I have found that my 3 Alpaca boys are VERY protective, they do not miss a thing that is "new". If a strange dog were to get in their pasture they would go after it with their front toenails! In fact a small dog snuck into their pasture through our main gate at the end of the lane one day as I was going out and it's just a good thing it was small enough to slip through the squares in the fence! All 3 of the boys were going after it! :new_shocked:
I bought my Alpacas about 7 years ago...a white baby that I fed on a bottle and a sorrel colored one that was about a year old, both were registered for $1,50.00. The baby was sick when I got it with an upper respirator infection, and was given antibiotics, but my vet did not tell me to give him any Probious, it got diarrhea, and didn't want to drink it's formula as well as before, every time I gave him some of the feed his diarrhea got worse. I finally called up to Texas A & M and talked to the exotic vet who told me he should have been on the Probious along with the antibiotics. I started him on it, but it was too late by then. One thing about Alpacas, is that since they were wild animals, they do not act sick until they are just about ready to die.
The breeder sent me another Alpaca the very next day as the remaining Alpaca was quite distraught and watched us buried the baby, it was heart breaking. The replacement had an allergic reaction to the anesthesia when I had them gelded and had to be euthanized. The breeder sent me another Alpaca the very next day as well!!! She would not let me pay her any money for these replacements! Then a couple years later the breeder called me and asked if we wanted a free Alpaca, we told her sure, why not. Apparently the owner wanted to get away from owning Alpacas and didn't want to pay for the board any longer. Come to find out this free Alpaca has good blood lines and his conformation is excellent! So now we have Starbuck the original sorrel Alpaca, a white Suri named Lyndon and a fawn colored one named Mr. Nicholas. Only Starbuck is gelded...they get along great together thank goodness, as I would be afraid to have the other two gelded after loosing Endeavor.
They do not get fed anything extra, they just graze in a large pasture with my Percheron mare & mini donkey. They are too fat according to the breeder, but I can't help that! They certainly are NOT cuddly, they are more like deer when out in the pasture. If we need to catch them I can whistle for them and shake a can of feed and they come running! I then coax them into a stall and then I am able to put my arm around their neck and put a halter on them, then you can pet them and lead them around, but you can't touch them when they're out in the pasture! I suppose if you had them in a smaller pasture and messed with them alot they would be a lot tamer, I don't know.
