photo by Val Newell

A few of us Southern alpaca breeders were discussing this topic on Facebook recently. Alpacas are induced ovulators so we can determine when we want our alpacas’ to breed. (It’s actually really convenient.)

What is this induced ovulation? you ask. That means that the act of breeding/intercourse is what causes the female alpaca to ovulate. I may be oversimplifying this for you scientific types, but you that’s the gist of it. Alpacas don’t go into “heat” like dogs do. They do have a cycle that we want to “catch”. We want to find her at the receptive part of her cycle, but open females will usually be receptive more than once a month, so we can choose our breeding seasons.

This makes breeding alpacas convenient for alpaca owners. Alpacas gestate (stay pregnant) for 11-12 months. So let’s say you were going on a cruise next April, or you really wanted to go to that family reunion…well you might choose not to breed your alpaca females in April and May the year before if you want to be present for the births.

Breeders can also choose not to breed during times of year when the weather in their area is a challenge. Northern alpaca breeders choose not to breed for Winter cria. Whereas, Southern alpaca breeders tend to avoid Summer cria.

Of course sometimes, Mother Nature has plans of her own and occasionally the cria come whenever they want, early or late. For the most part, we can try to control this part of our farming destiny and bend the alpacas’ birthing to our will.

Because our farm is so far South, I try not to breed until December 1 and we stop July 1. It can be so cool in November that I am always tempted to start the breedings then. Sometimes I give in, though I shouldn’t. Our Winters are like Disneyland so we breed and birth all through them. We can birth through mid-June because even if it is warm our girls are practically naked from shearing and have been so for the last few months of gestation so they have been comfortable.

So, when is YOUR breeding season?

What other questions do you have about alpaca breeding and birthing?

September 12th, 2011 | Tags: Alpacas, alpacas birthing, birth, breeding, breeding season, cycle, Disneyland, gestate, induced ovulation, induced ovulators, intercourse, Mother Nature, Northern alpaca breeders, receptive, Southern Alpaca Breeders | Category: Alpacas, Good Breeding, Husbandry | Comments (1)

Photo by Val Newell of The Green Alpaca

A friend of mine was recently dealing with a cria whose temperature she couldn’t get to go down and stay down.  After thinking about it, I realized there are several reasons why a cria might have a high temperature, particularly in the summer. A brief discussion on the possible causes of elevated cria temperature follows:

In Alabama all summer we have been dealing with unseasonably hot/humid weather, the kind that combine for those nasty heat indexes we don’t usually see until August. So heat stress is going to be suspect number one for the poor cria. However you have to look at the age of the cria and the situation as well. If it’s not heat stress, or if heat stress measures aren’t doing the trick, lets look at the other possible culprits.

In my experience newborn cria who have difficulty regulating their temperature may do so as a result of neurological damage. When that has happened to my cria it has been related to birth trauma. At least that was our assessment along with our vet’s. It can also have to do with prematurity or dysmaturity. However, whatever the cause the result is a cria who can get a high temp in the sun, then when brought into an air conditioned room can have that temp go much lower. In other words you have an animal whose human caretaker has to control it’s temp because it cannot do so on its own. In cases of neurological problems like this, a product called DMSO can be helpful. Using gloves we put DMSO* on the cria’s ears and top of head/behind the ears. Also apply to underbelly between the legs, avoiding umbilical and genitals. Doing this several times a day can stimulate brain connections and it can be very helpful with bringing around a cria with neurological symptoms of any kind.

Another possibility is that the cria may have an infection of some sort that is causing her to spike a fever. When this happens to our cria we usually consult with our vets and have the cria put on antibiotics to cover them just in case they have an infection (such as pneumonia) and to prevent/treat a possible septicemia which might take them to alpaca heaven.

Just a few thoughts on crias and temps from this blasted hot climate on a hot summer day. What are your thoughts alpaca lovers?

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* You can get DMSO from your vet. If you get it on your skin while applying, you will taste the stinky stuff for awhile. Not pleasant, so be careful with it.

July 19th, 2011 | Tags: Alabama, alpaca heaven, Alpaca Lovers, Alpacas, antibiotics, birth trauma, brain connections, cria, DMSO, dysmaturity, Green Alpaca, high temp, high temperatures, hot climate, human caretaker, infection, neurological symptoms, pneumonia, prematurity, septicemia, temps, umbilical, Val Newell | Category: Alpacas, Husbandry | Comments (3)

“When the sun gets hot and the moon gets hazy, good girls go bad, and it gets crazy!” — Unknown

This photo was taken of our some of our Fairhope Alpacas herd that is boarding in North Carolina with our friends at Augustyn Acres Alpacas. (I can’t fit all of our new alpacas at our farm in Alabama.) Melissa Augustyn was kind enough to bring out the camera and capture this moment as Shawnee was breeding one of the girls. The other girls gathered around, telling him, “Me next! Me next!” The hormones on them, I’m tellin ya.

