DMAR Alpaca and Maremma Blog

Maremma puppies right before Christmas at DMAR. Tom and I got our Christmas present just a day before Christmas Eve. Bianca had her first litter of pups starting at 8:30 am. Since it was Bianca’s and Santino’s first breeding attempt (each only a year old) the litter was small – only 2 puppies, a male and a female. All are doing well and doing their thing – sleeping and nursing while crying.

We had been watching Bianca like a hawk since Friday night. I took her temperature and it was lower than usual. We knew that this meant impending birth. However, Bianca took her sweet time about it. Her water didn’t break until 4 am Sunday morning and then she left us waiting in anticipation for another 4 1/2 hrs.

Bianca’s vet said he was thrilled to learn that we were breeding Bianca. She has one of the sweetest temperments he has seen in large dogs. Bianca has no issues allowing others to touch her in awkward ways, especially being placed on her back for x-rays. Hopefully she will pass that temperment on to her pups.

Bianca is a great mother. Her instincts kicked in immediately as she cleaned them off. She knows to roll onto her side to give them access to milk and picks up her rear leg when needed to allow them to feed off the rear nipple. Bianca rarely leaves the whelping box. Only when she needs to go to the bathroom. This is pretty incredible since we keep the room at 77-80 degrees. Bianca is an outside dog and loves the temperature to be cold. She must really love her babies to stay in the box panting for hours on end.

As of now the pups have Santino’s coat style. Waves running from the head to their toes. Santino is anxiously waiting for them to appear, but for now the small glimpses of Bianca when she leaves the whelping box will have to do.

Funny, but it seems Santino knew that Bianca was in labor. The night before he began to act differently really wanting to see her. He didn’t eat his dinner nor his breakfast the next morning.

If you would like to see Bianca and her pups please visit www.desertmtnalpacas.com and select the live cam from the top menu. We have four channels connected, 3 for alpaca viewing (we had 2 new crias this month) and 1 set on Bianca. Sorry if it is kind of hard to see them. They are white and sometimes everything looks white in the picture. You will have to look for movement.

Both pups are up for sale. Please contact us at info@desertmtnalpacas.com if you are interested. They are livestock guardian dogs, so we prefer them to go to a working home. I guarantee both you and they will be happier if they have a job to do.

Merry Christmas!

 

 DMAR has its first female cria of the year – DMAR Dominique born on Saturday, December 15th at 7:07 am. Dominique is medium fawn in color and weighed 16.8 lbs. She and mom, Kaitlyn, are doing fine.

It was early morning around 6 am when I noticed on our tv, yes we have cameras to the maternity ward hooked up to our bedroom tv for alpaca watching, that Kaitlyn got up to go to the bathroom. Pretty uneventful as she actually went. A few minutes later she was back at the dung pile again, but still uneventful as she again went to the bathroom. It was not more than 5 minutes later that Kaitlyn was at the dung pile for the third time. This time nothing was happening except her standing there in the position to go. Now she had my full attention.

After a few minutes Kaitlyn left the pile. Walked around and nibbled on some leftover hay from the night before. After a few minutes she was once again at the dung pile. Ok it was time for Tom and me to spring into action. Kaitlyn is not one to roll from side to side when in labor or to get up and then kush again. She gives no sign that she is in labor except for the fact that she continuously visits the dung pile.

When I got in the kitchen and viewed the monitor I saw that Kaitlyn was now kushed. Great this buys me a little time to feed the dogs. I always like to make sure everyone is fed before birthing a new cria as this can take hours. Not so much the birthing of the cria, but the observation afterwards.

By 6:30 am Tom and I were outside. Kaitlyn did look quite uncomfortable. In less than five minutes we could see that she was beginning to push. I told Tom to feed all the other alpacas while I watched. Tom had them all eating in record timing. He likes to be a part of the birthing process, especially to help if needed. Lucky for us that Kaitlyn delivered with no problems.

