Two weeks ago, we drove four hours away to another alpaca farm and picked up two new weanling friends. They are both nine months old and are the sweetest boys in the world. Mack is the true black alpaca and Outlaw is the brown alpaca. They are so teeny in comparison to our other boys.
There has been a huge adjustment having them here with our older gentlemen. The older gents have not yet accepted them into their herd. Mainly, their lack of size in comparison to the older gents puts them at a greater risk so we have just kept them separated for the time being and bring them together in small doses.
Alpaca have a social structure much like other farm animals and when new animals are introduced into the herd, it takes some time to adjust. Sometimes, the new animals get picked on at first. We totally anticipated our boys to be a little upset. The boy who is the most upset is actually our friendliest of alpaca, Carlos. He has been devastated by their arrival and new attention I have given them. It was really shocking because this entire time, we assumed that Chauncey, our quick to spit at anyone and anything alpaca was the most dominant but as soon as these new boys arrived, we realized very quickly how wrong we were.
I am certain with a lot and time and patience, our friends will adjust and it might not be until our new additions are old enough to safely defend themselves without getting seriously injured. Worst case scenario, we will have two completely new alpaca herds. Fingers crossed, however, that they will be accepted in due time.