Did Someone Press The Cria Nursing Switch?

Alpacas are often described as a herd animal, which they very much are, but sometimes they take their herd behaviour to some amusing extremes!

One quirk we have noticed among our herd is the “cria nursing switch”  At certain times of the day we will look out and the crias are playing or sleeping in the sunshine, a few minutes later we look out and all of the crias are nursing at the same time – someone must have pressed the cria nursing switch! 

We really cannot say why this happens, perhaps when the cria play stops they realize they are hungry and all rush to the milk-bar to refuel.   Maybe there is a better explanation relating to protection of the herd as to why all the cria tend to nurse at the same time, after all these animals did evolve in an area where they were at risk from attack by mountain lions. 

Whatever the reason it does make for quite a sight and we still like to believe that somewhere in our pasture someone has hidden a “Cria Nursing Switch”

Rosemary

The Bucket Tippers!

As we get closer to June our weather is getting warmer.  This year has so far been cooler and wetter than normal but the day time temperatures are starting to creep up and the heat of summer will soon be with us.

Recently shorn the alpacas feel more comfortable in the heat, but they still look for ways to cool off.  Enter the bucket tippers!

Most alpacas love to cool off by splashing their feet in water.    On farms that have ponds and streams owners sometimes have problems with alpacas standing in the ponds and streams so much that the fiber on their lower legs starts to rot.  Our alpacas do not have any ponds or streams going through their pastures and so some of them go for the next best thing – their water buckets.

Homer is particularly bad about putting his feet in the water buckets.  If I am filling up buckets with water he can tip them over with his feet as fast as I can fill them.  Ric has built a special wooden frame in the boys pasture in which we set the water buckets so that Homer cannot knock them over with his feet.

The other night we had a heavy rainfall that flooded part of the big boys pasture.  To allow the pasture to dry out we blocked off that part of the pasture confining the boys to the north section of their pasture which has better drainage and was dry.  The only problem with doing that is that the frame for the water buckets is in the south side of the pasture.

Without a frame to hold the buckets in place dear Homer has gone to town on sticking his feet in the water buckets.  Every time I go outside I check on the big boys pasture to make sure they still have water and every time I have checked I have ended up refilling the water buckets as they have been knocked over. 

While Homer is my main suspect in the bucket tipping, I know that Asteroid and Opie also like to dip their toes in the cool water.  I can’t say that I blame them as I am sure it feels good on a warm day, but I wish they would realize that once the bucket has tipped over their water supply has just disappeared!

We are gradually working on installing automatic waterers in the pastures which will ensure that the alpacas have access to fresh water at all times.  In the meantime though we have to get a bit more creative about outwitting the bucket tippers. 

In the past we have provided the boys with an area of damp sand to lie on which they have quite enjoyed.  We have also set out small wading pools for the alpacas to stand in.  They work really well for satisfying the alpacas desire to stand in water but if the wind starts to blow hard they disappear pretty quickly!

The biggest hit is to give the alpacas “a shower”.  We turn on the hose and the alpacas come running, vying to be first in line to have their belly and legs soaked with running water – ah alpaca heaven!

It is great fun to stand among the alpacas while they jostle for the best position in front of the hose.  Some of them will buck and spin around in the water stream which is fun for them but which makes for a messy time for us.  Still it is great fun and a cooling activity on a warm day.

Hopefully the southern end of the boys pasture will dry out shortly allowing us to open up that part of the pasture again and go back to using our bucket frame.  In the meantime the boys will continue to tip their water buckets over with their feet and I will continue to right and refill buckets while the bucket tippers reign!

Rosemary       

Alpacas and Kids – a friendly combination

Many visitors to our farm ask if alpacas get on well with children.  The answer to that question is a resounding “Yes”.  While we do not have small children of our own (except those of the four legged furry variety) we have had many opportunities to observe children and alpacas together and they really seem to get on well.

It is interesting to watch the alpacas when we have a child here on a farm visit as the alpacas will often approach the child well before approaching the adults in the group.  

