Finally The United States Congress Comes to its Senses!

I have always believed that humor is a very important part of life.  Growing up there was a lot of humor in our household leading to many fond memories and also a certain unique strength in all of my family members.  If times are bad and you can still find occasion to smile, even for a couple of moments, then all of a sudden life seems bearable again.  Humor has a way of bringing us back to earth.

Recently, there has been a lot of talk in the media about the “economic stimulus package” that is currently waiting to go through Congress.  With the US economy looking shaky and many people struggling to make ends meet, anything that is going to give the economy a boost is of interest to many.

Yesterday I received a “Google News Alert” regarding alpacas.  I have subscribed to Google News Alerts now for a little while.  It’s a great little tool where you can select a word of interest to you (in my case “alpaca”) and then Google will send you an email notification of any time that word is used in the news.

The Google Alert I received yesterday had a link to an article entitled “Congress to Raise Alpacas To Aid Struggling Economy”.  Now that headline is sure to get any alpaca breeders’ attention!  I clicked through the link to the article and spent the next few moments laughing at the content.  I enjoyed it so much I read it several times and each time it struck me as being funnier than the last (it had been a long day, that’s my excuse for my hilarity!).  The article of course is a spoof.  If only the problems of the US economy could be solved by raising alpacas, wouldn’t that be nice, and wouldn’t people be nicer for it?

While I am still laughing at the content of the article, there is an element of it that makes a point that people contemplating raising alpacas should consider.  With comments such as  “Before you know it, the money is rolling in and there’s alpacas everywhere” and “a “super-easy” way to rake in cash” the article drives home the point that many people believe that raising alpacas is easy and is a get rich quick scheme. 

You can certainly make a lot of money raising alpacas, and have a thoroughly enjoyable time doing so, but and this is a big but, it is like any other business, you have to work very hard to be successful, you have to be prepared to make sacrifices for your business and you have to be passionate about your business. 

Raising alpacas is definitely not a get rich quick scheme and if you are entering into the alpaca business you have to be prepared to work some long days (and even on occasion some long nights).  If your vision of raising alpacas is sitting on the front porch watching your alpacas while people flock to your farm to buy them,  with no husbandry or marketing efforts on your part, then you are setting yourself up for disappointment.  It just doesn’t work that way, raising alpacas is a business and its success depends on the time and commitment you are prepared to put in to it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my alpaca business and I love my alpacas more, that is what keeps me going in this business day after day, but it certainly isn’t a 9 –5 job, and I certainly earn every penny I make with my alpaca business.

If you want to read the article that provided me with such mirth then go to http://www.theonion.com/content/news/congress_to_raise_alpacas_to_aid , remember that the article is a spoof and so unfortunately I cannot see Congress following through on the alpaca raising plan.  You never know though, with some good marketing efforts from the alpaca community maybe we will see alpacas grazing on the lawns of The Whitehouse yet (complete of course with a couple of guard llamas for security!).

Enjoy the article and remember to laugh!

Rosemary

Congratulations Cody!

Good News on the alpaca show scene.  We heard yesterday that Audrey and Lloyd Conklin of West Texas Gold Alpacas had received a special award at the Fiber to Fashion Fleece Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

We have known Audrey and Lloyd for several years now, they are both wonderful people and Audrey has her own style of telling a story that is always entertaining.  Audrey really needs to put together a book of all her funny stories!  I have particularly warm memories of Audrey and Lloyd helping us out at an alpaca show several years ago when one of our alpacas was taken ill at the show.  Audrey and Lloyd loaned us all sorts of supplies from their medicine kit and did all that they could to help us throughout the show.  Audrey and Lloyd are good people and it always is a pleasure to hear of good things happening to good people.

Fiber to Fashion is an annual event held by the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association (AOBA) and is the industry conference on the fiber side of the alpaca business.  The fleece show held at Fiber to Fashion is usually a large one with some stiff competition.

Audrey and Lloyd were not able to attend Fiber to Fashion in person but sent in several fleeces to the fleece show.  A friend of theirs was going to Fiber to Fashion and arrangements were made for their friend to pick up Audrey and Lloyds fleeces from the fleece show.  The friend was keen to report that Audrey and Lloyd’s fleeces had received several ribbons at the show including one really nice special one – the AFCNA Spirit of Fiber Award.

