DMAR Alpaca and Maremma Blog

Male Huacaya Cria – DMAR Diego came into this world on Thursday, December 21st. His dam, Kaitlyn-Rose, gave birth on day 347 at 10:18 am. Although the cria is full-term he was still a tad premature as his bottom teeth had not yet erupted and the tips of his ears were bent slightly. Diego weighed 18 lbs at birth which is a very healthy weight.

Kaitlyn-Rose has milk issues. Last year she had no milk at all when DMAR Athena was born. The ranch where she was at quickly started her on domperidone and shots of thiamine. It probably took about a good week before her milk was enough to sustain and put more weight on Athena. This year Kaitlyn had a little milk, but again not enough to maintain Diego. By the 6th hour Diego was getting weak. We heated up the colostrum in a baby bottle and brought the little guy inside to keep warm since it was at freezing level outside. Tom and I could not bare the cold to stay out all night. It broke our heart to take him away from his mother, who you can easily tell loves her boy very much. Diego looked touch and go to us all night long as I layed on the floor next to him trying to get an ounce of milk into him every hour. No easy task as once an alpaca has even the slightest taste of milk from mom they now no longer want or like the milk from a goat. With no sleep the night before we loaded dam and cria in the trailer for a drive to the vet. We were afraid the Diego might need a plasma transfer, but we found out that the milk and colostrum we pumped into him were enough to get him out of danger. Our only task now is to assure he is getting 2 ounces of milk in him every two hours.

We left Diego out with mom last night. Kaitlyn has been getting domperidone and her shots of thiamine daily. We know she has a little bit of milk and with Diego constantly trying to nurse we are sure he will stimulate her milk into gear. We are not out of the woods just yet, but Diego is looking stronger and already playing around with DMAR Electra II.

I have to mention that the fiber on Diego is the most beautiful fiber I have ever seen on a cria. He is completely covered from head to toe. He was born with a top knot and already has a fuzz face. This boy is a winner!

Diego’s sire is Cloud Dancer’s ViceRoy. We chose ViceRoy due to his fineness in fleece at eight years of age. We are very pleased by the results. Kaitlyn-Rose is proving to be a great producer of crias.  

 

 

New female cria – Electra II was born at Desert Mountain Alpaca Ranch on December 11th. She is the first 2006 cria for the year. She weighs 15 lbs and is alert. Mom and cria are doing fine. Electra II is completely white. Her sire, Cloud Dancer’s Macho Colorado, is a Camilio son. Her dam, Woodsedge Accoyo Alexis is an Augusto and Caligula great granddaughter.

We have a new maremma puppy – Welcome Biancaneve to Desert Mountain Alpaca Ranch! Biancaneve, currently 9 weeks old,  comes from a farm in California raising maremmas to protect goats. We have waited a long time to find her as we needed a female who was not related to our male, Santino. We plan on breeding the two by the end of next year and offer maremma pups as another service of our ranch. We will be the first breeders of this dog in the state of Arizona. Please contact us if you want more information. We will begin to accept names for a waiting list.

You can see that Santino has already taken to Biancaneve. Santino is thrilled to finally have a playmate. He has so much energy that we have to separate the two for periods of time as Biancaneve needs her rest. Although Santino is over playful at the moment Biancaneve is already telling him what she will and will not put up with. She can be licking me one second and in the next snapping and barking at Santino to leave her alone. I have no doubt she will run the ranch pretty soon.

Here is a picture of Santino now 6 months old. His coat has grown in beautifully to protect him during the winter. It is shiny and white with waves. Visitors to the ranch always remark on how gorgeous he is. Even though he is a big huggable grizzly bear who loves attention, he knows his job. Every day and night he patrols the area taking care of the alpacas. We feel one hundred percent more secure knowing he is on guard.

My new article has been posted at Cria Preparedness. If you are new and needing a list of necessities here is a good place to look.

If anyone has anything they want to add, please comment here. I would love to hear what other ranches are or are not using.

Soon I will be posting the 2007 arrivals.