Monday 20 January 2014

Weigh-in and waiting...

At last a day without rain...cold but dry. I have spent so much time mucking out over the last month, I feel that all of my time has been taken up trying to keep our alpacas warm and dry...well dryish!

We did a weigh-in at the weekend and the weights of our cria (at foot) have really suffered. Very little weight gain, and in some case slight loses over the fortnight. All the cria received Cydectin and Vecoxan a couple of weeks ago and are up to date with all their Vit A, D & E, but are just a bit static. We are feeding the dams Camelibra and Speedi-beet but have added some Carrs Camelid mix (with molasses) as a boost.

Interestingly the cria belonging to the large group of livery females, who's dam's arrived overall with low condition scores and thus get additional pulses, had all had good weight gains. Such a balancing act between stopping alpacas getting very overweight (we have some) and ensuring good milk production. You can never underestimate the amount of energy it takes to keep warm in wet and windy conditions.

The weanlings are all doing well and gaining weight. We did start locking them in at nights during the particularly wet weather (although our own cria come in through choice the agisted weanlings did not). Halter training is going reasonably well but still considerable practice required before the National Show. We do need to get these 20 trained before the next 20 are weaned!

I am afraid the opportunities to take photos are rare at the moment. Here we have Beck Brow Blue, whose mum didn't have enough milk due to having mastitis. Some of you may recall that he had to have a plasma transfusion which took four attempts hence the shaved neck. He is weaned from the bottle but we are now trying to wean him from being hand-fed hard feed!


Beck Brow Blue (sire Waradene St Patrick)

The kittens (Astor and Angel) love the morning routine and come out on the feeding rounds with me. Not quite sure how they manage to stay so white but they do...


Astor


Astor doing some halter training...without the halters!

Only two months to go...our first cria of 2014 will be due...the BAS National Show will be over...and we will have a granddaughter. Yes, I really am wishing time away with good reason....might we also have some sunshine!

2 comments:

  1. It is going to be a very exciting year for you!
    We really need sun and no more drenching for a while (occasional light rain is fine - don't want to start panicking about aquifers again!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Astor is a seriously bonnie pussy cat! Shirley & Robbie

    ReplyDelete