DMAR Alpaca and Maremma Blog

Runaway Alpacas at DMAR:

We were just returning from a trip into town yesterday and as Tom was closing the gate I noticed in the distance a white alpaca standing near the barn. I was puzzled wondering what it was I was looking at. My puzzlement quickly turned to fear as I watched one of my male alpacas turn and run towards the back. I screamed out the window to Tom that the boys were out!

We are still fairly new to our home of only 3 weeks in Georgia and have yet to totally enclose the property. Unfortunately, in certain areas we have found our dogs know how to get out of our yard and into the neighbors. It appears that the alpacas have also found that access because as I was now speeding down the driveway I saw two more of my males running alongside the fenceline but on the neighbor’s side. I was panicked. In the back of our property it can go on indefinitely for about 20 miles to I-20 through the woods. As long as there are two alpacas together who knows where they might take off to.

        As I pulled up to the barn Tom practically jumped out before I stopped the car. The first two alpacas we saw were Ruski and Lock & Load. Ruski was standing around just wondering what to do. He was worried as his two pals RK and Armani had run into the neighbor’s yard. Lock & Load, to no surprise of mine, was grazing happily on the lawn. Ok so these two boys won’t be an issue. I turned my sights onto RK and Armani to get them back into our yard as Tom went into the back to look for the rest of the seven adult males.

    RK and Armani ran up to the access entry point but were stuck behind the trees. If only they took 3 paces to the left they would see that the alley way was open for them to come back. Obviously this was too hard for them to notice as they searched their way along the fenceline looking for an opening. I walked down to RK and stuck my finger in the ring of the halter and walked him back into our yard with Armani following. Ruski was thrilled to have them back and the three of them walked with me back to their enclosure.

We tried to get Lock & Load but he kept running away to munch on some more grass. We eventually gave up as he obviously wasn’t going anywhere. There was nice long grass where he was eating and he was too busy trying to swallow as much as possible.

     Next I heard Tommy yelling that Diego and Eros were in the back field along with Santino, our maremma. The dogs never even popped into my head but what a good dog for staying with at least some of them. Tom said it looked like Santino was herding them back but when I looked up it was only Santino running by. I guess he figured he did his job and it was now up to Tom to finish bringing them back. Good boy Santino! Diggy was easy to catch but Eros ran right by me. I told Tom that he was upset since Apollo was still missing and that is his buddy. We put Diggy into the enclosure and saw Eros running right back into the back. My mom watched him but he only got so far before jumping straight into the air and then turning around to run back. We caught Eros and Lock & Load and put them back in the enclosure.

  I went to the front of the house to look for Apollo and Tom went back into the back area. When I didn’t see anything I headed towards the back where I noticed some people walking away from Tom. Tommy now had Apollo with him. I asked what happened and he said that the people were some neighbors a few house down the way. Their kids noticed Apollo and since Apollo is so easy to manage the father was able to catch him and walk him back with a finger in the ring of the halter. So in other words, Tommy met the neighbors before I did or actually Apollo met the neighbors.

All in all everything turned out ok. Everyone was back and accounted for. Apollo was a bit stressed out as he was alone for a little while with the neighbors, but I hosed him down along with the others and he was home.

So how did this happen? Part of the enclosement is made up of the heavy green panels. I left one of the panels unlatched as I use it for a door. Since they are so heavy I didn’t think the alpacas could get out. Well I was wrong! We think that two of the boys began to wrestle and hit into the panel causing it to open just enough that they could all get out.

So who were the ring leaders in this push to freedom? Your guess is as good as mine.

Today I latched all the panels together.

Moving Day Quickly Approaches:

In just a few short days we leave our home in Arizona of seven years to head to the grassy, humid east coast of Mansfield, GA. We are both excited and apprehensive at the same time. Tom has been off traveling around for work while I am left behind to take care of getting the alpacas and dogs ready for the upcoming move.

Of course things could not go smoothly without some alpaca drama. Two weekends ago I went outside with Tom to give Eros his CDT shot. While Eros while trying to run away from Tom he got his foot stuck in the field fencing. He panicked as Tom got closer to help and when Tom got his foot free I noticed Eros was bleeding. Sure enough he had torn his left back toenail right at the top of the nail bed where it meets his skin. Poor thing. Well with treatment and separation from the other boys except his pal, Apollo, Eros never caught an infection and has improved greatly. The nail is still there, but I expect it to fall off once the new nail begins to grow and push it off.

