DMAR Alpaca and Maremma Blog

A couple of Alpaca Tips:

I want to be like Apollo shown in this picture. If it isn’t raining dampening my mood and energy it is so hot that all I want to do is lay around. Funny, but when it is winter time I only wish that I could have the heat of the summer. When it is summer I only wish I could have the coolness of winter. Oh well.

I posted this picture of Apollo for another reason too. Many new breeders will be scared silly when they go outside and see their alpaca laying on their side motionless in the sun. Even the most skittish alpaca will lay still allowing you to approach and even touch them. Not to worry they aren’t dying. They are only sunbathing.  Notice that their bellies are facing the sun. The only time I will worry is if their belly is facing another direction than the sun and that will be a sign that something is not right.

 

Want to know when an alpaca should not be bred? Just take a look at the attached picture. Kaitlyn is spitting off Electra. Electra who is just a little over 18 mths should basically be physically ready to breed. However, she is not mentally. The reason Kaitlyn is spitting her off is because Electra keeps trying to nurse off of her. Here is the funny thing. Electra isn’t even related to Kaitlyn. Electra will not even try to nurse off of her own mom, but continues to try on a daily basis to suckle Kaitlyn who has no interest in allowing Electra to nurse at all. Tom says it is easier to wean Dominique, Kaitlyn’s cria, than it is to wean Electra. Another sign that Electra isn’t ready to breed is that she is still pronking and hanging out.

Before breeding a female you want to make sure that she is both physically as well as mentally ready. We will wait until the fall to see how she matures. If we still don’t think she is ready we will try again in the winter. We are in no rush and would rather wait than have to raise her cria due to her immaturity.

DMAR Update for Week 7/6/08:

We are now in full monsoon season. It has been raining daily and sometimes it is a pure downpour for about 30-45 minutes. Tom has been busy each weekend adding wooden decks to the stalls, so that the alpacas can stand outside under the shade roofing and not get their feet wet. So far three decks have been built with another three to go before finishing. The weanling boys love their deck. As soon as they were put into their paddock they ran onto the deck and started neck wrestling with each other. Before they would huddle inside the stall as the ground was wet and muddy. Now they are almost always outside hanging out on their 10 ft deck.

This week we joined the Sierra Vista Chamber of Commerce. I am excited to be a member and look forward to joining one of their many committees. I love this community and feel I need to do more with it. One of the benefits of joining is that we can join in the Home and Expo Show held in September at the Buena High School. They advised that they have 4,000 people attending and that surely would help us in being noticed.

I am still working on my website facelift. It is amazing how many pages I now have in the site and it feels like it is taking forever to redo them. It gets boring at times, so I usually only change 2-3 per day. Anyway I am still plugging along with it.

I can’t remember if I advised that I am also taking a course on becoming a veterinary assistant. I am absolutely loving it. At this time I am halfway through the course. I think it would be ideal if I could find a PT job in a clinic when I am through, so that I don’t forget anything I have learned. Perhaps I will continue studying and get certified as a vet tech. Who knows….time will tell. After all I still have a full time job now along with the alpacas, dogs, cats, and fish that we have here.

That’s it for now. Stay dry!