The two orphan crias Mags and Song are growing well. They still get a bottle three times a day. Song has been taking less milk each feeding and is down to between 4 – 8 oz per feeding. Once Song has finished with her bottle she is quite adamant that she does not want any more milk, but will often try and nurse from Mags, which I suspect, is more for comfort than for food.
Mags on the other hand is not keen on reducing his milk intake. As big as he is, it is time for him to start a gentle process of weaning from the bottle. While Song happily eats hay and alpaca pellets, Mags will occasionally take one pellet in his mouth and play with it but that is it. He does eat hay, which is a good thing, but I feel he is too reliant on the milk bottle. So we have started to reduce the amount of milk in his bottle. That hasn’t gone over well with Mags and set him back a little on his bad behavior, but we continue to be consistent in managing his behavior and taking him through the weaning process.
It is quite sweet to see Mags and Song together, they tend to eat hay together during the day and they often cush next to each other at night. Song has started to buddy up a little with one of the other crias Stormy, while Pride has tried hard to engage Mags in play but Mags shows little interest in cria games. I feel that Mags might always be a bit of a loner but maybe when we transition him to the junior males pen he will interact more with the older boys as he develops.
On a separate note, today is a special day as it is the birthday of my dear friend Linda. Linda has recently moved into a new house and is busy remodeling it to make it her dream home, and I know that the results of her labor will be beautiful. I don’t know if Linda will have time to read this blog in between her remodeling projects, but I know she is a frequent reader of the blog and I would be most remiss to not wish her a very Happy Birthday and thank her for being the wonderful friend that she is. (Oh and by the way Linda when you have finished remodeling your house we have one over here you can come and work on!). Have a wonderful birthday and don’t work too hard!