The plan is to take most of the alpacas to Cienega Creek for agistment. The first trip to GA Tom will take the 4 maremmas, Max our min pin,  and 5 adult male alpacas. I will be driving behind him with a trailer full of equipment and Dutchess, my American Bulldog.

The five male alpacas have their health certs, all dogs are ready to travel except Max who I take to the vet today to get his rabies shot updated. Tomorrow I do herd management to update all shots and trim toe nails.

Tom comes home tomorrow night and he has a ton of work to do before we leave with finishing up home repairs and getting the trucks in working order.

I’m tired, stressed, and simply can’t wait to get this entire move over with. Once I get to the new home (pictured above with a view of one of the pastures) there is a ton of clean up to do with starting with the house and barn that have been empty since December. The pastures are overgrown and need to be mowed down. We need some more fencing to keep house dogs away from guard dogs and alpacas. The list goes on and on, but we will make it work.

DMAR Update: Cross these Items Off the To Do List

Matter of Trust: Above is a video showing how alpaca fleece absorbs and holds oil better than the standard synthetic material. The oil spill in the Gulf is tremendous. Peoples’ livelihood have been put on hold. Our environment is once again put under siege. This is a shame and just plain unacceptable! Like always in the midst of tragedy there are always those that step up to try to help. DMAR is proud to be among the alpaca ranches who is taking the cost upon themselves to ship their alpaca fiber to the Gulf to help create these booms. Today one large box of fiber will be sent with more in the near future.

Weaning: This year we have successfully weaned 2 male alpacas and in the above youtube we have 3 females. I am happy to say that all know how to walk on a halter and lead. I have two more females to go but that won’t be until August when they hit 6 months of age. We got a great juvenile show string this year and we are very excited to show them off.

Breedings: Not sure why, but it seems to have taken Kaitlyn a bit longer this year to take to a breeding. Well it might be because she is a big time wiggler. Not sure if any of you have any of these females but they kush at the sight of a male; however, once the male is breeding then the female seems like they have ants in their pants. Kaitlyn is constantly repositioning herself and at times even ends up laying on her side. For an inexperienced male like DMAR Royal Knight this is very frustrating as he would find himself outside of her and having to start all over. So far we are at 2 weeks of her spitting off vehemently. I do believe she is pregnant.

Fans and Coolers: Tom got the fans and coolers going this past weekend. Good thing as the temps have hit 100. Every day I hose down the alpacas legs and bellies. Electrolytes have been added to the buckets and I see an increase in water consumption. So far the alpacas seem to be maintaining their cool.

Even though I may accomplish completing some items on the list there always seems to be another 2 items added for every 1 item I scratch out. I’m sure you all feel this way from time to time.

Ranch and house for sale in Hereford Arizona

We are getting closer and closer to moving out of Arizona to Georgia. Tom has made several trips now and I have been to Georgia at least once house hunting. We currently made an offer on a house, so we have our fingers crossed that we will get it. I will post pictures if and when the offer has been accepted.

We listed our ranch and house for sale about a week ago. Yesterday we held an open house for the realtors to preview. We’ve had one showing and it went well. We will hold an open house for the public either this Sunday or next depending on when our realtor is available.

The listing of the house can be viewed at http://www.longrealty.com/AZ/Hereford/85615/homes-for-sale/7107-S-Nucci-Lane-48975606/popup. You can also take a virtual tour at http://tours.tourfactory.com/tours/tour.asp?t=620494.  We have an additional 4.77 acres that is being sold separately, but is right behind the house so a total of 9+ acres in all. Special concession for offers to purchase both. To view the land go to http://www.longrealty.com/AZ/Hereford/85615/landlots-for-sale/7107-Nucci-Ln-48306342.

This is a beautiful house on a corner lot. Plenty of space inside with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Plenty of stalls for alpacas, horses, goats, or any other livestock.

Shearing DMAR Prada on 5/3/10 Video

Mike Morgan is shearing 2 month old DMAR Prada. She was very good with no spitting or screaming. I’m collecting the alpaca fiber and my mom is the videographer. DMAR Prada will be part of our 2010 show string. She is out of HRAZ Lock & Load and Kaitlyn-Rose.

We told Mike to leave a fuzzy face on the crias and to A frame all legs. He did a great job with all the alpacas. Perhaps the alpacas weren’t so thrilled on shearing day but over the past two days it has been in the upper 80’s and I’m sure they are relieved to have their fleeces off.

