Cindy’s Alpaca Blog

The first hint of coolness (a relative term in Florida!) is beginning to appear in the early morning hours and in the evening before sunset.  After the sauna of July and August, I am greeted now with a fresh cool breeze at 7:00am when I go out to the barn for morning chores.  There is a mist rising off the lake, and the animals are quite comfortable resting in their stalls.  I no longer come in from the chores dripping with sweat.  September and October are still warm months in Florida - but on a farm we notice the subtle changes in temperature that begin at this time of year.  Although the temperature still climbs to the low 90’s by early afternoon, the mornings and evenings begin to give some relief from the constant heat of summer days.  Early Fall is a pleasant time of enjoying the promise of the nearly perfect weather that is just a couple of months away.

Our female alpacas are beginning to look very round with pregnancies that are coming into their last couple of months.  We have four females due in November or early December.  If you stand and watch them for awhile you can see movement in their bellies.  Their unborn crias are now large enough to be kicking and turning noticably inside their mothers.

The weanlings are growing fat and tall as they approach yearling status.  We only have one cria that still needs to be weaned - and his turn will come in October.

The males are fractious and irritated with each other after several hot months of no breeding activity.  We have been playing musical stalls with them, to keep them from picking too many fights over the stall walls.  Two of our young males are just coming into maturity.  Their first breeding season could begin in November.  Our true black herdsire, Shaka, is very territorial with “his” females, and takes great offense when another male animal - llamas and geldings included - are allowed to occupy an adjacent pasture to the female pasture.  Finding satisfactory and peaceful accomodations for breeding male alpacas can be quite a challenge for the alpaca breeder!

Overall, we are entering my favorite time of year.  Fall in Florida is a time of renewed energy and great beauty.  It is just one more reason that I am so grateful to be a Florida Alpaca Farmer.

It was Sunday afternoon.  I was inside resting on the couch and watching a movie.  I had undergone major surgery two weeks prior to that afternoon, so I felt justified in my sloth - allowing my body to recuperate and mend.  My husband Steve was out in the pasture getting ready to mow an outlying pasture that we intended to fence for  future alpaca residence.  Fortunately, Steve decided to put out hay before mowing, and noticed a small black figure in the female pasture.  As he approached the cria, he was almost sure that it was already dead - lying so still on its side.  But - on closer inspection he could see that the cria was breathing.  So he carried it into a stall and ran into the house to call me.  I sprang into action, nervously checking the cria and searching for the bottle that we had purchased last year - where was that !@#&@#! bottle!  Our vet, Doug Davenport, was not on call - drats!  I got ahold of his emergency answering service, and after a few false starts spoke with his associate.  She got ahold of Doug, and he agreed to examine the cria at his home/clinic in Brooksville.  So we bundled the little thing up and made the hour drive to Doug’s house.  I had some powderered colostrum that I had mixed up and was carefully squirting down the cria’s throat with a small syringe.  The cria, a true black female, was too weak to suck and laid limply in my lap.

Doug gave our little one a plasma transfusion at his office and examined her.  Although dehydrated, she still put up some resistance to the catheter being injected into her side - a very good sign.  Doug advised us to give the little one whole cow’s milk every 2 hours around the clock.  Her survival would depend on getting enough nourishment to prevent dehydration and allow her to grow and develop enough to stand and nurse on her own.  At the same time we needed to milk her dam, Lady Sadie,  so that her milk would come in, and not dry up before the cria was strong enough to nurse.

I forgot all about recovering from my own surgery, and invested myself in saving this little cria’s life.  We checked on her dam, and allowed the dam to sniff and lick her cria - encouraging as much bonding as possible.  At fist Lady was not very interested - this little one did not appear viable to her.  I took the cria inside for her first night - we have a screened porch off of our bedroom that became the nursery for those first 3 crucial days.  Then began the 2 hour vigil of squirting milk slowly down the cria’s throat with a syringe, little by little, waiting for the cria to swallow between each small squirt.  It is a very tedious process that requires much patience on the part of the owner.  If you squirt too much it just comes back up.  I slept very little for those first two days.