The AFCNA Spirit of Fiber Award is given to only one suri fleece and one huacaya fleece out of all of the fleeces entered in the Fiber to Fashion Fleece show.  The Award is sponsored by the Alpaca Fiber Coop of North America (AFCNA) and is awarded to the fleece that best exemplifies what our fiber industry is breeding for.  It is a prestigious award.

The alpaca whose fleece is that won the award is FFTX Cody, one of Audrey and Lloyd’s herdsires.  Cody is not unfamiliar with winning blue ribbons and now can add the AFCNA Spirit of Fiber award to his list of credentials.

So congratulations to Cody, may your date book be well booked for this upcoming breeding season, and of course congratulations to Audrey and Lloyd too!

Rosemary

It’s Back! The High Wind Returns

I had to chuckle at the weather forecast I heard on the radio yesterday.  The young lady (a meteorologist based in Amarillo) described the day as “another gorgeous day”.  To give the lady her due the temperature was at least warm, but it is difficult to apply the word gorgeous to the day when the winds are blowing around 30 mph with 50+ mph gusts.

To add to our “gorgeous” weather the dirt and tumbleweeds were blowing freely as well.  As I drove back to the house from an errand there were times on our road that visibility was only a few feet due to the blowing dirt and the only way to know about the tumbleweeds was to see them appear out of nowhere and then slam into the side of the truck.

The current dry conditions are almost as bad as they were in 2004 when serious dust storms were a problem.  I can still remember driving to the show in Fort Worth and driving through areas where the visibility was almost down to nothing.  Not what you want at the best of times but definitely not what you want when you are pulling a trailer load of alpacas.  It is tempting in those conditions to pull over and stop, but the problem is that even with the vehicle’s lights on people are still unable to see you and may run into the back of your vehicle.  We were so lucky that year to miss being involved in a major pile up in one of the dust storms we drove through.  We missed it by minutes, someone was watching over us that day.

Despite the dry conditions our winter wheat is making a valiant attempt at coming through, but unless we receive moisture within the next week or so the winter wheat is unlikely to survive.

The weanlings were not too impressed with yesterday’s weather.  Velvet in particular seemed to miss her dam and did a little fence pacing and ran up to me whenever I went into the pasture.  I suspect on days like these Velvet would feel safer cushed beside her mother in the pasture.

Today is supposed to be the same as yesterday, reasonably warm with high winds.  It will be another day when I will end up wearing a “Clovis tan” by the time chores are finished, due to our fine red dirt sticking to my skin.  There’s just nothing like another “gorgeous” day on the high plains of eastern New Mexico!

 

Rosemary

Another Different “Do”

Well the creative hairdressing in the boys pasture continues.  This time the new “do” belongs to one of our herdsires Enchantment’s Prince Regent.

Regent is an outstanding herdsire who possesses solid, square confirmation and a beautiful soft handling dense fleece.  Even at eight years old (nine years this October) Regent has held his fineness and he is a consistent producer of championship offspring.

One of Regent’s features that many alpaca breeders like is Regent’s head style.  He does have a beautiful head and fortunately that is one of the traits that he passes onto his offspring.   Regent’s topknot has always been very dense and he also has good coverage of fiber on his cheeks too.

Of late though something has looked a little different about Regent.  It took me a couple of days to figure out what it is, but now I know – I can see his eyes!  For years between his facial wool and his topknot there has not been much of a chance to see Regent’s eyes, but now you can see them.  So what is going on?  What has caused this change?  Well it appears that the culprit is the big bales of hay we are feeding.  You see for a majority of the day the boys stand at the big bale and eat a hole in the side of the big bale.  As the hole gets deeper, so they push their faces into the bale deeper and Voila!  An instant change of hair-do for Regent!

Having realized what looks so different about Regent, I checked out some of the other boys too.  Tobiano’s topknot is pushed back as well and so are a couple of the other boys.  I guess that’s what an alpaca gets for pushing it’s head further and further into a bale of hay.  I just hope Regent remembers that Spring breeding season is fast approaching and he needs to return his “do” to it’s previous glory before his “dates” arrive! 

Rosemary                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Their First Night Alone

Last night was the night, the first time the weanlings have been away from their dams overnight.  The weather is forecast to be mild over the next few days and even the night time temperatures will be above freezing and so it was a good time to make the final break.  Often newly weaned cria will sit out by the fence line all night and that is not the best place for them to be if the weather is very cold.

