Well it had to happen eventually, little Zeus has finally outgrown his cria coat. We tried to put it on him Monday evening but within minutes he was taking part in the nightly cria races with the coat hanging around his neck. It didn’t seem to bother him too much, but it really doesn’t do him any good hanging from his neck so I took it off him and wondered if he would have a good weight gain the next day. I am glad to report that he did gaining 0.8 lb, one of his biggest gains ever. I hesitate to assume that he will now have a steady and strong weight gain, it seems that every time I do that he defies me and doesn’t gain the next day.
We did do something a little different the day before Zeus’s weight gain and that was to feed some calf manna to Zoie (Zeus’s dam), Carina and Chai. Zeus was in the pen too and so could have nibbled on some of the calf manna.
The calf manna was really intended for Chai who is having a hard time holding her weight. We will be taking Chai in to the vets for her follow up blood work and hopefully the latest blood panel will give us an indication as to what is going on with Chai. We will also run a fecal test on her to check for parasites, previous fecal tests have shown Chai free of parasites, but just in case we are missing some parasites in a dormant stage it will be worth running another test.
The calf manna is an interesting product that has been used in livestock for many years. A milk based product it is easily digestible, it runs about 25% protein and contains the herbs fenugreek and anise which are two of the ingredients in the lactation stimulant herbal mix we use. I figured that with Zoie needing to produce more milk for Zeus, Chai needing more calories in her diet and Carina feeding both Carissima and Zeus the three of them could benefit from a little calf manna in their diet. We have decided to feed the three girls a cup each of the calf manna every morning and night in addition to their regular feed and we will be interested to see what effect it has on them. The calf manna does have a very distinctive odor to it but our girls and Zeus didn’t seem to care too much about the odor and were happy to eat the calf manna quickly.
So we will have to see if calf manna is indeed manna from heaven for Chai and Zeus!
A Taste of Life at Windrush Alpacas 