Miraculously the cria tried to stand up on Monday.  Her little legs were so wobbly that they wouldn’t sustain her at first.  She could get up on her knees - but not to her feet.  We helped to steady her, and then just kept getting milk into her as best we could.  She developed diarreha by the second evening, so I had to begin diluting the milk.

By Tuesday another miracle occured - our cria stood on her own!  We kept Lady, her dam, in a stall with her during the day for bonding purposes.  As soon as the cria could stand, we noticed a difference in Lady’s behavior.  She began to encourage the cria and nose it up - like she would a full term and healthy cria.  With help, the cria could lift her head up to Lady’s teats - although she was still too weak to actually suckle.

On Wednesday, the cria took her first steps - and actually sucked her mother’s teats for the first time.  I still had to help her balance and hold her up long enough to find the milk - but she was on her way to success with nursing.

By Thursday we had a name for the cria - Shaka’s Shadow - and she was able to nurse on her own.  I still supplemented her with milk, but she was definitely getting some of her mom’s milk.  We began giving Lady some domperidone to boost her milk supply so that our little one would gain and thrive on mother’s milk alone.

Today is Sunday - Shadow is one week old.  She is now obtaining all of her nutrition from her mother, and following her around from stall to pasture.  I have seen her run a few steps after her mother in her effort to keep up.  Her bottom two teeth have fully errupted, and her ears are no longer floppy - two tell-tale signs of her premature birth.  I now fullyexpect Shadow to not only live, but thrive.  Stay tuned as we move into Shadow’s second week of life.

It’s late June in Florida and the heat index has climbed to over 100 degrees.  How are our alpacas coping?  Believe it or not - they cope with the heat better than I do on most days.  I usually go out in the afternoons and wet down their bellies - a treat much like running through the sprinklers used to be when we were kids.  They love this cooling down with the water hose so much that before you know it you’ll have 8 or 10 alpacas lined up waiting for their turn at the hose!  We wait to feed hay until late in the day so that the sun has gotten past its most punishing phase before the alpacas gather up around the hay bins.  But for the most part, alpacas know how to “chill out” on a hot day by staking out a resting place in front of fan, and just laying around in little clumps of alpaca bodies, relaxing.  I often wish that we had retained the tradition of siesta on hot summer days ourselves!  But the working world doesn’t stop - we just crank down the ac and keep going.

We do try to keep activity at a minimum for our animals during these hot days.  We avoid mid-summer breedings and birthings.  We limit herd health days to the absolutely necessary check-ups and fecal testings.  And we just enjoy hanging in the barn with the animals and watching them relax.  That is what summer is all about right?  So far we have been fortunate, and have not had any signs of heat stress.  With a little care and planning alpacas can thrive in the Florida climate - just take a look at our animals!

We purchased a quarter interest in a new herdsire  in February.  Libertad’s Notorious will be coming to Florida in December for his first breeding season.  Notorious is a highly decorated, half Accoyo rose grey.  He has won every show he has been entered in - including the 2008 AOBA Nationals and the 2008 Futurity !   We are very excited to be offering this outstanding male for outside breedings in 2010.  Check back here for more pictures and information as the 2010 breeding season gets closer.

Our last cria of this birthing season was born on Saturday, April 18.  Sadie Ann gave birth to a beautiful fawn male who weighed in at 14.4 lbs.  Mother and baby are doing well.  Sadie Ann chose to give birth in the barn stall.  I could tell she was already in labor when we came out to feed around 8:00 am.  She was holding her tail up and wanting to lay on her side up in the stall - very unusual behavior for Sadie Ann.  Sure enough at around 9:30 I could see the birth sac beginning to bubble from her backside and I knew that birth was eminent.  I had shooed all the other females into an adjourning stall so that Sadie could labor without being bothered, but my husband Steve objected - rightly claiming that Sadie would be more supported by the company of her fellow alpacas.  When I opened the gate Champagne and her cria Ghirardelli came in to see what was going on.

