Just Protecting Her Baby

 

With crias being born and National Alpaca Farm Days the weekend was a busy one.  It was a nice change of pace on Monday to have nothing on the agenda past the usual chores, follow up phone calls and sorting through the mail.

 

The two new crias are doing well and showing good weight gain.  Keeva’s cria still sleeps more than Cinnamon’s cria but is starting to get up and play between her naps.

 

Cinnamon and Keeva were both born at our farm and so are pretty comfortable with their surroundings.  Keeva has always been quite sweet and approachable, while Cinnamon is more curious and a little wary of strangers who try and handle her.  Both girls are proving to be great dams, but have their differences in how they behave with their crias.

 

On Friday afternoon after Cinnamon had delivered her cria our neighbor Tracy came to visit.  Tracy had helped us catch Cinnamon when Cinnamon went on her great escape escapade (See blog entry “Cinnamon’s Great Escape“August 13, 2008).  Tracy was anxious to know that all was well with Cinnamon and her cria and I had promised to let her know when Cinnamon delivered her cria.  So on Friday afternoon Tracy came down to visit Cinnamon, bringing with her four children who she baby-sits.  The children have been to the farm before and know to be quiet and calm around the alpacas. 

 

We all went over to the catch pen where I had Cinnamon and her cria.  We always put our new dams and their crias in a catch pen to allow them to bond and to give the cria time to get steady on its feet before being introduced to the rest of the herd.  Once we were at the catch pen we all stood quietly outside and Cinnamon walked over to check out her visitors.  Cinnamon usually loves to check out visitors to the farm stretching out her neck to sniff them, but this time was different.  Having taken a look at the visitors Cinnamon tried to stomp on them through the fence!

 

I felt sorry for the children who were taken aback by Cinnamon’s behavior.  I explained to them that Cinnamon was protecting her new baby and suggested that we all leave her alone so as not to stress her any further.  Needless to say the children were quite happy to go and visit with Stormy one of the older crias who was much more receptive to visitors!

 

This was the first time we have experienced a dam who was that protective on our farm.  I had seen the behavior before at another alpaca farm, when a dam who had been imported from Chile was extremely protective of her cria, but our girls have always been fine with visitors up to now.

 

Cinnamon soon calmed down and went back to eating her hay; she is been fine with Ric or me being near her cria, but definitely gives visitors the wary eye.  Having seen what happened during Tracy’s visit we were careful to keep our weekend visitors at a distance from Cinnamon.  They were able to see Cinnamon and her cria, but we did not allow anyone to get to close to the area where they she was. 

 

I am sure in time Cinnamon will become more relaxed over her cria, she is after all brand new to the idea having a cria and I would much rather she be attentive and protective than not be at all concerned about her cria.  For now she is following instincts that have been passed on to her from previous generations of alpacas, and we have to respect those instincts.

 

Rosemary

When One Starts They All Start!

Keeva and her cria

 

 

 

 

Cinnamon having her cria the day before National Alpaca Farm Days seemed to start the other pregnant dams thinking about birthing.

 

Saturday morning as I was telling Bethany, our teenage helper, our plans for the day, I looked across the pasture and could see something was different about Keeva.  Lying in the shade of our large blue shelter, with Carina (also due soon) next to her,  Keeva’s tail was making some funny movements – she was in labor.

 

Our cria kit was still in the front porch from Friday when Cinnamon delivered, so it was nice and handy, but my collection of towels and blankets that I use at alpaca births was still in the washing machine.  We made a quick raid on the towel cabinet before heading out to the pasture.  (Note – if you are planning on delivering crias at your alpaca farm a large collection of old blankets and towels is a good idea!)

 

By the time we got to Keeva she had the crias head presented, and shortly afterward two feet appeared.  The delivery went well and with a couple more contractions Keeva presented us with a beige, female cria.  This was such a difference from Keeva’s previous birthing when she had a terrible dystocia (badly presented cria) and had to have veterinary assistance, which ended up with us losing the cria.  This time all went smoothly for Keeva and Keeva was anxious to meet her new baby, sniffing and clucking at the birthing fluids on the ground before she fully delivered her cria.