The weanlings were not too concerned at first last night.  I fed them and put out extra hay for them and while they came to the gate a couple of times to see if it was open, they soon settled down to eating hay followed by a chase session around the pasture.  As time went on though the realization set in that they were not going to back to the main herd for the night.

Shiimsa of course is already weaned, and we hope that her lack of concern at being in the weanling pasture overnight will help the three weanlings feel less stressed about the event. 

During the course of the evening I checked on the weanlings, Athena and Shiimsa were in their barn eating hay, Velvet and Blast were setting together by the fence line.  Some of the main herd were sitting by their fence line where the weanlings could seem them, and if truth be known the weanlings are physically no further away from their dams than I have seen them on several other occasions.  The only difference is there are two fences on either side of the 10 foot gap between them.

When I checked on the weanlings Velvet and Blast ran up to see me, and Blast did a fair amount of “talking” telling me he wanted to go back to the main pasture.  Velvet too had some curious hums to pass onto me.

Today we will give the weanlings some more probiotic.  They are sure to be suffering with a little stress, which is not good for them or the health of their rumen.  The probiotics will help keep their rumens healthy and also contain B vitamins that have calming properties.  I might even put some Bach’s Rescue Remedy in the weanling’s water to help calm their nerves.

In a day or so the weanlings will have settled in to their new pasture and will be adapting to spending their nights together.  They will remain there until the show and then will return to that pasture for quarantine following the show.  By the time that process is all through we should be able to return Velvet, Athena and Shiimsa to the girls pasture.  Little Blast though is another matter – I may have to borrow an alpaca buddy of the same age as him to keep him company for a while until he is big enough to join the junior male herd.

And what about the dams during this final weaning process?  Well not one of them has been looking for her cria, a sure sign they were ready for the weaning process to happen.  Sorry to tell you this kids but Mom says it’s time to move out and set up home on your own!

Rosemary

Cossy Gets A Perm!

I wonder what goes on in the alpaca pastures overnight.  Sometimes I go out in the morning and see something in the pastures that defies explanation.  I have had the privilege of spending several nights in the pasture with the alpacas, and the most excitement I saw was the girls chasing a rabbit and alpacas deep in sleep twitching their feet as they dreamt.  Apart from that the only other thing that seems to go on in the pastures at night was eating hay.

Yesterday morning there was snow on the ground during morning chores. There was also some freezing fog and as the moisture landed on the trees they turned into beautiful white sculptures.  As cold as the air was, it was a beautiful morning, and perhaps I felt better about the cold weather as the forecast for later in the day was temperatures in the 50’s – finally a little warmer weather.

When I was feeding one of the groups of boys, Cosmo, one of our three suri alpacas came over to see what I was doing.  Cosmo (or Cossy as we usually call him) usually sports the typical suri hairdo of long twisted locks hanging over his face.  He always looks quite fetching and his stylish looks are usually only ruined by my attempts to trim his topknot when it becomes obvious that it is preventing him from seeing properly.  My hair dressing skills are slim to none (ask Ric, he will willingly verify that) and usually following my attempts to trim Cossy’s topknot he looks as if I have stuck a basin on his head and cut around it.  Fortunately Cossy’s topknot grows back quickly, so my poor attempts at trimming are not evident for long.

As I looked at Cossy yesterday morning I realized he looked different, it took me a moment to realize that his topknot had gone curly!  Cossy had a perm! 

Now I am pretty certain that the male alpacas did not sit down with a set of perm curlers and perming solution and create Cossy’s masterpiece.  I hope not anyway, or maybe I should hope they did as then we could make a fortune having them demonstrating their skills!  Rather I suspect that something to do with the moisture conditions had caused Cossy’s locks to separate more than usually, which allowed the individual hairs to curl more.   This is the first time I had ever seen this happen though, and we have owned Cossy for several years and seen him in many different weather conditions.

I am sure a suri breeder could provide an explanation of the significance of Cossy’s curly hair do.   The fact that his locks could change so overnight probably indicates something about his fleece.  

I will be interested to see how Cossy’s topknot looks this morning, most likely it will be back to normal.  Of course, if I go into the boys pasture and find Cossy sporting a mohican hairdo or anything else unnatural I guess it will be time to start putting camera’s in the pasture overnight and calling the media to have them come and film my beauty school boys!

