Posted in alpacas on 02/14/2007 12:59 pm by Tam
Here are couple pics Stephen took of the new boy earlier today:
We’ll try and get some more — ones that show what we mean when we describe how “undercooked” he is, with his droopy-tipped ears and his knock kees and flat ankles. Will get more of Owlet, too. She’s doing quite well. Nabaztag has made friends with her (Owl and Rabbit), and they chase each other around.
And here are some recent ones of the others, as they are getting bigger:
Posted in alpacas on 02/14/2007 12:44 pm by Stephen
It seems like we have been selected to have an “educational” year of alpaca raising.
Victoria unpacked about noon today. I went out to check her before going shopping, and found a little black (or maybe a very dark brown) male cria on the ground. The little boy is 2 weeks premature, and shows many signs of his dysmaturity- floppy ears, loose tendons that make his legs all floppy, and a lack of energy.
I spent the afternoon tending to him. He just didn’t have much energy, he couldn’t even maintain a kush for long before “going flat”. Some sucrose helped temporarily. I held him up to Vic’s teats, and he suckled a bit. I should note that Vic is a very good and patient mother, and was very forgiving of my attempts to care for her baby- if another alpaca strayed to near she showed them off smartly, all the while letting me work with her cria right under her udder.
About 4PM I decided that more intervention was needed. I got out the colostrum (first milk) we had taken from Cindy after she lost her cria in December, carefully thawed it and heated it up to 38 C, and fed it to the little boy. Yum! He tried getting to a teat after that, but kept missing, and ran out of steam before he managed to latch on. We brought Vic and her boy down to the yards, and I gave him a second feed of cow colostrum at 6 PM. He will get another at 8 and 10. Hopefully he will build up enough energy to find his mum’s milk bar, as she has plenty of milk, and is keen for him to feed.
Fingers crossed it will only take a few days to get him sorted!
For those keeping track of record for the year is 5 males (1 dead) and 2 females. Minty is obviously pregnant, and will probably drop sometime in early April? Persil spits off, but is not showing. If pregnant, she will probably drop in the middle of winter. That should be entertaining.