 

Keeva’s little girl is about three weeks premature.  Keeva had been showing signs that she was not going to carry her cria to term (See blog entry Doing The Cria Dance, September 10, 2008) so we were not totally surprised at her early labor.  Fortunately the cria’s lungs are well developed and with the exception of her being quite sleepy and wobblier than a full term cria she is doing well.  Keeva’s cria is just a little thing weighing in at 13.3 lbs.  We did end up having to milk Keeva a couple of times and feeding the colostrum to her cria to get the cria started and give her a little strength, but by the early afternoon Keeva’s cria was able to get up on her own and nurse from Keeva without a problem.

 

Keeva's Cria Soaks Up Some Sun

 

Interestingly Keeva’s cria and Cinnamon’s cria are almost identical in looks.  If you part their fleece you can see that they have different fleece styles, but just looking at them in the pasture it is hard to tell them apart.  They do both have the same sire, Tobiano.  We were very careful to make sure that Cinnamon and Keeva recognized which cria was which once we put Keeva and her cria into the pasture for the rest of the day.

 

So our National Alpaca Farm Day visitors got to see a brand new cria and of course Cinnamons cria who had been born the day before.  They also got to see me looking a filthy mess from taking care of Keeva and her cria but they all understood. 

 

During the course of the day Carina also started to look uncomfortable, but she did not go into labor.  Probably just that uncomfortable day that alpaca dams have about two weeks before giving birth, which will put Carina close to her due date.  Dutchess is the next girl due to give birth, only time will tell if Cinnamon and Keeva have made her thoughts turn to delivering soon.

 

Rosemary

Just in Time For National Alpaca Farm Days

Cinnamon's new cria

 

Our first cria of the fall arrived yesterday at 12:35 pm.  Cinnamon delivered a healthy, vigorous beige boy who weighed in at 15.3 lbs.  Cinnamon’s cria is out of our dark male herdsire Tobiano, whose crias have all been in the 13 –15 lbs range so far.  They tend to be study little crias with broad chests and a very square frame and this little boy is no exception.

 

We had thought that the breeding of Cinnamon and Tobiano would produce color, but alpacas love to outwit us humans and Cinnamon and Tobiano combined gave us a beige cria.  Alpaca color genetics are so much fun!

 

Cinnamon’s little boy is a real character.  He tried to kick me when I dipped his naval, kicked out at Cinnamon when she sniffed him, was scratching his head with his hind leg before he could cush and boy can he talk!  He really is a chatty little fellow.  He was up on his feet looking good about an hour after being born, not wobbly at all, but steady and skipping around.  He also was hungry and took no time in finding Cinnamon’s udder, which had plenty of creamy colostrum.  I think the recent addition of a little alfalfa to our girls diet gave Cinnamon some help in the milk department, although Cinnamon’s dam Chai is an excellent milk producer and milk production does seem to be a heritable factor in alpacas as it is in other livestock species.

 

Cinnamon had a textbook delivery with no assistance required, she even took a break to chew her cud after the cria’s head and legs were delivered!  As I dried off Cinnamon’s cria, she stretched her neck out to me, looked me right in the eye and then planted a gentle alpaca kiss right on my forehead, what a sweet girl.

 

Although she is a maiden Cinnamon is proving to be an excellent mother, she is very attentive to her cria, humming to him and sniffing him and she stands stock still while he nurses from her.

 

So our visitors to our farm will have a special treat today as they see our new young man prancing round, checking out how fast his legs will carry him!  For this boy we are going to need a name that is full of spirit, vigor and character just like him!

 

Rosemary

Griffin Saves The Day – Well Almost…..

Griffin checks out Kanika when Kanika was a small cria

 

As I have mentioned in previous blog entries, our llama ladies do a good job of guarding our herd.  In the past they have alerted us to stray dogs on our property and have even alerted us to when one of the alpacas was having difficulty giving birth.  Having three guard llamas means that one of them is always “on duty” even during the night, and so they provide us with round the clock security coverage.