Of all the pictures I have seen over the years, this one is the most defining of alpacas. Alpacas are really all about having babies and being pregnant. I love cria, so I love that about them.

I saw the quote above and it just seemed fittin’. Check out Sunday Citar on the Fresh Mommy blog. Tabitha is delightful, and her blog has amazing photography.

The 4th of July is coming up. I’m going to the beach, what fun plans do you guys have? Leave me a comment and tell me what you will be up to.

June 26th, 2011 | Tags: Fairhope Alpacas, SCA Peruvian Shawnee | Category: Alpacas, Good Breeding, Husbandry, Sunday Citar | Comments (9)

Recently I was asked the Question: Have I ever had to milk a female alpaca? And did I have some tips…

Yes, I’ve had to milk an alpaca. Too many times, actually. And it’s difficult. You need 2 people or a chute usually to hold the dam still. I find most alpaca dams don’t have enough milk that you can milk out by hand to sustain a weak cria.

Some alpaca breeders tell of being able to milk alpacas with syringe tips and other rigged things. I am in awe of their patience and their alpacas. I have only had two alpacas over the years who had enough milk that I could do that and get enough milk to sustain the cria. Remember – I also have 4 children, and am currently flying solo with 50 other alpacas. Most of the time I have 10 loads of laundry, a basketball tournament, and a piano recital calling for me, not to mention several little voices calling “Mommy”, and that creepy cat that thinks he’s my boyfriend. So I have to be practical, and I do it a little bit differently.

Back to milking. I always milk out the dam enough to keep her milk flowing, but not enough to make her sore. Christine Navarre, DVM advises that too much milking by human hands can cause the alpacas’ teats to become too sore and may cause her to shy away when cria goes to nurse. (We do NOT want that!) So I milk no more than 2-3x a day.

Because that is usually not going to get me enough milk to sustain the cria, I supplement with local frozen goat colostrum that I keep on hand for the 1st 24 hours, then regular A & D cow’s milk after that (with a bit of  liquid yogurt, Activia or Kefir too for the gut) until mom and cria get connected – hopefully REAL SOON!

I always put mom and cria together around feeding time and try to get cria to nurse after each bottle feeding. NEVER giving that up. I keep mom and cria together as a twosome until the bonding/nursing thing is figured out.

My Stash of Frozen Goat Colostrum

Having frozen colostrum around when a new cria is born is critical. Just as important as it is to have plasma (for low IGG or failure of passive transfer).

Ideally we would all have frozen alpaca colostrum, but alpacas are not prolific milkers. When I was new to alpacas and trying to figure out how to find a vet that would work on them the famous vet, Dr. David Pugh told me, “Just tell them they’re just glorified goats. That’s what they are.”

So the next best colostrum is goat colostrum. I buy frozen from a goat farm in my area. I consider them “My Dealer”. I protect that stuff like it’s liquid gold. Because it is. It has life saving properties like nothing else! And I’m so lucky to have it. The fact that they are local means that those goats have built up an immunity to diseases and things in our area. That is priceless. It is infinitely better than buying it from some goats 6 states away. Or giving them powdered colostrum from a cow. (I’m not going to go into why, just trust me. or ask your vet. Either one.)

So, my opinion on the milking is – do a little milking, you will do a lot more bottle feeding. And try HARD, HARD, HARD to connect that dam and cria. Never give up on that. Don’t let them off the hook on that one. Or you will be bottle feeding for 6 months. And nobody wants that. (at least here they don’t!)

And most important of all - GET A DEALER~!

Ask around at the feed store or at your vet’s office – who raises goats? They can often tell you. Goat keepers will often sell you their frozen colostrum. You will feel SO good to know that it is in your freezer. OMG it is such a good feeling to know that it is there!

