want the babies to go near them I would expect her not to get too close herself.

I'm going to spend some time there tomorrow helping out with halter training so I'll have some time to have a good look at what is available and make some judgements over the next few days or weeks.

H.