 

When the llamas alert us to something there are some stages they go through.  First they will stand very erect with their tails arched up and their ears pointing slightly forward, this posture makes them seem even bigger than they actually are.  While holding this position they can snort, dance around a little or pull their lips back, depending on how they feel about the threat, but their actions are noticeable and will get my attention.

 

From that position, the next step for the llamas is to alarm call.  If the alarm call is ineffective they will gradually approach the intruder and if that doesn’t make the intruder have second thoughts about being in the pasture the llamas will eventually charge the intruder and try and stomp on it.

 

The other day when I was doing evening chores, I became aware of Griffin our rose grey llama posturing and snorting by the fence line, letting me know that something was bothering her.  She was soon joined by Cinnamon, one of the alpacas, who stood beside Griffin looking off towards the boys pasture.

 

For a while I thought perhaps we had a stay dog on the property, but could not see anything from where I was and so decided to go to where Griffin stood to check out what was getting her attention.

 

Once closer to Griffin I still could not see what was bothering her, until I realized she wasn’t really look at the boys pasture but rather she was looking straight ahead of where she stood, and there on the ground was a huge tarantula!

 

By now Cinnamon’s curiosity was getting the better of her and she reached down to sniff the tarantula.  The tarantula was not keen on Cinnamon’s attention and started to get annoyed with her sniffing, I didn’t want Cinnamon getting bitten by the tarantula and so shooed her away from the area.

 

The tarantula was a beautiful specimen, black, brown, hairy and about 4 inches across.  I didn’t want to kill it, but I couldn’t allow it to stay in the girls pasture so I grabbed the rake that we use for poop scooping and lowered the handle down to the ground to allow the tarantula to climb onto the rake handle.  Once my passenger was on board I carried him out to an area away from the alpacas and set the broom handle down so he could get off and continue on his journey.

 

Griffin had done a good job letting me know about the tarantula’s presence, however she seemed to draw the line at chasing and stomping the tarantula and was quite happy for me to take over dealing with the large spider.  Perhaps if I had not been near she would have taken her guarding actions a step further, perhaps she was quietly thankful that I was there to take away the spider so she didn’t have to get any closer to it and perhaps the tarantula was grateful I was there too, to save him from being stomped by our protective llamas!

(And talking of llamas, there are many beautiful llamas awaiting adoption to loving homes at Southwest Llama Rescue.  If you feel you could give a good home to two or more llamas, please get in touch with Southwest Llama Rescue who will work with you to find you llamas that will suit your needs.  If you don’t feel that you want to adopt a llama you can always sponsor one or send in a donation.  With feed costs constantly rising and the economy causing an increase in surrendered llamas Southwest Llama Rescue would appreciate all donations no matter how big or small)

 Rosemary

So Why Are Your Alpacas So Friendly?

 

That’s a question we are often asked by other alpaca breeders.  To people who have not been around alpacas much they actually appear a little distant.  Much of the national marketing of alpacas has talked about “the huggable investment” and so people expect them to want to be hugged and petted.  While alpacas are beautifully soft most of them are not really keen on being hugged and petted, that’s just not normal alpaca behavior.

 

To those that have been around alpacas our alpacas apparently seem quite friendly.  I think part of it is just the natural curiosity of the alpacas, but I feel the biggest part of their behavior towards humans is based on trust. 

 

From the day that a cria is born, or the day that an alpaca arrives at the farm we work to ensure that they feel safe and comfortable.  With crias we make sure that they are well bonded with their dam before being turned out into the herd and any movements or interaction with them is slow, gentle and calm.  No grabbing, wrestling or forceful movements on our part.   As they grow, we continue to make an effort to use gently movements around them.  When we start to teach them to pick up their feet, we are confident with our movements and make sure that they are in balance once we raise a foot up.  If we are hesitant they will sense it and wonder what there is to be unsure of, by keeping the cria in balance they feel more secure about having a foot picked up and don’t feel as if they are going to topple over when the foot is lifted.

 

When an adult alpaca arrives at the farm we make a point of giving him or her several days when we only do the basic chores around them such as feeding and watering.  Unless it is medically necessary we don’t do any other tasks such as trimming toenails, giving shots etc.  During their first few days here we like to observe them and gauge their personality and I am sure they are doing the same to us too.