March 7th, 2011 | Tags: alpaca, Alpacas, bottle feeding, bottle feeding cria, Christine Navarre DVM, chute, cria to nurse, dealer, Dr. David Pugh, failure of passive transfer, frozen alpaca colostrum, glorified goats, goat colostrum, Green Alpaca, immunity, Kefir, Liquid Gold, local frozen goat colostrum, low IGG, milk alpacas, milk an alpaca, milking, My Dealer, plasma, powdered colostrum, priceless, prolific milkers, stash of frozen goat colostrum, syringe tips, Val Newell, vet, weak cria | Category: Alpacas, Husbandry | Comments (6)

1. Don’t Let the Fluff Fool Ya! – Alpacas Look Fat and Happy in the Winter with all that Fleece but they may actually be loosing weight under all that fleece. Be sure to get your hands on them and body score at least once a month to be sure they are still in good body condition and you don’t have any surprise “skinnies” in your herd. You want to catch any problems early.
2. Alpacas don’t like to drink freezing cold water when temps are frigid. Try to give them warm water to drink when it’s cold out if at all possible. They will drink more and stay hydrated better. Remove the ice chips from their buckets at the very least.
3. Check their gums. Pale gums can be indicative of parasites and/or iron deficiencies. Alpacas can suffer from this even in the winter in certain climates. (We do this monthly during herd health.)
4. Have vitamins like Vitacharge and supplemental feeds like crushed alfalfa or beet pulp on hand for those animals that need a little bit extra in the nutrition department.
5. In climates with rough winters, consider weaning before or after the worst of winter. Wean cria in groups if possible and if you can, move the dams instead of the cria. That way the cria stay in the same environment and the only thing they are losing is mom, not everything around them too. The stress of weaning is tough, and extreme temperatures can be the last straw for a severely stressed cria who is not adjusting well.

Following these tips may save you & your alpacas some unnecessary hassles and heartaches this winter season. What are some other things alpaca breeders should be mindful of this time of year? I’d love to hear from you.

January 28th, 2011 | Tags: 5 Tips for Alpaca Breeders, alpaca herd, Alpacas, beet pulp, check their gums, climates, crushed alpalfa, extreme temperatures, Fluff, good body condition, herd, iron deficiencies, nutrition, pale gums and alpacas, parasites, rough winters, stay hydrated, supplemental feeds, supplemental vitamins, Vitacharge, warm water to drink, wean cria in groups, winter | Category: Alpacas, Husbandry, The Daily Stuff | Comments (5)

Have you ever had a teacher tell you that you were unprepared?

I was the definition of unprepared the morning of a very important farm visit recently. In fact, I didn’t even know he was coming until about 15 minutes until I was supposed to leave to go and pick him up at the airport, thanks to my down email and his busy schedule.

Oh, I had been planning for weeks, months to meet my friend from the UK. We had been working on getting things looking nice on the farm the week before…but when I didn’t hear from him…and the kids kept telling me about holiday parties at school, basketball practices, piano recitals, etc. – I have to admit I thought he had cancelled his trip and forgot to tell me. It just went to the back of my mind.

Then email worked & I was surprised to hear from him. I was rushing around like a madwoman trying to get dressed in a tiny amount of time on an oddly frigid morning with our pipes frozen – unheard of in L.A. (lower Alabama).

As I drove to the airport, I fretted about being seen as unprofessional because the only paper left at my house was light blue. (My little artists go through reams of white paper like babies go through formula.) Could I really print sales info on that?

Luckily he didn’t mind stopping at Staples on the way back to the farm, and was a prince about the whole thing. I needn’t have worried. It was a laid back day, and Carman made it all worthwhile by presenting us with a Magnum cria (above).

Alpacas gathered around the new cria just after she was born just outside my office door.

The man came a long way to see Magnum and his kids. All the previously put together packets in the world are not as showy as what Carman did by dropping one on the ground for him to see!

Magnum himself did a great job too. Magnum is a very impressive animal because he is extremely intelligent. Upon seeing him, our visitor commented, “It’s not like seeing an alpaca, it’s more like looking at a human.” It is true. When you look at Magnum and talk with him, you feel more like he knows what you are saying to him. He is incredibly bright.

This little girl was tiny when she was born, only 9 lbs. This may be why her ears were inside out and curling up. They will get better if we curl them the right way with our fingers each time we catch her for a treatment or to dip her naval or weigh her, etc. If they do not, we will tape them for a short while and that should fix them right up.

Mitzi with her dam Carman, a Camilio daughter.

Thanks Carman for saving the day! While our visitor was enjoying the cria I was able to run to the house and gather some materials for him.

You gotta love it when your animals pitch in and help you out! After the year I’ve had, that really spoke to me on a basic level. That the alpacas and I are a team. We have been through a TOUGH year together and we are still here.

We are still working together, still producing cria, still producing fiber, and still a team. I can see it in their eyes every day when I go out there. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

I love alpacas. I’m so lucky to love what I do every day.

Thanks again Carman.