2010 Shearing is Over:

 Monday, May 3rd we held shearing day at Desert Mountain Alpaca Ranch in Hereford, AZ. Originally we were supposed to shear on Thursday, April 29th but had to rearrange when our regular shearer, Pete Connelly, found himself in the hospital fighting an infection after cutting his knee with a shearing blade sharpener. Of course this would happen to Pete one week before shearing and as you all know finding a shearer at this time of year is close to impossible; however, Pete found us another shearer so with just moving the shearing a few days Mike Morgan came to shear.

Moving shearing day was not the easiest for us. Tom was scheduled to be in GA for training and my volunteers had rearranged their work schedules to be here on Thursday. We ended up losing some volunteers and Tom had to make other arrangements for work.

Another change for us was that Mike Morgan doesn’t trim teeth. This was sort of a blessing in disguise for me as I’ve been wanting to trim teeth ourselves for a couple of years now. Luckily a while back I traded transporting for a slightly used tooth-a-matic machine. Tom took it to work a few days before shearing and did some slight adjustments and we were ready. To my surprise Tom actually cut the alpacas teeth without asking me to do it. (If you know Tom at all you know he doesn’t do anything to the alpaca except to hold it).  I was so proud of him but to tell you the truth if he didn’t do it I wouldn’t have been able to as Mike was so quick with shearing I barely had time to collect up the fiber before running to the next alpaca. Now that we are going to Georgia where the alpacas can graze it is even more important that their teeth are in the right shape.

We sheared 32 alpacas between 9 and 2:30 PM. Mike could have been done earlier but us old people (Tom) couldn’t keep up with him. You could see Tom slowing down as he brought each new alpaca in.

We had socks filled with rumen in which I collected immediately in a freezer zip lock bag. Tom froze them afterwards and we now have liquid gold. All that we will have to do is defrost the socks soak them in water and then drench up the rumen. We didn’t realize how precious this stuff is until we had an alpaca who stopped eating a couple of years ago. Luckily we were able to get a prego to spit back then but now we collect it at shearing and freeze.

Special thanks goes out to Pete Connelly (we will be using Pete next year) for finding us another shearer, Mike Morgan and his wife for shearing, and to my volunteers….James, Lisa, Laurel and most of all my mom for recording all the fleece weights.

Now it’s time to skirt the show fleeces and to figure out which fleeces are going to the fiber festivals and which I am going to have processed.

Janice Buttitta -Judge and Update o Bella

Yesterday I was the judge for the alpaca youth show held at the Pima County Fair. It was a lot of fun in which I got to judge showmanship and obstacle course.  I was very impressed with the kids and their handling abilities. I was even more impressed when I found out that a lot of the kids had been with alpacas for less than a year. It is quite amazing to watch the alpaca do the jumps and allow the owner to place a hula hoop over it. It just showed us all how much trust the alpaca had in its young, confident owner.

I made it a point to tell the kids what they did right and what areas they needed to improve. I really went out of my way to express to the crowd how the kids should be supported. The parents thanked me afterwards for being so interactive with the kids. From the feedback I received the kids had a great time and are looking forward to doing more shows.

This show was pretty small, so I do hope more kids join in the future. It is a great way to support our future alpaca breeders. Perhaps I will get another chance to judge one of the youth shows again in the future. It was a great time for all.

 Bella has found a new home in Northern California with owners, Rick and Cindy Shipley, of Argonaut Farms. Bella will be guarding a herd of alpaca not at all different than what she was doing here at DMAR. Bella turns 5 months old on the 20th of this month.

Rick and Cindy drove into Tucson on Friday night. On Saturday I took Bella to meet them. Bella did great in the car and was quite a mush when she met her new family. I’m sure she was a bit nervous and shy, but in no time she will show her confident self.

Rick and Cindy appear to be a very good family for Bella. I am confident that they will dote love and attention to her and vice versa. Bella will have an older pyrenees dog to befriend on their return. I’m sure she will be excited.

For now we are out of puppies. We hope to have our next litter between Gianna and Santino in the summer of 2010. Of course this will all depend on how our current relocation goes. I’ll keep everyone informed as we go along.

DMAR is moving to Georgia in the next few months. It’s official as Tom signed his offer letter for a promotion and relocation to the new corporate office just north of  Atlanta in Sandy Springs. Although I am already getting a headache trying to figure out logistics for the alpaca move I am looking forward to the greenery and big trees the east coast has to offer us and our herd.

At this point in time nothing is official as to the exact date of the move. All I know is that Tom will begin to temporarily telecommute to Atlanta starting the second week of March. Tom still has some projects he needs to finish up in Mexico before we can leave Arizona.