 

While some alpacas do enjoy a scratch under the chin or an ear rub, for the most part alpacas prefer to be hands off and perhaps one of the biggest break throughs for me during our first years of owning alpacas was when I learnt to stop trying to touch them all the time!  Like many new alpaca owners I was so proud of them and wanted to feel their fleece, take a look at it, pick bits of hay off their blanket area or perhaps remove a piece of hay that was dangling from a top knot.  Then I learnt that to an alpaca that sort of behavior is just plain irritating, so I trained myself to stop doing that and low and behold the alpacas started to get more comfortable around me. 

 

One thing that Ric mentions to small children who visit us is that once we enter the pasture their arms need to stay down, their hands need to stay by their side or in their pockets and absolutely no running or chasing.  Ric explains to the children that if they watch the alpacas, they will notice that the alpacas walk most of the time and they never reach out to touch each other with a front leg (the alpacas equivalent of our arms), so when people reach out to touch an alpaca the alpaca wonders what on earth they are doing. Ric explains that alpacas greet each other by sniffing and that if the children behave quietly, without reaching out, the alpacas will come over and sniff them. Ric’s talk to the children works well and they are soon thrilled when the alpacas come over and sniff them.

 

Obviously there are times when we have to do things to the alpacas that they are not to thrilled about.  Some of our breeding males take exception to having the toe nails on their hind feet being trimmed, we are too near to their “business end” for their liking, but it has to be done.    But when we have a task to do that we know the alpacas are not keen on we make the effort to do it gently and with confidence in order to make it easy for all involved. We use the lightest hold or restraint possible in order to do the task safely.

 

Take the time to observe your alpacas, watch their movements and how they interact with each other and then think about how you interact with them and how you can make that better.  Be conscience of your movements when you are with your herd, and if necessary take the time to retrain yourself.  You will learn a lot about alpacas in the process and you will learn a lot about yourself too.  It really pays off dividends to have your alpacas trust you, herd management is so much easier for both handler and alpacas with calm, relaxed alpacas not to mention how much healthier it is for all involved too.

 

Rosemary

The Socks Are Done!

My First Attempt At Knitting Socks

 

Thank goodness – over the weekend while Ric was away I managed the final few rows of the second sock and that project is complete.

 

The sock project started off because I had some leftover yarn that I wanted to use up.  The yarn was not the best, having been made by a mill owner in his early years of processing alpaca fiber.  Some of the skeins were over spun and had a harsh feel to them, but we made allowances for the fact that the mill owner was new to the business and was in a learning curve (and these days his yarn is vastly improved).

 

I had read in various knitting publications how fast and fun sock making was, so thought I would try my hand at knitting a pair of socks just to see how I enjoyed the experience.  Well, I didn’t!  Perhaps the fact that I was knitting plain socks with no pattern or color variation was a factor, but I found the creation of the socks quite mundane and fiddly.

 

Normally my knitting projects involve lace knitting, cables, interesting stitches or variation of color so that might be why I found the socks less than inspiring.  Still I had started the project and wanted to see it through to completion and so I persevered.

 

The socks were always intended to be used by me, the quality of the yarn was such I didn’t feel right trying to sell the end product, and after all this was my first time trying such techniques as turning a heel.  As things turned our it’s a good job I wasn’t planning on selling the socks as they are not my finest creation, but they certainly have “character” that wonderful term fiber artists use to describe areas of their work that are less than perfect!

 

You can see from the picture that the shape of the heel on the bottom sock is too elongated, the top sock is better and it was the second of the two socks that I knitted – at least I was showing improvement.  To me the cast on for the ribbing at the top of the socks is too loose, but the pattern instructions said to make sure that the cast on was loose.

 

The yarn that I used for the second sock was supposed to be the same as the yarn for the first sock, but there is a difference in both the color and weight of the yarn.  On seeing the socks Ric joked with me that I will have to alternate which foot I wear each sock on as he thinks they will wear differently over time.