Rosemary

Those Pesky Forms!

The extended entry deadline for the TxOLAN Alpaca Spectacular is today.   This means that online registration through the TxOLAN website will be closed at midnight tonight and any paperwork relating to an entry to the show has to be postmarked with today’s date.

The show deadline was extended from January 15 to January 25 due to the website being down for a couple of days, but what is amazing to me is the number of entries that have been submitted since the original entry deadline.  There were a lot of people either waiting until the last minute to register for the show or who decided to come to the show at the last minute.  Now, alpaca breeders are notorious at being late at submitting their entries, but I think this is the biggest last minute rush I have seen so far!

Submitting entry forms to an alpaca show should be an easy thing, and once you have entered a couple of shows you get the hang of it quite easily.  To someone new to alpaca shows though it can be daunting.  I can still remember looking at the forms for the first show we entered and wondering what on earth I was supposed to do with them.

As the alpaca show system has become more refined, so it seems that there is more required on each form and more to be done to ensure entry to the show.

At the first show we entered we basically needed to know our animals name, date of birth, color and their ARI (Alpaca Registry Inc.) number.   You then had to figure out which class to enter and put that information on your form too.  At that time it was not unusual to be showing your alpaca in a class of one, which meant that you got a blue ribbon, but there wasn’t much worth behind it, as you didn’t have any competition.

These days all of that information is required, but also needed is the alpacas parentage information, the alpacas shearing date, copies (note the use of the plural) of the alpacas ARI certificate and a disclaimer statement regarding any business you may have done with a show judge.  Then there is the health paperwork too – proof of BVDV testing, a record of the alpaca’s microchip number, a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection, any health test results required by the state you are traveling too – the list just keeps growing!

Along the way there have been the forms that have been discarded, such as the one that had a veterinarian declare that the male alpacas had two testicles, the female alpaca only four teats and that none of the alpacas had umbilical hernias.

The paperwork is so much for shows that I now have a special folder in which I keep all of the paperwork for the show that we are next traveling too.  From the day that I register for the show, this is the folder where everything goes, from copies of the show forms and health papers to hotel reservations.  The folder is invaluable, but heaven help me the day I accidentally leave it at home!

I can truly sympathize with the alpaca breeder who is attending their first show.  There is a lot to remember to do in preparation for the show, and a lot to do at the show.  Fortunately alpaca breeders are a friendly bunch and are usually more than ready to help each other out, especially when they discover it is someone’s first show.

As show superintendents for the TxOLAN Alpaca Spectacular, Ric and I are responsible (amongst other things) for checking the correct paperwork is received, creating a database of the show entries, sorting the entries into their appropriate groups and also creating a class schedule.  I will give you three guesses what Ric and I are going to be doing this weekend (and most likely into the beginning of next week) – processing all of those entry forms!

Rosemary

Sometimes It’s Hard To Be A Young Male Alpaca

The day weaning of Velvet, Blast and Athena has been going well, and the little group now is quite happy to head over to the pen where they spend their day.  They barely pay attention to the location of their dams in the next pen and usually spend most of the day at the hay feeder, with the occasional break for a chase around the pasture or a quick nap.

In the evenings when I let the weanlings back they are less concerned to dash immediately to their mothers to try to nurse.  Poor Velvet lost nursing privileges the very first day of day weaning, she tried, but Queen wanted nothing to do with her.  Athena was able to persuade Rebecca that she still needed milk for the first few days, but of late Rebecca is less cooperative about Athena trying to nurse, in fact Athena’s recent attempts have been unsuccessful.  And then there’s Blast, dear sweet little Blast who finds his dam Clarissa and the nurses and nurses and nurses.   I swear if they were in a cartoon Clarissa would be reduced to a withered little pile on the floor by the time Blast has finished with her.  If that weren’t enough Blast is now so big that he has to cush to be able to nurse from Clarissa.  I hate to tell Blast this but it’s time for the nursing to stop.

The weather over the next two days is supposed to be atrocious, with freezing temperatures, freezing rain and snow.  Not a good scenario for weanlings to spend their first night away from their dams.  I have seen crias spend all night sitting by the fence line when they are first weaned, and that is the last thing I want when the weather is so wintry.  The beginning of next week though is supposed to be warmer, with daytime temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s.  With that in mind I am scheduling those days to do the final stage of weaning by keeping the weanlings away from their dams overnight.  They’re not going to be happy, and I will have an anxious couple of nights watching over them to make sure they are not stressing out too much.  That final step is necessary though.