Before taking children in with the alpacas we explain to them that it is important that they remain calm and quiet while they are in the pasture.  We explain to the children that alpacas are naturally a quiet animal and that they don’t have arms that can reach out or make sudden movements as human arms can and so when the alpacas hear a lot of noise or see a lot of movement it makes them wary of approaching.  If the children behave quietly and calmly the alpacas will approach them quite readily and it is great to see the children’s faces light up as they get their first alpaca “kisses”.  Occasionally very small children find the sight of an alpaca nose coming towards them a little unnerving and we need to have the alpacas back away a little but for the most part children are happy to interact with the alpacas.

If you get a chance to attend an alpaca show it is always fun to watch the showmanship, obstacle and performance classes.  These classes have categories for junior and sub junior exhibitors and it is amazing to see what the alpacas will do for their young handlers.

We have wondered why alpacas have such an affinity for children and have come up with two theories that might explain why the two bond so well together.  One is that as the alpacas are typically taller than the children that they do not feel intimidated by the children.  The second theory is that when it comes to handling alpacas children have none of the fears and negative expectations that adults tend to have.  A child will take an alpaca’s lead rope and set off fully expecting that alpaca to follow, which the alpaca will then do.  The alpacas sense the child’s confidence and feel comfortable going along with what the child is doing.

As with any livestock there are risks, I have seen a small child walk up behind an alpaca at a show and reach out to pet the alpacas hind leg which resulted in the child receiving a hard kick.  The kick was not done out of malice but rather because the alpaca was startled by the child’s touch.    It is good practice to always ask an animals owner if it is okay to touch the animal.  If the owner is agreeable to you touching the animal always approach the animal from the front, and with alpacas try to pet their neck as opposed to the top of their head.   Alpacas have great vision and sometimes the sight of a human hand coming towards their head is enough to spook them.

With careful supervision alpacas and children do really well and can create a special bond between them that will last a lifetime.

 Rosemary

Introducing Maidens – Know Your Females

Now shearing has been completed we have some catching up to do with our breeding schedule.  As we approach shearing each year we hold open any females that are due to be bred until after they are shorn.  The stress of shearing can interfere with a new pregnancy and to us it just makes sense to wait a little and breed the girls after shearing.

This year we have several maiden females to introduce to the world of breeding.  A maiden female is one that has not been bred before.

Maiden females have a reputation for being a little difficult when it comes to breeding.  With more experienced females there are more definite signals as to whether they are receptive to breeding and also when they are pregnant.  Maidens not having been through a pregnancy before are sometimes a little mixed up in their hormone levels and the signals that they give.

We worked with five maidens over the course of the last week.  The first Anya is a large girl and had been showing definite signs that she was ready to breed, hanging around the fence line if the boys were around and flirting with them.  It was no surprise therefore when she cushed pretty soon after we put our male Zin in the pen and allowed herself to be bred.

Next we tried Willow to see what her reaction would be.  Willow is a smaller girl and we would not have been surprised if she needed more time to develop.  Willow moved away from the male initially but then allowed him to mount.  With maidens we allow them a little longer with the male before we decide that they are not going to breed that day.  Often a maiden will be unsure of what is going on and you can almost see the wheels turning in her mind as she tries to figure our what she should do. Sometimes they will stand and shift their weight from side to side as they try and work out how to cush while the male is on top of them, other times they will drop their head and sniff the ground and take a few steps forward.  While we would never force a female down, or leave her with the male if she is obviously unreceptive we do sometimes hold up one of her front legs (as if we were trimming her toenails) to see if that will help her with cushing.  If she is truly receptive she will usually cush, otherwise she will still remain standing and we will stop the breeding process.  With Willow we did hold up one of her front legs and as soon as we did so she cushed.  Willow is being bred to Treasure and this was also his first breeding.  Typically we do not put an unproven male with an unproven female, but we had tried Treasure with some of our older girls and while he had shown us he was ready to breed, the older girls were not in the right part of their cycle and did not cush for Treasure.  If we do not get a pregnancy after two breeding attempts between Willow and Treasure we will switch to a different male for Willow’s breeding.