The result of unsorted fiber, a fuzzy sock with protruding guard hairs

 

When I went to photograph the socks, I realized what a beautiful example they were of fiber that was not sorted prior to being spun into yarn.  Just look at this close up of the first heel – talk about guard hair!  You can see the sock has a very fuzzy outline and some very long straight hairs protruding from it, which are guard hairs.  These protruding fibers will produce a prickle effect to the skin (not good) and over time will shed and pill.  Fiber that was properly sorted by grade, length and color would not have produced two different colored, different weight socks and there would be little to no fuzzy outline or guard hairs.

 

My sock project ended up being more of an education than I ever thought it would be, so it was not a totally wasted experience – and at the end of the day I have a pair of barn socks that will be great to wear as the cooler weather arrives!

 

Rosemary

Safely Home From The State Fair

 

The New Mexico State Fair is over and Ric and the alpacas arrived back home yesterday evening.

 

This year’s State Fair Alpaca Show was a little smaller than those of previous years with approximately 224 entries.  The economy and high fuel prices are making people think hard about which shows they travel to.  According to the State Fair staff, livestock entries were down across the board and a local news channel reported that attendance at the State Fair was also down.

 

Still the alpaca entries came from several states, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona and California to name a few.

 

According to Ric our four alpacas all behaved well and were very relaxed for the whole trip.  Only one of them Windrush White Blast had been to a show before, for the other three this was a new experience.

 

Unfortunately young Zeus did not place in his class, one of the hazards of being in a competitive class of juvenile white male alpacas, usually the largest class at a show.  Zeus is a little small for his age and that probably went against him, but he is still young, has a beautiful bright white fleece and has lots of time to grow.

 

Blast did also not fair as well as we had hoped, but he did come away with a 6^th place ribbon, the judge liked his fine, soft handing fleece and crimp style but felt he was not as dense as some of the other alpacas in the class.

 

Windrush Zindel’s Carissima took a third in her class, and she was the youngest in her class as well.  The judge really liked her fleece (it is really nice if I say so myself!) and commented that that she realized Carissima still has some growing to do. Carissima is starting to enter that gangly adolescent stage that young alpacas go through, so hopefully in a few months she will be looking more adult, and I bet her spring show season will be a successful one.

 

Finally our true black juvenile Windrush Zindel’s Kaneka did us proud by taking not only second in her class but also going on to win the Reserve Color Champion – well done Kaneka!  And well done Ric for traveling to the show on your own, setting up and manning the booth and showing the alpacas, even with just four alpacas shows are hard work on your own, but they also are fun too,

 

Now the show alpacas will be placed into quarantine for the next three weeks, just in case they picked up any parasites or other ills during their trip.  The biosecurity and vet checks at the show were very thorough, but there is still always a risk of bringing back something unwanted and if that does happen we don’t want it spreading through the herd, especially as we have young crias due to be born any day.

 

Back at the ranch, we continue with cria watch, no sign of any imminent births yet, just some heavily pregnant dams waddling around the pasture, enjoying the cool breeze of the fan, having a roll in the dust from time to time, dipping their feet in the water bucket (I’ve lost track of how many times I have had to rinse and refill the bucket!) and eating hay to keep those crias growing!

 

Rosemary

Too much Sunscreen?

Moonie wearing his sheep cover

 

Our friend Nancy Thompson of Tres Amigos Ranch recently posted a couple of questions on the blog on the entry of February 29, 2008 entitled “Kanika you’re a Mess”  I thought others would be interested in Nancy’s questions and my reply so rather than just reply to the comment at the post I decided to discuss Nancy’s questions in a new post.

 

This is the question Nancy posted

 

“I think I am going to try the Matilda sheep covers this year on a few of our show animals.  I know I have asked you this in the past, but can you tell me again who you buy your covers from?  My vet has mentioned she doesn’t like them because if blocks UV rays…but I figure, especially on a dark animal, is the sun going to penetrate all that fleece anyway?  Have you ever had any vitamin D issues using the coats?”