Dominique had some issues finding mom’s udder, but with some guidance from Tom and me I believe she got the colostrum she needed. I hated that she was born on the coldest morning that we have had so far, but we got her warmed up quickly by blow drying her and sticking on a sweater and cria coat.

Dominique is Kaitlyn-Rose’s third cria. To date she has had DMAR Athena, multiple blue ribbon winner and reserve color champion, DMAR Diego, blue ribbon winner, and now DMAR Dominique. Already we can see the crimp in her fiber and we are sure she too will do well at the shows.

Yeah for the first girl of the birthing season! We have two more to go, but they are not due until February and March. We get a little break now.  

 

Grand Opening – DMAR Online Store located at www.dmarstore.desertmtnalpacas.com.

After much hard work I am ready to open our online store. It took a while in the making, but I now have products available. This is an ongoing project in which I will be adding more items as quickly as I possible can.

We will also be sending out a free gift for the first 20 orders. Remember that you can select your shipping between UPS and USPS. Also, if you do not see a size or color you are needing, please inquire at sales@desertmtnalpacas for special ordering. It will take approximately 4-6 weeks for delivery.

Happy Holidays! 

 

 

Wind and rain didn’t stop DMAR Royal Knight from entering the world on the morning of Saturday, December 1st. Weighing only 14.7 lbs he was a sight for sore eyes that were up most of the night due to one of the worst storms in a while here in Hereford.

I was awoken at 1 AM by Tom who said we needed to move the girls out of the pastures and into the stalls because the temporary canopies we had set up for them were beginning to fall apart from the 30-55 mph winds. Without hesitating I jumped out of bed and it seemed like I was in a movie about hurricanes. The girls were soaked, one of the canopies had broken a couple of its legs barely standing, and huge water puddles threatening to flood the entire pasture. None of the females wanted to move, because they were so scared. Luckily they seemed to pair up. When I haltered one the second female would follow. Tom and I moved them two at a time into the stalls. At least we knew that they had more shelter from the storm in the stalls. At least we thought until we heard the wind threatening to tear out the aluminum slats nailed into the roof. Little by little we heard the aluminum rattling until a nail was pulled out. Yup at least three different areas we heard the flapping of the slat threatening to fly off the roof. Tom jumps on a ladder (can you believe this?) and begins to throw cement blocks on top of the slats to hold them in place. It worked!

 By 2 am we are back in the house again and Tom states that he won’t be able to sleep again. We both joke about how this will be the day Alexis goes into labor. Well, wouldn’t you know it……at 3:30am Tom tells me that Alexis is laying on her side with her legs stretched out. Uh oh. This has been her sign for us for the past 2 years of imminent birth. It’s only the beginning then of stage 1 labor. I tell him to let me sleep for one hour, because if I didn’t close my eyes I would be totally useless. At 5am I jump up to see Alexis laying on her side and allowing her head to go down to the ground two times. Ok time to move. I got up and fed the dogs. Tom can’t believe I’m doing this, but I advise that Alexis is now kushed which buys us a little time. I knew that once I went outside it would be hours and hours before I came back in again and wanted the dogs fed. I made Tommy prepare the food for the maremmas outside as well.

At 5:30 am with coffee in hand, dog food, and our cria birthing supplies we ventured outside. Alexis seemed calm and was standing. Within minutes Tom called me over to advise that it looked like she was beginning stage 2 labor. Sure enough I look and she begins to push…..the legs of the cria pop out. We begin to time the birth to make sure we have progress within 15 minutes. Little by little I see the tip of the nose and mouth. I advise Tom that the cria is moving his mouth and blowing bubbles out his nose. With a sigh of relief we know this cria is alive. Less than a half hour RK is on the floor thrashing around. Not only is he alive, but a vivacious cria at that! All the while the rain and wind didn’t stop.

Alexis and RK are doing well. RK is growing quickly already weighing 16 1/2 lbs. RK’s lineage is Augusto, Caligula, and Royal Fawn. His fiber is already what we expected it to be from this lineage.

To see RK with mom, Kaitlyn, and Carina go to our live cam link located on our web page at www.desertmtnalpacas.com.