Raise Alpacas with Love: Desensitizing Crias for Toe Nail Trimming Alpaca care doesn't need to be hard ;) This is how I start desensitizing crias for toenail trimming. I stay in front of them and clip a little bit as they let me. Since most of them do not have long toenails at this point, I am mostly making them comfortable with the sensation of the trimmer on their toenails. So you can just tap their nails if there is nothing to trim. I have treats and move them around to help reposition them as needed. I do not restrain them and will let them walk away if they do not want to be trimmed that day. I use a goat hoof trimmer for my alpacas. You can touch the toenails and stabilize them as well but as soon as you touch their feet with your hands, they will instinctively want to lift their leg and make it difficult to trim. My alpaca farm, Wisteria Suri Ranch, is in Taylor, Texas. We raise suri alpacas and I've been an alpaca shepherdess since 2008 :) We love to handle our alpacas gently and always treat them with love and respect. Let me know if you have questions! More alpaca videos on my channel below: Raise Alpacas with Love: Suri Alpaca Baby Trying to Wiggle Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSN_mSVnhtA Raise Alpacas with Love: Another Toenail Trimming Practice for a Cria https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjqYUnEBjzE Raise Alpacas with Love: Tough Decision and a Surprise Message https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFTYYoRr7KE&t=3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLb1U67Xdyo ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLb1U67Xdyo

Our baby alpaca unfortunately became an orphan at 36 hours when his sweet mom passed away unexpectedly. We were in shock but started to bottle feed little Milano every few hours. Alpaca babies are not good candidates for bottle feeding especially male crias. They can have behavioral problems if handled too much. We have been super careful and started to record our journey as it is relatively rare to have an orphaned alpaca baby. In the 12 years we've raised alpacas, this is our first orphan. I waited until he was growing into a very healthy well-adjusted baby before sharing this video as I couldn't handle another heartache in the event he didn't make it either. As of March 2020, Milano is gaining weight better than many of our babies and is very happy with his herd. His full sister in the video, Sophie, has really taken on a loving role and is always with him. Dezi, who initially stepped up to be with him 24/7 has also been amazing. The herd has been incredible and it is empowering to see the resilience Milano shows us daily. Animals teach us so much. We all miss his mom, Star, but under these circumstances, I don't think things could have gone better. We feel very blessed with all the support, assistance and guidance from everyone- thank you from the bottom of my heart! I have more videos I have taken of Milano and will be uploading them soon, so be sure to subscribe to be notified if you are interested. Our website is at https://WisteriaSuriRanch.com. You can learn more about our farm at the website. We believe in raising our alpacas with respect and kindness. Milano Part 2 https://youtu.be/wTZayvpNbl8 I am also creating fun Milano products. If you like to support our farm, please like my store at Etsy to be notified of new items :) https://www.etsy.com/shop/WisteriaSuriRanch Audio is from the generous Youtube Audio Library :) Thank you! Editing done in Openshot- an open source editing software. Thanks for making it available cool folks! And graphics are done in picmonkey. I am still learning all of this (although quite the expert poop scooper! hahah) so please enjoy the content and cross your fingers each of my videos will improve! Much much love from the farm! Keiko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmjy-IA5jyE&feature=youtu.be ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmjy-IA5jyE