 

 

To answer Nancy’s first question, unfortunately the lady who I was buying my Matilda Sheep Covers from is no longer a distributor, however if you go to the Matilda Sheep Cover Website at http://www.sheepcovers.com.au/  there is a USA Distributors Button at the top right hand side of the screen.  Just click on that button and you will be taken to a list of distributors in the USA.  With the ever rising cost of shipping these days it might be best to contact a distributor who is geographically close to you.    There is also some good information on the Matilda Sheep Cover Site and also some of the individual distributor pages about fitting and caring for your Matilda Sheep Covers.

 

Now onto Nancy’s second question as to whether we have ever had any vitamin D issues when using the sheep covers.  I can honestly say that we have not, but I feel I need to qualify my answer a little.

 

We have been using the Matilda Sheep Covers for several years and just as a personal preference we do not usually put the covers on the crias until they are at least three to four months old.  To me an alpaca cria needs to have some time just running around and being a cria before he or she starts to wear a fleece cover.  Yes, cria fleece attracts vegetable matter like Velcro, but if their fleeces have good density most of the vegetable matter stays on the outside of the fleece and we find some of it drops off once the covers are on.  I do know of one alpaca breeder who puts coats on her crias when they are just a few days old, she never seems to have any Vitamin D issues in her crias, and her crias are all beautiful, healthy and have great conformation.    Do watch newly coated crias carefully though as very occasionally you will get a dam who will not accept her cria once the coat has been put on, if that is the case it is obviously much more important to have a healthy bond between dam and cria and so we remove the coat immediately and put the cria and dam in a catch pen with a bowl of hay for a short while to allow them to regain their natural bond. 

 

For our adult alpacas we take the coats off the alpacas on shearing day and then we leave them off until the weather starts to cool in the fall.  We initially did this as we were concerned that in our hot, dry climate the alpacas would overheat with a fleece cover on.  Over the years it has been our experience that the fleece covers actually help keep the alpacas a little cooler, if the weather on shearing day is warm the alpacas with the fleece covers are cooler to the touch than those without them.  But again we are big softies and feel that it is nice for the alpacas to have some time without wearing the covers, the amount of vegetable matter that accumulates from spring to early fall is small and again tends to drop out of the fleece when the covers are put on.

 

So there are several months of the year when are alpacas do not wear sheep covers, and those months tend to be the sunniest ones.  Bear in mind also we have very few cloudy days year round and we are close to 4,000 feet altitude, both factors that contribute to the amount of vitamin D our alpacas receive from natural sunlight.

 

We have noticed that the juvenile and yearling alpacas do seem to experience a growth spurt after shearing, which prompts the question, is it the removal of the fleece cover or the removal of the fleece, or a combination of both that causes that growth spurt?

 

As Nancy mentions in her question, I too wonder how well sunlight penetrates a full fleeced alpaca, especially a dense one.  I tend to think that a lot of the time the sunlight is absorbed through areas such as the muzzle and the belly, our alpacas do their fair share of sunbathing and expose their bellies to the sun when doing so.  Even wearing a sheep cover the alpacas belly can still get good sun exposure.

 

Of course nutrition also plays a key role in vitamin supply of alpacas – but that’s a whole other subject!

 

All in all I cannot say that the Matilda Sheep covers have been detrimental to our herd health.  The fleeces from the covered alpacas are healthier, stronger, cleaner and brighter than those from the alpacas that are not covered (I don’t like to cover heavily pregnant females).  The covered fleeces are protected from the elements such as wind, dry summer heat, vegetable matter and in our case from that “lovely” fine red Clovis sand.

 

In conclusion I think that each alpaca breeder needs to assess their environmental conditions as to how beneficial the covers will be for them and perhaps come up with a plan to allow the alpacas to be uncovered for part of the year. 

 

Rosemary

When You’re Loading Hay Don’t Wear Shorts!

Ric will be leaving to take four of our alpacas to the New Mexico State Fair tomorrow and so we have been trying to get everything ready that he will need for his trip.  I say trying because life has, as usual, thrown a few distractions our way.

 

Yesterday’s distraction was an advertisement for some hay in our local paper.   The hay was alfalfa, not something that we would feed in large qualities to the alpacas on a daily basis, but it will be good hay to feed our horses in the winter, and the pregnant alpaca girls will benefit from a little of it every now and then.