I love that little Mitzi. Don’t you guys?

December 19th, 2010 | Tags: alpaca, Alpacas, Carman, cria, cria coat, Magnum, Mitzi, New Additions | Category: Alpacas, Husbandry, New Additions | Comments (12)

How do we teach our children about sex? It’s one of the toughest issues we face as parents. And it’s one of the toughest things we have to come to grips with as children. I mean, do you remember how grossed out you were when you realized that your mom and dad did that to get you? Yuck! They had to be kidding! Right?

Once when I was a homeschooling mom, I went to a program at a church about teaching girls about modesty (at least I think that was what it was about) …and I remember them telling us to talk with our girls about how flowers are pollinated by bees as a way of first opening the door to talking with your daughters about sex. The point was that you can offer metaphors first before you throw at them books with anatomically correct terms and insert tab A in slot B.

I’m a psychologist and I know lots of ways to teach kids about sex. Then I’ve been exposed to the “shelter them from it all” theory. But now they go to public school, or the “expose them to it all” theory. And, heck, with the internet now, I’m not sure how we are going to shelter kids today…I know my children well, we communicate openly and I follow each child’s lead based on their personality and needs for information.

When my kids do ask questions about sex, and I’m lucky they do ask me, a lot of times, it starts in the barnyard.

Yesterday one of my little ones asked me why Magnum needs to be at the big barn, why we needed him to make babies. We were in the uh, restroom, at the time so I told her we’d talk about it in a minute.

Later he was doing a breeding (top pic). And she was so worried about that female alpaca. I had to console her and tell her that alpaca girls really want to do that. I showed her how the girl gave Magnum the “look of love”, talked with her about his orgling. I said, “You know what alpaca girls REALLY like?”

“What?” she said sullenly, not sure of this whole breeding thing.

“Look down at the other side of this barn. What do you see directly at the other side of this barn?” I asked.

“NieNie?” she asked.

“Yes, I said. Nie Nie. Her momma loves her baby doesn’t she? Alpaca girls love their babies more than anything else. And this is how they get them.” I told her.

“You mean that NieNie’s mom did THIS to get NieNie?!!!?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes, she did. Last year. with Magnum.” I said.

My son, a couple years older had been quiet for most of this conversation. He piped up and said, “Piggyback ride.” (This is how he describes the alpaca breeding process)

So, my daughter was grossed out thinking of how her beloved NieNie was conceived. Understandable.

So the flower is pollinated by the bee.

Or at our house the dam was fertilized by  Magnum…

We went on to have a conversation about eggs and fertilizing. And where human moms and dads keep their eggs and “fertilizers”. They were grossed out but glad to have some questions answered.

It’s nice to have the alpacas to help open the door for these questions.

How have you dealt with these issues with your kids? Have you used your animals to help you deal with tricky topics at your house?

November 22nd, 2010 | Tags: Home school, home schooling, Magnum, orgling, sex education | Category: Alpacas, Good Breeding, Husbandry | Comments (12)

Breeding on the Farm

Participating in Wordless Wednesday

November 3rd, 2010 | Tags: alpaca, Alpacas, breeding, breeding season, Fall breeding, farm, Magnum, Wordless Wednesdays | Category: Alpacas, Good Breeding, Husbandry, Magnum, Wordless Wednesdays | Comments (6)

We started the year with the kids being on time for the bus. For weeks they never missed it. Oooh! I was so proud of those usually sleepy little children!

Then routine began to set in. And slowly but surely they began to miss the bus in the morning. Guess who has to drag her butt out at the crack of dawn to the car to take them when that happens?

Chew got it!

It’s bad enough having to get up at 5:30 for the bus. But c’mon. They can get up when I wake them up. Heck, they can at least get out of bed within 15 minutes of being awakened, or take fewer than 20 minutes to find their shoes! One would hope.

A mother can dream…

For the longest time I couldn’t figure out a deterrent for missing the bus. (Lame, I know. I’m new at solo parenting and my migraine meds cause mental dullness. The kids love it! Not only do they have me outnumbered, but their IQ points are double mine these days.)

But after at least one of them missing the bus the last 5 out of 7 days I’ve finally figured it out. And the kids are so pissed!

From now on – you miss the bus –> ONE HOUR of SCOOPING POOP on the FARM.

From now on they can each miss it every day as far as I’m concerned.

Nuff Said.

October 12th, 2010 | Tags: alpaca, Alpacas, Husbandry, kids, poop scooping | Category: Alpacas, Husbandry, Lifestyle, Tending the Hearth, The Alpaca Lifestyle | Comments (8)