I am confident the weanlings will be fine with their new situation after a couple of days, but I feel of the three of them that Blast will take it the hardest.  But that is often the case with male crias who seem bound and determined to nurse for the rest of their lives!

Once the final step to weaning has been taken I will leave Blast in with his weanling pals, but then of course in time he will need to be moved over to the pen of young male alpacas.  That will most likely be just as tough on him, as he will then be in a pen of completely strange alpacas.

Usually we have more than one male cria being weaned at a time and so they go to the young males pen as a pair or more.  This year though we were blessed with more girls than boys and so Blast is the only male in his peer group.  Zeus is the next male cria to be weaned, but that will not be taking place until at least March, possibly later, and I cannot leave Blast in with the females for all of that time.

What I may end up having to do is put the weanling girls back in with their dams.  I can then bring a couple of the smallest young males over to be with Blast for a few days before taking them all together as a group back to the young male pen.  At least that will give Blast a little while to get acquainted with a couple of his new pasture mates.  Over time Blast will get used to his new environment and will eventually join in the wrestling and rough housing that takes place between the boys.   It will be a little stressful for him at first though, but sometimes it’s just hard to be a young male alpaca.

Rosemary

Whatever Next!

Well yesterday was pretty eventful, so much so that it took me 5 ½ hours to do morning chores.  I think that has to be a record!

It was just one of those days with one thing going wrong after another.  Frozen faucets, a leaking automatic waterer, two male alpacas with bloody ears (in separate pastures and fortunately nothing serious, just the result of frisky wrestling boys on a cold morning), a female alpaca with a grungy eye (again thankfully nothing serious, just an inturned long eyelash, but still requiring the eye to be bathed), and a 40 lb sack of beet pulp shreds that split open as I lifted it out of my truck to put it in the feed shed.  It just seemed that life was determined to challenge me yesterday.  The good news of the day was that my dental appointment for a filling was cancelled due to the dentist coming down with stomach flu.  I hate to think of the poor dentist being ill but at least it meant I didn’t have to rush to that appointment on top of everything else.  I did chuckle though as I thought of how many dental patients were overjoyed at the news that their appointment had been cancelled for the day!

I think there were two causes for yesterday’s mayhem; first Ric is away for the week (a sure way to ensure everything is going to break down in his absence) and also a full moon.  I need to remind myself to never let Ric leave town during a full moon again, the combination of the two is too much to handle!

That full moon was spectacular last night at Sunset, it was huge and golden as it rose over the horizon and I couldn’t help but admire it despite the problems it had caused during the day.  

Oh well, I survived the day and am now more educated in the inner workings of an automatic waterer, plus the dogs and I had a great walk in the beautiful moonlight.  Fingers crossed the gremlins will be worn out after yesterdays mischief and today will be a quieter day.

Rosemary

Zeus’s Weight Gain – What We Did

Several people have contacted me regarding Zeus’s weight gain and how we accomplished some success with him.  Leigh Thomas kindly made a comment to the blog asking the same question and so I thought it might be helpful to write a little about what we did for Zeus.

First off I have to say that any time you have an alpaca that is causing you concern it is best to consult with your veterinarian and gain his or her expert opinion.  We had spoke to our veterinarian about Zeus and he was of the opinion that the main factor in Zeus’s erratic weight gain was a maiden dam that had low milk production.  Sometimes this will happen with a maiden dam, it does not necessarily mean that they will always be this way.  Often on the next pregnancy their milk production will be greatly increased and their next cria will gain weight without a problem.  There are some dams though that are poor milk producers and always remain so despite the breeder’s best efforts, one has to question whether those dams should continue to be bred.   Milk production can be a heritable trait and so that dam may go on to continually produce female cria that themselves have a difficult time producing milk.  Fortunately poor milk producing dams are the exception rather than the norm.

