Are alpacas difficult to handle?
The short answer is no, but I never have short answers so here goes. As livestock goes, alpacas are fairly small animals. Most of our adult animals weigh between 140 and 180 pounds. So on the occasion that you need to make an alpaca do something they really don’t want to do, two people can usually get the job done. I find that the more you handle you animals the easier they are to work with. The time you spend halter training is time well spent. Take them on walks, talk to them and scratch their necks. I feel that it is important that the alpaca learns to trust you and not associate you touching it only with unpleasant experiences. If the only time you touch your animals is to give shots or trim toenails, neither of which they particularly enjoy, then they will try to get away from you every time you approach them. So try to have some pleasant interactions with them and the less pleasant activities will go a lot smoother.