Our next maiden Cinnamon was a different story.  Cinnamon was born just days after Willow and so the two are comparable in many ways.  Cinnamon is a bigger girl than Willow but tends to be a little more highly strung.  When we put Cinnamon in with the male she ran, and then started to climb the side of the breeding pen.  Not a good sign, so we removed the male immediately so as not to stress Cinnamon further.  We will wait a few days and try Cinnamon again but it may be that she needs to wait a little longer before breeding.  Whereas the other maiden females had acted a little uncertain Cinnamon’s reaction was too dramatic to think that she was even the slightest bit receptive.

We then tried Snow, who did not panic and run like Cinnamon but did not really show signs of wanting to cush.  We probably caught her on the wrong part of her cycle so will wait a couple of days and try her again.

Finally on our maiden schedule for this week was TeQueely.  TeQueely is now two years old, but was very ill when she was seven months old and so we deliberately waited until she was two to even attempt to breed her.  We had tried TeQueely with a male earlier in the week and while she had allowed herself to be mounted she also spit hard at the male and made it clear she was not ready to breed that day.  Yesterday however was a different story and after a short while of figuring out how to cush she did so and bred.

I feel the key to breeding maidens is to know them well and to be very observant as to their behaviour.  The signals they give are often more subtle than an older female but usually there is some indication from them as to their readiness for breeding.  It is the hormones that they produce as they reach sexual maturity that cause the cushing or spitting behaviour, which is why when I see a maiden act with panic (like Cinnamon) rather than confusion I suspect that particular female is not yet mature enough to breed.  We usually start to attempt to breed our maiden females when they are 18 months of age, but do not get alarmed if they are closer to two years old before they breed.  Occasionally we will have one closer to two and a half before she is ready to breed, but those are few.  If however the maiden still is not showing receptive behaviour by the two and a half year point we will have a reproductive exam preformed on her by our vet to check that she is physically reproductively sound and also would draw blood to look at her hormone levels.  There are a few females that will breed closer to the three year old mark, but usually if they reach that point without showing any inclination to breed it indicates a problem.

So now we will begin the process of behaviour testing these maidens to see if they are pregnant, which again is a little more tricky than working with a more experienced female.  Fingers crossed the girls that bred will all be pregnant and this time next year I will be able to report on their beautiful crias!

Rosemary

Sun, Rain and Wind – The Shelter’s The Place To Be

A question we are often asked is, “What is a suitable shelter for an alpaca?”  The question is a good one as alpacas do need some form of shelter in their pastures, but the type of shelter will vary according to your environmental needs.

Here in Eastern New Mexico we are blessed by many months of warm dry weather and so our shelter requirements are quite different from other parts of the country where the weather may be cooler or wetter.

When we first brought our alpacas home we had them in a pasture that already had a shelter in it that was made from an old wooden box car.  It’s a pretty study shelter and has the added advantage of two slide doors that mean we can keep the alpacas in if we need to.  We still have the box car shelter and it has survived well over the years.

As our herd grew Ric decided that he could build shelters for our pastures.  The first shelter he built was one that is now in our quarantine pen.  The shelter consists of two three sided buildings that have a wooden frame, metal siding and a metal roof.  The two buildings face each other forming a breezeway between them which the alpacas often like to cush in.  By installing a portable panel on each end of the breezeway we can easily adapt the shelter to become a catch pen.  The shelter is pretty nice except for one design flaw – it is not tall enough!  When Ric built that shelter he felt that as the alpacas themselves are not tall he could make the shelter shorter in height, the only problem was that he forgot that he and are vet are both over 6 feet tall.  We’ve now lost count of how many times we have banged our heads on that shelter roof!

