Male Huacaya Cria - DMAR Diego

Posted 23 December, 2006 in Alpaca Health |

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.  

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