DMAR Alpaca and Maremma Blog

DMAR results from New Mexico Alpaca Show:

DMAR Royal Peruvivan Princess won 1st and Color Champion of the light fawn female class. Wahoo!!!! This is our first Color Champion, so winning is so delightful. We have plenty of reserve color champions and we’re not complaining, but Color Champion sure beats all. Personally I wasn’t at the show to see Tom and Princess win, but somebody had to stay home on cria watch.

DMAR Royal Peruvian Princess is a juvenile, light fawn female who the judge told my husband that her fleece was amazing. When she won color champ the judge told the crowd that when she opened the fleece it fell into micro bundles, was full of crimp, and very, very soft. This was Princess’ first show, so we are excited to attend future shows to see how she does. Don’t let us down, Princess.

Princess’ dam is GLA Peruvian Alexis and her sire is 105 Peruvian Royal Sun. Unfortunately, Royal Sun passed this year.

DMAR Magnum won 1st and Reserve Color Champion. Magnum won out of the light fawn class with the judge commenting to the crowd that they needed to open his fleece and feel inside, because it felt like butter! I have to admit that this is Tom’s boy of choice out of the juveniles. Great looking boy with plenty of coverage and uniformity of crimp (plenty of it) throughout his entire fleece. This was Magnum’s first show and he is proving to be a winner.

DMAR Magnum’s dam is Kaitlyn-Rose who has 4 offspring on the ground to date. All of the offsprings have won either a blue ribbon or better. Kaitlyn is definitely a wonderful foundation female who surprisingly doesn’t have any well known lineage listed at all. Pretty impressive.

Magnum’s sire is HRAZ Lock & Load. Magnum is the first offspring and you can see he is already making dad proud. We currently have 3 of Lock & Load’s offspring on the ground with 3 more on the way. Lock & Load is available for stud.Click Here  for more information or email us at info@desertmtnalpacas.com.

DMAR Royal Knight won 2nd place. RK was the only beige boy in an all white class to make the class a light class. Tom told me he was sweating bullets as the class consisted of a total of 11 alpacas. Although RK didn’t win 1st the 1st place winner did take Color Champ as well allowing RK to move up for a chance of reserve color champ. Tom said the judge kept going between RK and another alpaca. Alas, the other alpaca won, but I am still thrilled at how well RK did. RK is full brother to Royal Peruvian Princess.

DMAR Royal Knight’s dam is GLA Peruvian Alexis and his sire is 105 Peruvian Royal Sun.

We are interested in selling 1/2 interest of Royal Knight, for more information Click Here. RK has won two 1st places and two reserve color championships to date. He is also full Peruvian.

DMAR Armani won 4th place. This was the first time that we had Armani grouped into a dark class where he competed against blacks and all shades of brown at the same time. However, we are very proud of him as he took 4th out of a class of 9. The judge commented that this was the first time where even up to 4th place all the fleeces were very, very fine.

DMAR Armani’s dam is Alpha Carina. Armani is a medium brown yearling who we are wanting to sell 1/2 interest. He has beautiful, fine fleece with nice crimp characteristics. Armani has won two 1st places and two reserve color championships.Click Here for more information.

Armani’s sire is Snowmass Incan Emperor who is a medium rose grey. Incan is available for breeding. To date (he’s only been breeding for a couple of years) 3 of his offsprings have won 1st or better. For more information on Incan Click Here.

This was a great show! I definitely won’t be missing the next one.

High Risk Cria – DMAR Remington’s story began in the early evening of Sept. 11th. Walls Edge Shasta, dam, appeared to be in labor all day, but nothing happened until around 7pm when Tom asked me to look at Shasta and I happened to catch her going from a layed down position to a kush when her water broke. I quickly got the birthing kit and at 7:20 pm a small, but very active and alert Remington was born. Everything appeared to be going well. The night time low was approx. 65 and I had rubbed Remington well with the towel although he continued to shiver. We threw a jacket on him to try to keep him warm. He very quickly got to his feet and eventually was able to nurse off of mom. We weighed him at 14 lbs and dipped his umbilical cord. He was pretty active for a while, but then he kushed. He laid his head down to rest.

Tom hates to see cria’s with their heads down. We have had crias in the past do the same to find out that they weren’t getting enough milk from mom. Tom decided we should place Remington back under mom to assure he was getting milk, however, when he went to lift Remington up he went limp as a rag doll. Tom immediately said to take Remington into the store to get him oxygen. It was pretty scary to carry such a limp body. It almost felt like we had lost him.