For me the move is bittersweet. I was really becoming established in the alpaca industry in the desert. I will miss the beauty and dry heat of Arizona as well as all the friendships Tom and I have made with both alpaca ranchers and customers.

We look forward to making new friendships on the east coast. Also, since Tom and I are originally from NY and NJ we will be closer to our families. Plenty of changes will be coming, but we look forward to the opportunity of attending more shows and networking with the eastern portion of the Mississippi.

Overall I will be happy to see the dirt rings on my alpacas’ fleeces disappear and to have the moisture brought back into their fibers. I am sure both they and the maremmas will love the grass.

Happy New Year from Desert Mountain Alpaca Ranch:

If you are like me you are embracing 2010 with open arms. I am optomistic that this will be the year of change and more prosperity for us all. I am thankful of 2009, but I was ready to say good bye to it back in August.

Here at the ranch I held my females open until the end of December. I missed two shows this fall since I was on cria watch and I hate missing shows. Not to mention that I had to back out of one vendor event due to a sick newborn cria. Good news is that the cria is now 3 months old and is totally healthy. Other events came and went with our fingers crossed that the dam would hold onto the cria for another day or two. I won’t have any of that next year, so all females opened stayed opened until the end of December. Here are the breedings we did:

(1) 2x Reserve Color Champion, DMAR Royal Knight (beige) to AVR By Golly Miss Molly (tru black).

 DMAR Royal Knight is a full Peruvian grandson of Royal Fawn. Beautiful fleece and the typey alpaca look. DMAR Royal Knight is available for sale at 1/2 interest and is now available for stud.

 AVR By Golly Miss Molly is a proven female with plenty of milk. Molly is for sale and comes with a free rebreeding to any fully owned DMAR herdsire.

(2) Multiple blue ribbon winner, Snowmass Incan Emperor to DMAR Electra.

 Snowmass Incan Emperor is a MRG full Peruvian proven herdsire. Offsprings include 2x Reserve Color Champion, DMAR Armani, and 2x blue ribbon winner, DMAR Nikoli. Incan has produced crias ranging in color from fawn to the greys both rose grey and silver grey. Incan Emperor is available for stud. He is co-owned with Square Top Ranch, but he is currently at stud at my ranch in Hereford, AZ.

 DMAR Electra II – We have paired this female for her 2nd go around with Snowmass Incan Emperor. We are so impressed with their last cria, DMAR Dolce (shown in picture) that we just had to repeat the breeding. Dolce’s fleece and conformation is everything and more than we expected. We have high hopes for this little cria. Can’t wait for her to reach juvenile so we can take her to the shows.

(3) Snowmass Incan Emperor and Wall’s Edge Shasta:

 Walls Edge Shasta is a full Peruvian white female. We paired her to Snowmass Incan Emperor, because we simply love what he is producing with whites and this will keep the cria full Peruvian.

(4) 2x Reserve Color Champion, DMAR Armani, to Reserve Color Champion, DMAR Athena:

 DMAR Armani is son of Snowmass Incan Emperor. His lineage includes Incan Magic, Peruvian Hemingway, and PPeruvian Victor. Armani is a compact male with wonderful fleece stats and density. DMAR Armani is for sale at 1/2 interest. He is also now available for stud.

 DMAR Athena is a beautiful young female who has 2 offspring on the ground. The first is a male named DMAR White Russian whose fleece stats are just wonderful. He is also a blue ribbon winner. Her second cria, DMAR Chanel, currently 2 months old is simply gorgeous. Athena is for sale with cria at side. She comes with a free rebreeding to any fully owned DMAR herdsire.

(5) Presidio son, HRAZ Lock & Load to DMAR Dominique:

 HRAZ Lock & Load is a blue ribbon winner. He currently has 4 offsprings on the ground and one of which is a Reserve Color Champion, DMAR Magnum. Other crias will not be shown until the Fall of 2010. At this time his record is 50/50 boys to girls. Two more crias are due this month.

 DMAR Dominique, blue ribbon winner, is super dense with beautiful architecture in her crimp. Dominique is a sweet girl and is for sale with a free rebreeding to any fully owned DMAR Herdsire. Coverage on Dominique goes from her top knot to her toes.

If you are interested in more information on any of the herdsires listed above Click Here.

If you are interested in more information on any of the alpacas listed above for sale Click Here.

January Birthings:

Both Kaitlyn-Rose and Alpha Carina are due to birth this month. Kaitlyn’s day 335 starts on Jan. 10th and Carina’s on Jan. 28th. We are super excited and waiting quite impatiently.