So when it came time to build another shelter this time Ric made it quite a bit taller.  Again he used the wood frame, metal siding combination.  A faucet was installed in the shelter to provide water and eventually an automatic waterer was added to the outside of the shelter.  This shelter has been a very flexible one.  We can easily set up portable panels within the shelter to create a pen for a new dam and cria or if we have a sick alpaca that needs some TLC.  The roof joists provide us with all sorts of options for setting up equipment such as heat lamps, fans or even hairdryers for blow drying chilled crias.  The shelter has a dirt floor which we can spray down with water during the hot summer months to provide a cool area for the alpacas to lie on, or that we can add deep straw to if the weather is particularly cold.  The only problem with this shelter is that over time we realized it was becoming a little unstable, and the reason for the instability was that the wooden corner posts were being devoured by termites!  Termites are in abundance in this part of the world, and while our house is protected against them we had not given thought to how they would attack any wood used out in the pastures.  So the shelter had to be taken down and reassembled using a metal frame and corner posts.

As our herd grew we realized that we were going to need more shelters and started researching our possibilities.  At one seminar I attended the speaker mentioned using metal car ports or garages as alpaca shelters.  I mentioned the idea to Ric and after some further research we contracted to have a double car port shelter installed in the girls pasture.  The car port shelter has metal siding on three sides and a dirt floor, and also has heavy duty trailer house tie downs at each corner to ensure that the shelter can hold up to our high winds.   While we had to pay a little more for this shelter it was definitely the way to go.  On the day the shelter was delivered and installed the crew showed up on time and had the shelter put together and installed in under an hour!  Having seen that, Ric declared he would never build another shelter in his life!

The car port shelter is large enough to accommodate all of the alpacas from that pasture and also the llamas should they all wish to go in at the same time. We have again installed a faucet and an automatic watery.  The car port shelters come in a variety of sizes and really provide a great, fast, reasonable option.

It has taken us a little time and some trial and effort to figure out what type of shelter is best for our alpacas considering our weather, the functions that we might want that shelter to perform and the cost of not only our money but also our time.  In hindsight we wish we had thought of the car port shelters earlier but if we had done so we would have missed out on some valuable learning lessons along the way.

 Rosemary

Home Again From Another Fiber Adventure

The blog was quiet for the last couple of days as I was away from home and unable to get Internet access.  Actually the Internet access was available but for some reason my Norton Internet Security on my laptop keeps telling me my subscription has expired and only has 357 days left – go figure!  That statement makes no sense to me at all, but I was concerned that I my computer could be affected if I went on line without sufficient protection.

Following chores on Wednesday afternoon I traveled up to Los Lunas, New Mexico to take the opportunity to watch Robyn Kuhl from Coarse Broads, Inc.  sort and grade fiber at a shearing day.  I was also able to take nine of our fleeces with me to have sorted and graded by Robyn.

The shearing I attended was at Sundancer Alpacas the home of Cheryl and Robert Louie.  I was able to observe Robyn sort and grade three of my fleeces before Peter Connelly the shearer arrived to start shearing Cheryl and Robert’s alpacas.  Being able to watch Robyn at work helped solidify everything she and Carrie Hull had taught at the recent Fiber Sorting seminar I attended.  You really have to leave your emotions at home when you watch your lovely alpaca fleeces being split up into the various grades, but it is necessary to ensure a better quality end product and the process also gave me valuable feedback as to the positive and negative traits of each fleece, which will help me with future breeding decisions.

Once Peter started shearing it was all hands on deck to collect the fleece using Robyn’s methods, weigh the fleece and record the weights and then get the fleece to Robyn to sort and grade. 

I was able to stay until 5 p.m. and then had to tear myself away from my learning experience to start the four hour drive home.   

On my drive to Los Lunas on Wednesday I had travelled up through Albuquerque and then down I25 to Los Lunas.  I had wanted to try using a more southern route but by the time I left home on Wednesday it was 6 p.m. and I didn’t want to be travelling on remote and unfamiliar roads by myself after dark.  On the journey home though I used the southern route starting on I 25 and then heading east on US 60.  I was able to see some beautiful countryside, and along the way saw some antelope, hawks and even a couple of foxes.  There are very few towns along the route and I found myself having admiration for those hardy folk who live in that part of the state.  With all the snow in New Mexico this past winter life in those sparsly populated areas had to have been a challenge. 

So I am now back at home playing the usual game of catch up having been away, but the good news is that Ric was able to get the rest of our herd shorn while I was gone.  Shearing is finally over!