To our amazement Ghirardelli, who is only four months old himself, appointed himself as midwife to this birth and literally ushered the cria into the world.  He licked the cria’s head off when he was still halfway inside his mother, and then stayed right with the cria when it slid fully into the world.  It was an amazing sight to see Ghirardelli tenderly caring for this newborn future playmate.  Soon the other females gathered around to welcome the new one into the herd.  What a privilege to witness such a precious event.

Soon after the little fellow was born the opera “Seigfried” came on the radio, so I think we will name this little male Seigfried.

Sadie Ann had her cria at the right moment.  The very next day was shearing day at our farm.  We were able to get all 18 alpacas and two llamas safely shorn, and the fleece sorted into three piles by the end of the day.  We have alot of work to do still in skirting and sorting out which fleece will go to the fiber co-op, which will be sent to the yarn mill, and which will go to the Texas rug company.  All of that work is still to come.  Many thanks to the Sanchez family - who came to observe the shearing process and ended up offering great help in collecting the fleece into three different bags.  Good work!

Our first full birthing season is coming to a close as we eagerly await the birth of our last cria of the season.  Four cria were born on our farm since November including Freckled Rose (November 7), Spats Ghirardelli (December 12), Midnight Serenade (January 17) and Penny Lane (February 3).  Sadie Ann’s first cria is due any day now.  With little ones pronking in the field and a barn full of pregnant moms and randy males, life is very full!

We attended two shows this year.  In February we went to the Florida Expo in Jacksonville.  Heli Arc and Lakota came away with red ribbons in their classes.  Crimson Tide placed sixth in his class.  Last weekend (April 2-4) we went to Clemson, South Carolina for the Palmetto Classic.  Crimson won a blue ribbon at that show (go figure!), Lakota placed second again and Heli Arc placed third.  Not a bad show season for our second year in business!  Next year we will have five yearlings and one juvenile to show.

Alpaca shows are great opportunites for networking with other breeders and buying and selling animals.  We did not intend to sell any of our animals this year.  But we did purchase a beautiful maiden female named Shyning Bright Lee from Bill and Juanita Crake of Ridgeview Alpacas.  We also invested in a quarter interest of Libertad’s Notorious - a gorgeous rose grey male who will come down to Florida in December for his first breeding season.  We will certainly keep him busy on our farm!  Learning from outstanding judges such as AOBA president Dave Barbosa, and observing the animals that consistantly do well in the show ring provide an invaluable education for alpaca breeders.  We intend to participate in more shows next year, and enter our fleeces in fleece shows as well.

Here are a few pictures of our newer crias: Midnight Serenade with Penny Lane,Penny with Ghirardelli

                                                  Libertad’s Notorious                       Shyning Bright Lee

Male alpaca behavior can be very aggravating for their owners.  Adult males usually don’t live together happily in the presence of females.  Like other herd animals, one male considers the herd of females to belong to him - and will fight off any other adult male that looks to be a rival.  In the wild the other males would challenge the reigning herdsire to take over the herd.  The loser would simply leave and live elsewhere.  The problem is that on a farm rivals can’t leave - they live in the pasture next door!  So…let the games begin!

We have three adult males who are constantly vying for top stud status.  One of them is actually a gelding, but he doesn’t know it.  So, we have to rotate room assignments frequently to keep the boys from being too cantankerous with each other.  Our best herdsire, Shaka, is also the most calm and least aggressive of the three.  I have never seen him pick a fight - and it takes several escalating threats from one of the other males to provoke him to spit back at them.  His is the temperament that I want to pass on to my growing herd.  So this weekend he was moved to his own private suite - which will also become a breeding pasture.  Luckily we are able to position this prime real estate away from the view of Shaka’s rivals.  Breeding season begins next weekend (November 29), so Shaka will have his first breeding dates with some of our females.  We hope to have some beautiful true black genes passed on in some calm and easily handled cria.

Last week we had a very sad morning on the farm.  Just as I was finishing the poop scooping in the “maternity ward” pasture I saw something that looked like a garbage bag that was half buried.  When I got closer I realized that it was a stillborn fetus - still encased in its amniotic birth sac.  Lisa Marie had aborted her ten month fetus.  If the cria had survived it would have been a dark brown male.