Maremma Puppies Available for Sale:

The puppies are currently six weeks old. They are healthy and robust. As you can see in some of the pictures they are very playful now as well. Sweet personalities on all of them.

We currently still have available 2 females and 3 males. We are running a promotion in January: Purchase any alpaca at $2000 or more and get a free maremma livestock guardian puppy for free.

If purchasing a puppy alone females are $850 and males are $750. Price includes first shot, first worming, micro-chip, and registration paperwork. We will be going to TxOLAN in February, so we can transport the puppy there for free.

Contact us at info@desertmtnalpacas.com to reserve your pup or call 520.803.9569.

Update on Maremma Pups:

The Maremma pups are now 3 weeks old. As you can see their eyes are fully open and they are quite mobile. I know their ears are open since they wake up each time I walk into their area. Personalities are becoming apparent. The males are all pretty much laid back where the females all seem to be little trouble makers. They are vocal and launch attacks against their litter mates. Teeth are now coming in and I expect that a few yelps will come to help them learn how to curve their bite.

The pups are being given puppy gruel. A mixture of crushed up dry puppy food mixed with hot water and milk. They all like it, but it is still quite messy as they walk, sit, and fall into the pie plate that holds the cream like mixture. On a good note…most are now lapping it up from the plate versus waiting for me to feed them. Donatella, dam, waits patiently until I give her the go ahead to lick the plate and clean off the pups.

The Maremma puppies are for sale and will be ready by the end of January. Females are $850 and males are $750. Costs include first shot, worming, micro-chip, and registration paperwork. To reserve a pup we require a $100 non-refundable deposit. Contact us to reserve a pup today!

Other DMAR News:

Breached Dystocia: This past Saturday Tom and I were called to aid a fellow alpaca rancher. She had a dam in heavy labor with no progress being seen. The rancher said she went inside and couldn’t find the head.

On the drive over I played in my head how I would proceed to determine the position of the cria. I took the neo-natal wet lab twice, so my confidence level is slightly more than most.

Once there I gloved, lubed, and went in. Immediately I felt two pointy elbows and a little knob on top. No neck or head was found. I followed the leg to find it was z-shaped and knew immediately the cria was breached. I contacted the vet and advised the owner with alpaca would be on their way shortly. The vet had me warn the owner that the situation didn’t look good and to be prepared. Even though the cria is still attached at the umbilical cord once the water breaks the cria may still try to take a breath. This could lead to drowning. Knowing all this made the situation seem more dreadful as the vet is approx. 45 minutes away when driving swiftly.

It was about two hours later when I listened to my messages where the alpaca owner advised that the vet had delivered an alive, alert, female cria. The owner was thankful for my help as she was struggling trying to figure out the position of the cria. She probably would have wasted a lot more time and possibly could have lost the cria.

Kaitlyn-Rose: Kaitlyn is due next month with her fifth cria. To date she has had birthed in this order a female, male, female, male. According to her history we are hoping for a female from her. Kaitlyn is a remarkable dam and has produced all blue ribbon offspring so far. Two of them have even won reserve color championships, DMAR Athena and DMAR Magnum. DMAR Athena is currently for sale and goes with her 2009 Fall female cria, DMAR Chanel. DMAR Chanel’s sire is HRAZ Lock & Load who is out of Xanadu’s Presidio. Chanel is a white beauty with dense, beautiful crimp, and lock structure that is already apparent in her cria fleece. Chanel was born in October 2009. Click Here for more information on Athena. Click Here for more information on HRAZ Lock & Load who is available for stud.

Alpha Carina: Carina too is due next month with her 3rd cria. To date she has given us a male and a female. We are excited to find out what it will be this time. Carina’s first offspring, DMAR Armani, is a 2x reserve color champion. We are currently looking for a partner in taking 1/2 interest of Armani. Click Here for more information on Armani.

Christmas at Desert Mountain Alpaca Ranch: Is this Saturday, Dec. 19th from 9 am to 4 pm. We hope you can come out and visit with us. Take a self guided tour of the alpacas and crias. View our Maremma livestock guardian dogs and the 4 week old litter of pups. You will be sure to fall in love with all the creatures of our ranch. Afterwards go into the DMAR Store where you can sip on eggnog and munch on cookies while you shop, view spinning and needle felting demos, or meet with the vendor Premier Designs and their line of beautiful, high fashion jewelry.

Can’t make it out to our Christmas celebration? Don’t fret. You can shop online at www.dmarstore.desertmtnalpacas.com. Hurry as time is running out to receive gifts in time for the holidays.