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While there is not a whole lot of physical preparation for bringing in a new stud male, at least on our farm, the mental preparation for us humans seems to be most necessary. Here at Abenaqui Alpacas we have a small herd of males, only two of the mature males are in tact. Of the two Giles has clearly established himself as the Macho. We knew that there would be a bit of fighting between all the males as they redefined the hierarchy of the herd.
Here Ravi (darker male right) and Giles (ligher male left) go all Wild Kingdom on each other
Fighting in males can become quite violent. Physical preparations may be to ensure the fighting teeth in the males are trimmed back, make sure the pasture or paddock is free of items one may get thrown into and become injured. Typically the fighting is between the Macho and the newcomer, although these fights often encourage sparring between the other members of the herd. At times, the Macho will take some of that anger and frustration out on a member of the crowd that is watching the match.
In most cases the fighting is quite heated for a bit, maybe solid fighting for up to a half hour with additional matches throughout the day. There is always a lot of spitting, screaming, and physical contact.
The photos here show our newest member of the herd Ravi Divine (the darker slighter male) having it out with Giles our long standing Macho. Giles has been uncontested in his herd status for at least 3 years. All new young males introduced have shared a fenceline with Giles and therefore have been integrated with very little hazing. Ravi was quite the dominant figure at his last farm. Therefore, the fight for dominance here had become quite rough.
Farmer Steve and I observe the hours of fighting, always introducing a new male while we are going to be home so we can intervene if necessary. These tousles occurred throughout the day. The only intervening occurred when I realized they were all getting quite hot. I brought out the hose and cooled them down. Funny, the fighting ceased and they all sat next to one another while getting cooled by the water from the hose. As soon as I put that hose away, Giles started up again.
In many cases the two males will work out their issues with one walking away and declaring defeat over the other. 24-hours went by, and in this case, the fighting, screaming, and spitting continued. After this period of time I decided, it may be best to separate out Ravi from Giles. Ravi had shown he was ready to concede, Giles simply did not want to accept Ravi's display of submission and instead would go back for more jabs. Ravi was not the kind of male to take that lying down, so he would fight back a bit, but mostly scream bloody murder (he is quite the talker).
We have a small holding area that shares a fenceline with the rest of the boys paddock. It is far from the girls paddock. We felt this was a great place to set Ravi up for the new introduction period. God ole' friendly Bob was put in time-out with Ravi.
Once we separated the males, we check everyone over for injuries. Although we trimmed teeth, there is still a whole lot of biting and body checking. We always want to be sure everyone is not terribly injured, other than egos.
Our goal with this time-out is to keep the boys separated until the spitting and screaming across the fenceline diminishes. Once they can share a fenceline without the constant attempt at killing each other, we will attempt to put them in together again. Hopefully in a few weeks Gile's will realize Ravi is not out to take his entire harem for himself.
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