New to Alpacas

[Boudicea farm]

I own 4 now two gelded males and two females, the females are suri I got them from a good breeder as culls, one threw her uterus with her last cria and the other is really small not much bigger than a dairy goat. I bought them with the promise I wouldnt breed them and that is the plan. They are both curious and willing to let me handle them, the boys on the other hand were resuced at one point and I got them from the lady that rescued them. Both gelding's were bred by a reputable breeder in oregon, sold to someone who couldn't take care of them any longer so they went into a rescue situation. I was able to track them through their micro chips, So long story short they are not friendly, Fred the largest one can show some aggression towards people, he will walk up stiff legged and spit when I come into the pasture, I usually try and ignore this behavior and continue to do what needs done like cleaning the feeders or changing water, he has never rushed or crowded me, but I do keep an eye on him every time I go in. The boys are penned in a half acre pasture with 4 goats, the goats rule the roost and seem to get along with the boys, Fred also gets very upset when I have to do anything with the goats and paces in circles around us while I'm for example trimming feet or just rubbing them. Rudy the smaller and more timid male stays his distance and watches he has never spit at me, and is basically non aggressive or so I thought until today. I kept the Alpacas separate with a fence running through the pasture girls on one side boys on the other, it has been this way for a couple of months, at first they spit at each other over the fence, then seemed to calm down and get along. So today I went out and have a young buckling out with the boys who has just started to become sexually mature, he challenged me so I grabbed him and put him down on the ground and held him until he settled down to show him it is not acceptable to challenge me. when I let him up Rudy the mellow one ran up to where we were and went to attack the buckling, he had his head down and was spitting at him and ran him until the buckling had enough and turned to challenge him that's where it ended. So I figure maybe it would be better to run the alpacas together and let the goats have their half acre to themselves and the alpacas the other half acre pasture, so I but the boys on the girls side. Fred was fine with it he basically ignored the girls completely and they ignored him, Rudy went and dusted himself and was in a cush position, Tami the smallest alpaca was minding her own business and was standing behind me as I was cleaning her feeder, when Rudy bolted up and hit her broad side knocking her down and turned to kick her, He did this a total of 4 times knocking her down or chasing her, I separated the boys back into the goat pasture and made sure Tami was okay, she was badly shaken but not hurt. Anyone have a clue why he would be so aggressive? He was back to his usual self a couple of hours later.

 

[ksalvagno]

Probably because you had created a new herd and he was aserting himself. Males are much more physical than females. Males will have knock down, drag out fights to the death. It sounds like your one male is actually protecting the goats and being kind of a guard animal. I would really suggest getting CameliDynamics by Marty McGee Bennett. Those techniques can really help you.