Born Saturday a.m. This picture is of the girls welcoming the little guy to our world. He doesn't look white because he's still wet here. He was about 2 hours old. Mom is Ariana, the girl with her head up. Whenever a cria is born, I think the rest of the girls take on kind of an Auntie role and help watch out for it and teach alpaca social rules.♥
He still isn't nursing from his mom, so we are milking mom and then bottle feeding him. The worse part is milking Ariana. She is sore and really doesn't like us fiddling around. We have an alpaca chute which we put her in that has belly bands to hold her up because she wants to cush. This morning Smitty milked 5 ounces which the little guy gobbled up. I'm having him teach me because it is tedious. Geeze, if my hands can spin they can surely milk an alpaca, wouldn'tcha think?
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Mike, our vet, said to try for 3 days before we supplement, so we'll stay with it. In the meantime, I've been researching the best product to use. I'm thinking whole cow's milk with a glug of vanilla yogurt. It almost seems too easy, doesn't it? There are a ton of options like goat's milk and different powders that can be mixed up.
