Hi, Next weekend is toenail trimming and vaccinations time. I will have the assistance of 2 experienced breeders for the handling etc. This will be my first time administering the injections myself, so they kindly offered to help to ensure I don't get it wrong. They also help handle the animals for the nail trimming. What I would like clarified is this... I have 7 adult alpacas, 5 pregnant females and 2 wethered males. I have 10' X 10' catch pen which fits them all in with room to spare. When I put them all in together for brief periods some of the girls start spitting at each other or at anyone in spitting range. I have left them together like this for periods up to about 10 minutes (sometimes with me in there checking them - eyes, ears, mouth etc and sometime without me in there at all) but they don't seem to settle down too much in that time. I plan on moving them into smaller pens inside the shed so I have 3 or 4 in an 8' X 8' pen. Should I wait for them to settle in the larger pen before moving them in the shed where the toenail trimming and vaccinations will be happening, or should I just start herding them through after only a few minutes. There isn't a great rush to get the husbandry done apart from the amount of time the breeders have available at my place. thanks for your advice.
