Alpaca Escape

When one is an animal owner, you never know quite what to expect. Throw alpacas and one pot bellied pig into the mix, and you will have constant entertainment.

Our little herd has escaped four times in the past week. The first three times it was just the girls; today it was all of them. One would think it wouldn’t be too difficult to put seven alpacas back where they belong: WRONG! The Houdini Act started with two of them getting out of their pen. As I was trying to tighten up some sagging fence, the other three girls decided the grass was greener on the other side of the fence. Sadly, it was true.

I don’t understand why the first place they head when they’re out is down the driveway. It wouldn’t be so bad, but we live along a busy highway. Thanks to the drivers of a car and a semi, the simple act of slowing down got the alpacas turned back around and into the main part of our yard. Just when I thought I had them under control, the two boys showed up. It turns out in my haste to try to get the girls back to their pen, I didn’t latch their gate and they let themselves out.

Due to the open concept of our yard and being the only one outside at the time, the alpacas didn’t go the way I wanted them to. They took a sharp right instead of going straight and ran toward the horse pen. (Horses were moved a week prior to let the grass grow.) They could have stayed in there but it is fenced with barbed wire; not the greatest choice for alpacas. They went straight to the green grass; and the boys went straight for the girls.

I have been selective as to which male is to be bred with which female, but today that all went out the window. I learned very quickly not to try to push a male off a female while they are mating; I am no match for almost 200 lbs of testosterone. I guess whatever will be will be; hopefully we still end up with nice cria.

With bucket of oats in hand, I went to see if I could bribe them back to their pens. They started off okay, then decided to do one final tour toward the highway. It wasn’t quite as bad the second time around, as they got about halfway down then veered to the right into the hayfield. I was able to get behind them and chase them back to their pens. They didn’t go quite where they were supposed to, but at least they were in their pens. Once again, not the combinations I wanted. And, once again the boys wasted no time in cutting to the chase.

Update: It is now January and the alpacas are quite content in their new pen. We removed the barbed wire from the horse pen and replaced it with page wire, so the alpacas have a lot more room to roam. They have been in this pen since the end of July and not once have they attempted an escape.