Rosemary

A Non Furry Friend In The Pasture

Yesterday was Ric’s birthday and while raking up the poop in the girls pasture he got an extra birthday surprise – a snake!

I am pretty sure that a snake was not on Ric’s birthday gift list, but he seemed to enjoy catching it!.  The snake seemed to come out of nowhere, it appeared shortly after we had put the weanlings in their day weaning pasture and I suspect they disturbed the snake causing it to pay a visit to the main girls pasture.

Once Ric had caught the snake we took a closer look at it to see what type of snake it was.  Fortunately it was not a rattle snake, but instead was a bull snake. 

Bull snakes are handy snakes to have around.  They are said to keep rattle snakes away and also are good at keeping down the rodent population.  While bull snakes are non-venomous they can cause a nasty skin irritation if they bite you because as Ric puts it “they don’t clean their teeth”.

So Mr. (or was it Mrs.) Bull Snake got to see another day.  After catching the snake we relocated him to another part of the property.  We didn’t really want him in with the alpacas just in case he did decide to bite, and also we didn’t want the llamas to stomp him.  Fortunately the llamas were penned up having their morning grain when the snake appeared or else they would have chased the snake and stomped it.  The barn cats too are pretty good snake catchers so the snake had better keep it’s wits about it as it meanders around our property.

We hope the bull snake will stick around and do a good job for us, bull snakes can get to be really large so it will be interesting to see him grow over the years assuming of course that we see him again.  Perhaps we can persuade him to make another appearance for Ric’s birthday next year!

Rosemary

Sometimes Kids Just Like to Eat Dirt

While out in the pasture on Sunday I noticed Athena and Velvet standing on one of the dirt mounds nibbling at something on the ground.  I thought at first that perhaps some hay had fallen from the hay wagon and landed on the dirt mound but on closer inspection I could see that there wasn’t any hay anywhere close to them.  So what were they doing?  They were eating dirt!

I have seen this happen with young crias before and have heard other breeders talk about it.  The crias are doing fine, starting to eat a little hay and then they start to eat dirt.  So why this odd behaviour?

My initial thought is that maybe they feel they are lacking in some minerals.  We have free choice minerals available but perhaps the crias have not discovered them yet, although as curious as crias are I find that surprising.  Another thought I have on the crias eating dirt is that perhaps it is similar to the process I believe is called transfornation(I have heard it referred to as this but have not been able to find any further information on the term transfornation at the time of writing this blog entry).  In this process it is thought that by licking the cria’s face the dam is introducing good bacteria into the cria’s digestive system.  Perhaps by eating dirt the cria are following an instinctual behaviour to introduce good bacteria to their systems.

There isn’t really a definitive answer on why crias eat dirt, I have asked our vet about it and he does not know of any good explanation for the behaviour.  He feels that as long as the crias are not eating large amounts of dirt to where they could cause a blockage in the intestines then we should let them carry on under careful supervision.

With Athena and Velvet I did put some minerals in a shallow feed pan which I took over to them, just in case they did have a mineral need.  They checked out the feed pan but did not eat any of the minerals and then returned to eating dirt.  I then put some hay out closer to them and that seemed to distract them enough from their dirt eating game.

So we may never get to the bottom of the dirt eating puzzle, but I seem to remember my brothers did their share of eating dirt when they were younger and they made it to adult hood without a problem!  Let’s hope the same holds true for crias!

Rosemary

Keeping the Bugs Under Control

With the damp spring we have been experiencing we know that we are going to be in for a bad year for bugs.   Just yesterday when I was walking Tripster, one of our dogs, I found swarms of some tiny grey bugs on the ground around the track where I walk.  I have never seen bugs like these before but there certainly were a lot of them.  We are also seeing a lot of Springtails appearing too.  Springtails are so named as they have a little spring in their tail area which they use to jump with.  Once they get going Springtails are prolific breeders and live in massive colonies.   Thankfully they are not harmful just a nuisance.