Something else to consider is testing the crias thyroid function.  That was going to be our next step with Zeus if he had not started to show a better growth rate.  A thyroid imbalance will often cause a cria to be slow to gain weight.  Typically those crias that do have a thyroid problem exhibit low energy levels, but not always to the point where it causes the breeder concern.  I remember one young male alpaca that came here for boarding who was extremely undersized for his age; his owners had thought that he was just a quiet alpaca who was slow to grow.  We body scored the alpaca and he body scored around 3 out of 10, he was most definitely thin.  With his owners consent we ran a thyroid test on the alpaca and the results revealed that his thyroid was under active.  In humans an under active thyroid often results in weight gain, but this is not usually the case in alpacas.  We started the alpaca on a thyroid treatment and within a short time he gained weight and within a couple of months we were able to take him off the medicine.  He has been fine ever since.  This particular alpaca also had crusting around his nose and mouth that we think was related to his thyroid condition.  We cleaned the crusting daily with a diluted tea tree oil solution and over time as the alpacas thyroid came into balance so the crusting stopped.

But back to what we did for Zeus.  I really believe it was a combination of things that helped Zeus get back on track.  First we are fortunate enough that one of our other dams, Carina, allowed Zeus to nurse from her alongside her own cria Carissima.  As long as Carina was distracted by a large bucket of hay she was happy to let Zeus nurse.  We made sure that Zeus, his dam Zoie, Carina and Carissima all went into pen together twice a day to allow Zeus two good nursing sessions from Carina.  Interestingly I caught Zeus nursing from Carina again the other day, she was busy eating at one of the hay feeders, but on seeing her Zeus perked up his ears ran over and started nursing from her.  We are also blessed with a nursemaid llama, Inca, who will come into milk on occasion and let crias nurse off her.  Zeus did nurse of Inca although of late that seems to have stopped.

The other thing we did was to ensure that Zoie got additional nutrition to help increase her milk production.  We added some alfalfa hay to her diet and also some calf manna.   As Zeus grew we waited for him to show interest in Zoie’s feed and then gradually introduced him to eating calf manna too.  You have to be careful about certain grains and young crias as you can cause digestive problems if a cria starts to eat grain at too early of an age.  However we had used calf manna before on our vets recommendation, he feels that it is easier to digest than some of the other feeds available and so is less likely to cause problems in crias.

The brand of calf manna we use is Manna Pro.  It is a brand that has been around for many years and is used for many species of livestock.  I like Manna Pro because it has some ingredients in it that just make sense to be used in a situation such as Zeus’s. 

Manna Pro has Brewers Yeast in it which helps with digestion of the calf manna, but also Brewers Yeast can have a positive effect on milk production.  Two herbal ingredients of Manna Pro are Fenugreek and Anise Oil.  Both Fenugreek and Anise are ingredients that I use in the herbal lactation stimulant that I make up for my expectant dams (we feed the herbal lactation stimulant two weeks prior to birthing and for two weeks post birthing).  The Manna Pro Calf Manna also contains Vitamin A supplement, VitaminD supplement, Vitamin E supplement and Vitamin B12 – all vitamins that are used to help encourage good growth.   Linseed Meal is another ingredient that is in the Calf Manna and which is helpful to good growth and overall condition. 

The Calf Manna runs about 25% protein, which is a high protein level for alpacas.  Certainly I would not feed it to the whole herd, but for those who are struggling to keep weight on or for dams that are low milk producers it can be a good choice.  The other caution I have about feeding calf manna to alpacas is the copper levels, which may be a bit high for alpacas.  Feeding it short term should not be a problem but I would not suggest using it long term as an alpaca’s regular daily feed.

Finally I think it is important with young crias to make sure they are getting adequate access to hay or grazing.  Very young crias of course do not graze or eat hay, but as they age you will see them starting to nibble at the grass or walking around with a piece of hay in their mouth.  Once crias have started to nibble on hay or grass do make sure that there have somewhere that they can have access to hay without the adults being able to jostle them out of the way.  Some breeders use a creep feeder, which enables the crias to go in and out of an area of the pasture, but blocks the adult alpacas from entering.  We use our “cria club” a pen where the crias go in the morning and evening while the adults are receiving their feed.  The cria club is for crias only and allows them to have some time with a hay feeder and, once they are old enough, a tray of pellet supplement.  Here they can eat in peace without being threatened or shoved out of the way.  The cria club is also an excellent place to introduce crias to being handled and halter training.

Having a slow growing cria can be a very frustrating and worrying experience.  Crias can crash rapidly, which, of course, is the last thing any alpaca breeder wants.  With your vet’s input and your persistence and good management crias can be helped to get over the stumbling block of slow initial growth.

Rosemary