Alpacas are usually  easy birthers - with cria and Mom up and running within the hour, but there are the 20% that don’t make it.  We did not send this little one off to the lab for testing - if another cria is still born we will certainly order complete diagnostic testing.  However - this one was dead before it hit the ground.  A very sad morning for us.  Thankfully the dam, Lisa Marie seems to have suffered no ill affects.  Since she was a first time mom, she may not have been fully aware that she was even pregnant, until seeing this unfortunate cria born during the night.

Alpacas are nearly always born between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm.  It is not unheard of for a cria to be born in the early morning hours - but if the dam is laboring after 4:00 pm there is cause for concern.  Unfortunately for us Lisa Marie showed no signs of labor the night before this little fellow was born.  We’ll never know exactly when the birth took place.  We only know that the cria looked to be stillborn and had certainly been dead for several hours when we found it at 7:30 am that Sunday morning.

Lisa Marie left home yesterday to visit a friend’s farm for re-breeding.  Hopefully her second pregnancy will produce a healthy cria for us!

Lakota’s mom took off yesterday for a breeding date at another farm.  Since Lakota is five months old and weighs nearly 60 pounds, we kept him at home to begin the weaning process.  My heart went out to him today!  He moped around the barn looking for his mama and moaned his croaky little humm.  He even began following me around as I was doing the daily chores - hoping that I would lead him to some sign of his mom.  Luckily for him, he did not have to be isolated from his “aunties”.  Since mom is the one who left, he was able to remain in the pasture with the other mom’s to be until he adjusts to his new weanling status.  He was our only spring cria - so he doesn’t have a buddy to ease his loneliness.  Freckled Rose is only a couple of weeks old - not a worthy playmate yet.

I wonder if I will feel such attachment to all of our crias.  Lakota was the first to be born on our farm - right into my arms!  He is one big butterball now - with the softest, fullest fleece imagineable and a sweet temperament.  At five months of age he is easy to lead by just using a “bracelet hold” - one hand behind the head and one hand under the chin.  He will still come up to humans and cluck for kisses.  I am cautious not to give him too much attention - I don ‘t want to spoil his personality later on.  As soon as he gets over the stress of weaning, we’ll put him in with the yearling males, so that he can learn how to be a male alpaca.  I want to wait until we are around for a couple of days in a row to make sure that Heli Arc and Crimson won’t aggressively pick on him    (Heli-Arc and Crimson)  

Our first Fall cria was born on Friday, November 7 of 2008.  Lady Sadie’s official due date was Thursday, November 6.  She didn’t show any signs that birth was imminent, so we planned a full day away from home on Friday – a usual work day followed by dinner downtown and a concert given by one of our favorite classical singers, Kathleen Battle.  Our son Benjamin would be home mid-afternoon, and he promised to let us know if anything was happening.  I called Ben around 4:00 pm to check on everything, and he had not noticed the new cria in the pasture yet, so he reported no change.  It wasn’t until we had already had a lovely dinner at a downtown restaurant and I was turning off the ringer to my phone in preparation for the concert that I noticed that Ben had left a message at 5:30.  A new cria was following Lady around the pasture!  He thought it was a female, and she was up and nursing.  We nervously stayed for the concert, and then rushed home to greet our newest alpaca, a beautiful rose grey female with white speckling all down her legs.  She weighed in at 17.4 pounds and was nursing very confidently when we first saw her.  Mom and baby seemed to be doing very well.

We never did find the afterbirth in the pasture the next day.  I was concerned that Lady Sadie might have retained the placenta – an unusual occurrence that had already happened to us with our last birth at the farm.  But Lady showed no sign of distress or of straining to deliver the placenta.  Her temperature was normal, and she was eating and moving normally.  Our best guess is that a hawk or eagle must have feasted on the afterbirth, and removed it from the pasture before we got home that night.  We have a couple of hawks that make their home in the woods behind the pasture, and I’ve spotted more than one eagle circling the lake looking for meals.  We also have a pair of large white faced owls that nest in the wooded area behind the pastures.

I plan to name our new cria Freckled Rose because of her unusual sprinkling of white spots on her legs and through her back.  She is a beautiful and welcome addition to Lake Liaho Farm.