Behaviour

Without fun things to do, compatible companions, and places to explore, alpacas can get bored, frustrated, and lonely – this can affect them mentally and physically.

As such, alpacas need lots of enrichment. Enrichment helps alpacas express their natural behaviours, so it’s important to make sure you’re providing enrichment that covers the five main categories: social, cognitive, physical habitat, sensory, and food-based.

It’s a good idea to develop an enrichment plan for your alpacas to ensure they have plenty of opportunities to express their natural behaviours. An enrichment plan will help you to keep things exciting for your alpaca, while also ensuring you do not introduce too much, too quickly, causing stress.

All animals should be given enrichment – enrichment is a way of improving the lives of your animals by giving them interesting, fun and challenging things to do. Appropriate alpaca enrichment makes for a happier, heathier herd.

Alpacas enjoy playing – you can provide them with the below items so they can express their play behaviours:

• Old soccer or rugby balls
• Exercise balls
• Wading pools
• Traffic cones
• Cardboard boxes
• Water hose sprinklers
• Mirrors
• Sensory boards

You can even create mazes, jumps, and other such course for your alpaca to explore and play in. This is also great exercise!

Alpaca love browsing, grazing, and foraging. Alpaca must be able to express this behaviour for good mental and physical welfare. Below are some great examples of food activities and games that you can provide for your herd:

• Slow feeder
• Bobbing for treats
• Offer safe branches and limbs to encourage browsing.
• Hanging baskets
• Rotating pasture
• Puzzle feeders
• Treat containers/balls
• “Treasure” hunts

Environment enrichment is also very important. You can enrich your herd’s environment with the items below:

• Scratching posts
• Broom brushes
• Mounds
• Gullies
• Hills
• Stumps
• Piles of sand
• Large rocks

Dust bathing is an essential natural alpaca behaviour. As such, your herd should be provided with multiple areas in their environment to express this behaviour. This can be flat areas that are dusty and/or sandy. The area should be safe and big enough for alpacas to roll and cover themselves with the dust and dirt.

Note: be sure not to feed you alpaca on the sand so they do not accidentally ingest it.

Did you know that alpaca can be trained? Alpacas are smart, curious animals that enjoy learning.

Clicker training can be a useful tool for every day care and can also be used to play games with your alpaca – like having them touch certain objects with their nose, push a ball around, or move through mazes and over jumps!

Training should always be safe, positive, reward-based, and good for your alpacas’ welfare.

You may have heard warnings about being careful of alpacas spitting at you. Though they are most definitely capable of doing so, not all of them will. In fact, alpacas prefer to spit at other alpacas for a number of different reasons.

Sometimes, they use spitting to communicate – sort of like saying “hey, stay away from my food!”

It’s always best to be calm, gentle, and quiet around your alpaca. If you respect them and do not stress them out, they’re more likely to skip the spit!

From humming to grumbling, alpacas make a lot of sounds – it’s no wonder as this is one of their main ways of communicating.

Have a look at the below alpaca sounds and the common reasons for these vocalisations:

1. Alarm Call

A series of short, high-pitched sounds that may sound like whistling or neighing. These are used by both males and females to alert the herd of the danger such as a predator

2. Humming

Not only can humming mean alpacas may be feeling curious, happy, worried, or cautious, it can also mean that they may be feeling distressed. Humming is also a common sound made between a mum alpacas and her babies.

3. Snorting

Sometimes alpacas need their space. Snorting is often a way that alpacas will communicate that they are feeling like their space is being invaded and they want more room.

4. Grumbling

When an alpaca wants to warn another alpaca about something, they will often grumble. Grumbling can be another sound that alpacas make when they’re feeling like their space is being invaded.

5. Clucking

Alpacas can make a clucking in two different scenarios. One is to communicate friendliness or submissiveness, while the other can be for a mother to communicate with their cria.

6. Screaming

Alpacas can scream, and they can scream loudly. Unfortunately, this is generally when they’re not handled correctly or are being attacked. Hopefully you won’t ever hear your alpacas make this noise as it can mean something is really wrong.

7. Screeching

Male alpacas will often screech if they get in a fight, while female alpacas will tend to growl if they are angry.

Body language is a key part of alpaca communication. Alpaca often use their posture, ears, tails, and head position to let other alpacas, as well as their guardians, know how they’re feeling.

For example, an alpaca that is feeling content will have their ears pointing upward and turned slightly forward, while an alpaca that is feeling quite aggressive, will often pin their ears back and tilt their head upward.

Tails are also a good indicator of how alpacas are feeling. A downward facing tail can be a sign of a relaxed alpaca, while a more upward facing tail can mean the alpaca is alert.

Alpacas are hierarchical animals – this means that each alpaca has a rank in the herd. Body language is a tool they use to keep their place in the herd.

As responsible alpaca guardians, it’s important to learn what your alpaca are communicating and respect their thoughts and feelings!