Raise Alpacas with Love: Hand Shearing Suri Alpaca Alpaca fiber harvest time! We used to have professional shearers come and shear our herd but our spoiled rotten alpacas were not happy...so we learned the traditional way with electric shearers and tie-downs (later rotating tables)...but my alpacas were still not happy and neither was my back...so... I got creative with my Suri alpacas and trained them to be shorn standing with hand shears and lots of treats! This girl was always cooperative but after a few years, most allow me to shear without much fuss. They actually get more cooperative every year and look forward to being in my "Barn Cuts Salon" :) hehehehehe. No more stress, less back pain, and very clean fiber! Oh, and the cost savings is awesome...especially since I consider this pure bonding time! The hand shearing scissors are KEY though! I tried and went through so many...since my hands are small and most scissors dull after one alpaca!!! The one I am using is the one I love- I got it from Amazon and is a spring-loaded craft scissors...think it was Thorton arts/crafts one. I can usually get 20+ alpacas on 2 scissors without sharpening. Feel free to ask me questions! I have a few more hand shearing clips I will post soon. *** 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. https://wisteriasuriranch.com/ My Etsy Store :) https://www.etsy.com/shop/WisteriaSuriRanch Check out a few of my other Raise Alpacas with Love video series: Raise Alpacas with Love: Suri Alpaca Baby Trying to Wiggle Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSN_mSVnhtA Raise Alpacas with Love: Desensitizing Crias for Toenail Trimming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLb1U67Xdyo Raise Alpacas with Love: Another Toenail Trimming Practice for a Cria https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjqYUnEBjzE Raising Alpacas with Love: Happy Kisses from Alpaca Mama https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs0dZJ_Mo0w 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=cGruLvhkVRQ ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGruLvhkVRQ

Milano is making great progress! He's moving right along to the next baby step- so proud of him :) Here I show you how I use a super short lead that is safe and stays on the halter to teach him what being connected to a human through the halter feels like. If you missed the first two steps in the training, be sure to watch those, too. First step with velcro halter https://youtu.be/PkAG5iIglBI Second step with real halter https://youtu.be/_ickgnFGcDM Third step is this video above :) https://youtu.be/6Rfi3x8SPMM Desensitizing demo video https://youtu.be/ZWQG19OPs_g ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rfi3x8SPMM