So keeping in mind that the weather is conducive to bugs I have been examining the pastures to see what little devils we need to deal with.  One problem we have in our area is red fire ants which have a very painful bite.  Ric is very tasty to fire ants, every year they manage to get him and every year he goes on a quest to retaliate and get rid of them.  While the fire ants are not particularly harmful we have in the past had an alpaca get bitten by one on the lip.  The poor alpacas lip swelled up and she looked quite odd until the swelling went down.

Ticks are another problem in our area as they love to bury in our sandy soil, and then of course there are the flies.  We are fairly fortunate regarding the fly situation as the city sprays frequently and the local dairies also do a lot to manage the fly population.  Several of the dairies use ”fly predators” which seem to work very well. 

It is difficult to treat bugs in the pastures, we really don’t like the idea of using chemicals, so seek out alternative methods to deal with the problem.

This year we have started using diatomaceous earth as a preventative measure against bugs and other pests.  Diatomaceous earth is made up of the shells of microscopic sea creatures.  The shells have razor sharp edges and when the diatomaceous earth comes into contact with any insect with an exoskeleton it cuts the exoskeleton causing the insect to die.

We cannot cover our whole pasture in Diatomaceous Earth but will put some down on the red fire ant hills and also on the poop piles to keep down the flies.  I am also contemplating spreading some on the roll spots that the alpacas have in the pasture.  As Diatomaceous Earth can be lightly dusted onto dogs to help control fleas and ticks perhaps by putting some on the roll spots the alpacas can do a little self treatment.

There are different grades of Diatomaceous Earth and you will need to get a feed grade if you are wanting to use it for livestock or pets.  We actually have some Diatomaceous Earth added to our feed pellets when they are made to act as an internal parasite wormer.  We still run regular fecal checks but so far our herd has been relatively free of worms and other internal parasites.

When working with Diatomaceous Earth always ensure you wear good gloves and a face mask so that you are not accidentally ingesting it.  Some people mix it with some water in a sprayer bottle and then spray that solution to where-ever is needed.

So we will see how the diatomaceous earth performs, fingers crossed it will be effective and we can keep our bug population under control.

Rosemary

Rain Stops Play – But Only For Humans!

The last couple of days have been a little rainy and damp and so the remaining shearing has had to be put on the back burner.   There is always plenty to do though.

Ric and I sat down and decided which fleece will be used for which project.  Some of the fleece we plan on having graded by the Coarse Broads, Inc. so that we are eligible to become part of their fiber co-op as it develops, some fiber will be sent to Canada for processing into our Windrush Alpaca socks which have been a great seller at the booth we have at Lizzie’s Menagerie in downtown Clovis.  We will also plan on sending some to Royal Fiber Spinnery to be processed into yarn for knitting and crochet and of course as members of the Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America we have pledged to send some of the fiber in to them to be processed into end product.  Last but not least we must not forget our hand-spinning customers who like to purchase raw fleece for spinning.

Having made our list we need to go through the bags of fleece making sure we have removed any vegetable matter and the shorter second cuts.  We also check to make sure the bags are marked correctly to indicate which part of the fleece they contain.  It sounds like quite a process but it is quite quick once we get going and just the thing for a rainy day.

Out in the pasture the alpacas don’t seem to mind a slow steady rain.  Periodically they will go into the shelters to eat or dry off but as long as the rain is not heavy they tend to carry on their daily activities outside as normal.  Little Velvet Princess certainly seems to have a lot on her agenda (that’s her latest picture at the top of this blog entry).  She is a bundle of energy, inviting the two other crias Athena and Merlin to play with her and then once she has worn them out she tries to convince the adults that they should play too.  She is usually not too successful in persuading the adults but that does not stop her from trying!  Velvet also likes to follow her big sister TeQueely around and TeQueely tolerates it quite well.  It is quite sweet to see TeQueely strolling across the pasture with her little sister walking at her heels.

It has been an unusual weather year for us this year, by now we are usually getting really dry and hot.  The cooler rainy weather we have been experiencing has been a welcome change.  We keep wondering when the heat is going to hit us, soon I suspect, but who knows maybe it will hold off a little longer and our parched land will feel the benefits of the extra moisture.

Rosemary