This bottle feeding isn't all bad. You can imagine my smiles when I go out into the pasture and yell out, "Spot, it's time for lunch" and here he comes, leaving the girls and his buddies at a dead run.We have rigged up a pen in the barn with a small opening so that he and the other young'uns can get in for constant access to supplement. I bought rolled, steamed oats yesterday and hope that he likes them. He is nibbling on grass and hay so I'm optimistic.
We are waiting for one more spring birth. This is Lady Belita on the left below ▼. Thought you might want to see what they look like very pregnant so I took this pict this morning. I have her due date marked on the calendar as this Wednesday, but she has looked huge like this for over a month. The big girl looking into the barn is Golden Shadow and that's little Chinella in between.
7 comments:
It's not just handling crias too much that can cause behavior problems in alpacas. Calling an alpaca cria, especially a male cria, to come to you is a recipe for future problems. Imagine that animal at 175 pounds running to greet you and take what he wants. I would hate for something to happen to either of you. I urge you to look up some of the feeding stations breeders have rigged up to feed bottle fed crias. I know it's been talked about on alpacasite at yahoogroups. Best wishes!
Poor Lady Belita, she looks so swollen and heavy. I hope she has her baby cria soon!
Aww good luck to Spot....and to you my friend.
Spot is soo cute!
Lady Belita looks plump and ready to drop! I hope she's on time with the birth and there are no problems. :-)
Glad Spot continues to thrive.
I think you are doing great Maple and what joy it must bring you to see this young one thrive and run! I wonder if you know about the young woman who is changing the rules about how people interact with animals....
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Hi Maple,
Spot is very cute!
I'm not knowledgeable about alpacas in the least, but if you don't go with a feeding station idea I suspect if you handle him and treat him similar to a young colt it'll probably work out ok. You have horses, just treat him with the same firm hand if he starts to act up. They sometimes come running too, they just need to be told where to stop. Maybe if he knows that you're herd boss and he must respect you he'll just grow up to be an unusually social alpaca.
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