In the garage Tom gave the cria oxygen. Within a minute Remington had popped his head up and then the next second his head dropped to the floor again. I took his temp and it read 98. Hypothermia…..I needed to get this cria warmed and fast. We plugged in the blow dryer, laid him on a heating pad, and threw blankets on top of him. Poor little guy. After a while we finally got his temp normal, but he still wasn’t doing well. He would pop his head up and maybe even stand and walk for a little, but then he would go completely limp all over again.

We did what we could with giving him oxygen and I gave a shot of naxcel just in case he was fighting something I couldn’t see. Finally at around 11pm I went and brought Shasta into the store. I needed her to know her cria, her very first cria, was still alive and I needed Remington to know that his mom was with him. Remington was too weak to nurse, but Shasta was wonderful in allowing me to milk her. We fed the colostrum to Remington with a feeding syringe.

There were many times that night in which Tom thought he was going to lose the cria. I must admit that it was quite scary, but I will forever be the optimist and so I didn’t allow myself to think anything other than he would beat this.

The next morning Remington was still breathing. He appeared to be able to hold his head up for a little longer now, but still too weak to attempt to stand. I had to forgo going to a Home and Business Expo since there was no way we could leave the cria. Tom took Shasta back to her paddock and it was now daylight and she was crying since she could see the other alpacas.

Around noon I took Remington outside to see his mom. He definitely was happy to see her. We continued to milk mom and as Remington got a little stronger we were able to hold him under her to nurse. After each nursing Remington would completely pass out for about an hour or so. Poor little guy wasn’t feeling too well. However, by the end of the day he was able to stand and nurse all by himself. That night Tom and I took turns staying in the stall and making sure Remington was warm under the blankets and that he got up to nurse.

The next day Remington was a bit more active. He actually jumped his back legs into the air. He had no problem jumping on the deck and would be able to quickly recover from his stumbling off the deck. He no longer needed me to tell him to go nurse. He would search for mom by himself. That night I was able to stay in the house and simply watch him from the tv monitor.

Today is day 4 and Remington is even more active than before. Although up through yesterday he still weighed only 14 lbs. He is stubborn and refuses to drink goat’s milk from a bottle. He just pushed the bottle nipple out of his mouth and then sticks his head way back making it very difficult to place the nipple back into his mouth.  He is now doing short running spurts the length of the paddock.  I just hope he keeps getting better!

Shasta is a wonderful first time mother. She is very attentive to her cria and appears to have plenty of milk. She follows him around everywhere and is constantly talking to her baby.

Remingon’s sire is HRAZ Lock & Load, a Presidio son. Remington is his third cria to hit the ground. Lock & Load is available for outside breedings. He is quite impressive and his crias are beautiful. The first two offspring will attend their first show at the end of this month. Click Here for more information on Lock & Load.

2009 National Alpaca Farm Day at DMAR:

Open Ranch at DMAR on Saturday, Sept. 26th from 10 AM to 4 PM. Come meet our alpacas and maremmas. Tours begin on the hour of each hour and last approx. 30 – 45 minutes. Afterwards shop in our ranch store.

Directions: From Sierra Vista take Hwy 92 towards Bisbee. Turn left onto Hereford Rd. Go down 5 miles and turn left onto S. Nucci Lane. We are the first bldg on the right hand side. 520-803-9569

2009 Home and Business Expo:

DMAR will be present at this year’s Home and Business Expo being held at Buena High School on Saturday, Sept. 12th from 10 AM to 4 PM. We will have products for sale. Stop by, say hello, and book a tour/visit to our ranch. Tom and I look forward to seeing you there!

A Little Early, But Domingo is Here:

DMAR Domingo was born to dam, AVR By Golly Miss Molly, on Monday, August 30th. Gestation time was 326 days. Although Molly seems to be birthing a little earlier each year we didn’t think she would go 9 days earlier. Well she believes in the theory of fall crias are born early whereas spring crias are born late.

Domingo was born at 10 am and weighed 16 lbs. Considering he was born early he has no premature qualities about him. His teeth have erupted and his ears are straight. We’re a little unsure of his coloring right now. It appears to be very dark brown or black on top and a lighter brown towards his under section. We don’t know if this is a bay black or not. I need to check. Anyway you can see that he is simply gorgeous and doing well.

This is a picture of Domingo’s dam, Molly. As you can see she too is doing well. She is a wonderful mother with plenty of milk. She is constantly giving Domingo kisses and clucking/humming at him. You can see that the bond is already strong. Molly is currently for sale and will go with cria at side. Click Here to view more information on Molly.

Domingo’s service sire is DMAR Apollo who is a  medium brown. Apollo is our Augusto grandson and blue ribbon winner. We chose Apollo for her fiber coverage and density. With Domingo just being 2 days old now it’s a little too soon to see if he has taken on his sire’s genetics. DMAR Apollo is available for breeding. Click Here for more information on DMAR Apollo.