 

We called the hay grower and discovered the hay was reasonably priced; it was time to strike while the iron was hot, as the saying goes.  We have discovered that where good hay is concerned any action to buy it must be sooner rather than later.

 

The hay was located in Fort Sumner (home of the gravesite of Billy the Kid), about an hours drive to the West of our farm.  It was a beautiful day for a drive and it was good to see that some of the pastures along the way were greening up following a showery week last week.

 

We had a good look at the hay, it was first cutting, a lovely bright green in color with lots of leaf and not too much stem, and decided to buy the 115 bales that the hay grower had available.  Then came the fun part – stacking the hay on the trailer.

 

With the hay grower, Ric and myself all working at putting the hay on the trailer it didn’t take too long to get the hay stacked, but we weren’t long into the process before Ric kindly pointed out that I shouldn’t have worn shorts, for as I moved the hay bales they hit against my legs and those alfalfa stems are pretty sharp!  By the end of the hay stacking I had green and red legs – green from little pieces of alfalfa and red from scratches on my legs.  As I pointed out to Ric though with a little bit of lotion my legs will soon be as good as new.

 

We will get the hay tested in the next day or so, if it was the only hay we were going to use I would have tested it before buying it, but as this will just be used as an occasional supplement we could take the liberty of buying the hay prior to testing.

 

Next time we go to load hay I will try and remember not to wear shorts, but if the weather is still warm I know that the chances are I will forget my previous hay experiences.  It’s a good job I always have plenty of great lotion on hand at the house!

 

Rosemary

Welcome to Maternity Ward 8

 

Dutchess

 

 

 

Last weekend saw the arrival of seven more alpaca girls and one female cria.  The alpacas all belong to our friends and alpaca neighbors Bob and Regina Dart of Llano Soleado Alpacas. 

 

Bob is due to have knee surgery this week and so we are helping out by looking after some of their girls for them while Bob is out of action.

 

Out of the seven girls, four are heavily pregnant, and I mean heavily – those are some big crias those girls are carrying!   We too have four heavily pregnant girls, Cinnamon, Clarissa, Carina and Keeva making a total of eight girls on maternity watch! 

 

From Bob and Regina’s herd we now have Victorian Glow, Dutchess, Kimmie, Merry Me, Melody, Essie, Rose and her cria Andromeda joining in with the daily routine of pasture life.  All the girls have settled in well, some have stayed with us before and so just take being here in their stride.  Little Andromeda is enjoying being with the other crias and loves to have a session every evening when she displays her best bucking and jumping techniques, she’s an agile girl.

 

To make things more manageable we have rearranged the pastures so that the heavily pregnant girls are together.  Once they start to deliver their crias we hope that the fall crias will become a close-knit group as our spring crias have done.  We feel that it is best that the fall crias be allowed to find their feet before being introduced to the rough and tumble of the spring cria group.

 

As always it is fun getting to learn the new girls personalities.  Glow is the matriarch of the group, ruling with a silent but very present authority.  Dutchess I think would like to have top position in the herd, but respects Glow and so from time to time tries to pick on one of the other girls to establish some sort of hierarchy.   As Dutchess is about a week from her due date I suspect she is pretty hormonal too, which might explain some of her dominant behavior.

 

Kimmie has a pregnancy bump that is about as wide as she is long!  I know she has looked like that in previous pregnancies, but she makes an interesting sight when she cushes and her “bump” distributes itself along the ground.

 

Merry Me is a big, stout girl, but quite mellow and easy going, as is her daughter Melody who will soon be of breeding age.   Essie too is sweet and mellow, hanging out with Melody and taking things easy.  Then there is Rose, an absolute sweetheart and also a devoted mother to her cria Andromeda.  While Andromeda likes to play she cannot get far without a concerned set of hums from Rose to check on her whereabouts.

 

So Maternity Ward 8 is now up and running, all the expectant dams are in place and it’s just a matter of watching and waiting to see who will be first to start off the birthings!

 

Rosemary