Gianna has just hit her 8th week. Her litter is due literally anytime now. I know you probably can’t tell much from the photos but she is really quite wide. At this time I have no problem feeling a pup kick everytime I lay my hands on her.

  We finished Gianna’s whelping area. I used to use a whelping box but Gianna is just too big to fit in it. Instead I took my friend’s, Deb Dallara of Brookfarm Alpacas, idea and ran with it. The room is actually the horse wash room in the barn. Since I don’t have horses it was easy to transform it. We lined the walls with hay bales and out in front we are using one side of a chain link dog run with a door. The table inside is where I weigh the alpaca feed and underneath has a fan to keep Gianna cool. The entire cement floor was topped off with coastal bermuda to keep Gianna and the pups comfy. Once the time is here for Gianna to whelp I will keep towels and blankets on top of the hay floor as I don’t want any puppies getting it caught in their eyes.

Gianna is a very good eater. She’s never one to pass up on food. At this time I am feeding her one cup of adult and 3 cups puppy dry food all topped off with 1/2 can of puppy wet food. She gets this twice a day and sometimes she even gets an additional cup at noon. This morning was the first time in a long time, I’m not counting when her face got stung by a wasp, that she didn’t finish her meal. All signs that I am observing.

I am starting to take her temp twice per day. This morning it was still over a 100. Once it drops to 98/99 I will be on full alert as she will start to whelp 24/48 hrs afterwards. At least this time the whelping area is large enough for me to lay down with her comfortably. Also, what a nice change to have puppies in the summertime vs. the winter. I guess I won’t be freezing my butt off this time around!

  Santino, the dad to be, is taken things in stride. He loves Gianna and protects her but isn’t stopped from doing his other guarding duties on the ranch. Once Gianna gives birth she won’t have any love left for Santino until the pups are old enough to be introduced to the others. Santino knows the deal as this will be his third litter.

Puppies will all be for sale. Females go for $850 and males at $750. All go with first shot, first deworming, microchip, and registration paperwork.

Tom and I are registered with the Maremma Sheepdog Club of America. We have been breeding these dogs for 4 years. We truly believe in them and would not sell them if we didn’t. We are ethical breeders and only breed each female once per year. We do not care to be a puppy mill but do believe in providing these working dogs to the farms/ranches needing them.

You can read more about my dogs by Clicking Here. You can view pictures of past puppies on the site or you can also click on the maremma tab off the blog menu.

    I have to sometimes wonder if he is as we can’t keep this dog confined. Vincenzo easily weighs 90 to 100 lbs; however, he is very sleek and slender. If he can get his shoulders through the obstacle then it is no problem for him to get the rest of his body through. Vincenzo is a master contorsionist at 3 yrs of age. Vincenzo is my Maremma lgd.

We have placed Vincenzo behind 8 bar goat panels only to watch him find an opening  just large enough for him to put his head through. After that he gets in one leg and begins to wiggle one of his shoulder through. Once the first shoulder is through he then starts with the second shoulder. After both shoulders are through he has no issue in getting his small waist and legs through the fence. This takes him less than 20 minutes to figure out and be free.

We then went out and purchased a four sided wire dog kennel sized 10 X 10. This should have kept Vincenzo at bay for a while but to our surprise it did not. Vincenzo started to bite the wire at the bottom of the kennel door. As soon as he managed to tear open a little hole it wan’t too much longer before he made that small hole into a hole large enough for him to wiggle his body through. His girlfriend, Donatella, who is much smaller in size than he didn’t even attempt to go through the hole that Vincenzo made. It certainly didn’t look large enough for Donatella to go through much less Vincenzo but he did.

In our latest attempts to keep Vincenzo from roaming into the neighbor’s yard until we get up proper fencing we placed him in one of the stalls in the barn. We then strapped the door closed. In the morning when I went to the barn I found Vincenzo in the aisle. What he did was bite at the wood around the frame of the door and then on the door itself. When it gave some way he continued to push on the door until the bolt came out of the hinge. At that point he was able to squeeze through and push the door open.

I have given up on trying to keep Vincenzo confined. At least his interest in going to the neighbor’s yard has lessened. He’s much more content laying behind the bushes trying to stay cool from the heat and humidity.

I am not upset with Vincenzo. Just the opposite as I am very impressed by him. I do believe he will protect the alpacas by doing anything possible to get to the intruder and making sure it knows that this is his domain.

Vincenzo had his first litter last year and will be siring another litter in the spring of 2011. I wonder if he passes this trait onto his offspring.

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.

  Mom to be is Gianna who is currently 20 mths old. This will be Gianna’s first litter. Gianna is a direct import from the Abruzzi region in Italy. She is a big girl weighing at 101 before her pregnancy. Gianna’s temperment is very loving and truly loyal to her herd and family. At the moment I can see changes in both Gianna’s attitude and physical changes in her mammary glands. She is quite hormonal and won’t tolerate any messing around from the other maremmas. She loves to spend her days in front of the fans trying to cool down from this Georgia heat and humidity.

Gianna is due at the end of August or early September. We are quite busy preparing for the birth of her pups by setting up a whelping area in the barn.

  Santino is Gianna’s mate. Santino is a first generation import. He is currently 4 years old and this will be Santino’s third litter. Santino is a wonderful guard dog and spends most of his day marking and patroling his territory. We sleep peacefully knowing that Santino will take care of the alpacas.

Santino is a great partner for Gianna. He makes sure he leaves a little something in his bowl for Gianna at every feeding. He is very attentive to Gianna even though she can turn and snap at him for absolutely no reason at all these days. He simply ignores it and keeps going about his business. Like the rest of the Maremmas at DMAR he is very loyal and loving towards his alpacas and family.

Both parents guard 24 alpacas at the DMAR ranch in Mansfield, GA. Puppies will be raised alongside the alpacas. Initially they will only share a fenceline but will begin to be introduced slowly starting at approx. 5 to 6 wks old under heavy supervision.

For more information on maremmas Click Here or you can read more about past litters and view photos by clicking on the maremma link from the menu on the blog. Puppies are available for purchase and will be ready by early November. Females sell for $850 and males for $750. Please contact us for more information.

I’ve been very busy these past 2 weeks. Plenty of unpacking, cleaning, and setting up new services. By the way the free garbage recycling places for Newton County sucks for me. I have to drive 12 miles just to use them so I am now a paying customer of B & W garbage removal. Not sure why but if you live in the actual small town of Mansfield the garbage truck collects weekly for free. I know I am in the outskirts of Mansfield, but it is still Mansfield. I should receive the same priviledge. Alas I do not. Oh well.

Since we purchased the house as a foreclosure the pastures weren’t kept up with at all. I kid you not when I say the weeds were as tall or taller than me. So scary that I didn’t dare step foot inside for fear of what would crawl up my body. I’m shivering at the thought just now. The first week I moved in I had two of the smaller paddocks mowed down so the five male alpacas I have with me could go outside for most of the day. Now in the second week I have contracted to have the rest of the pastures bush-hogged. The person came today and everything was done except the large two front pastures. What a difference! Now I’m excited to see what the two front pastures will look like once they are bush-hogged. Maybe tomorrow I will find out.

All the maremmas have pretty much accommodated to the surroundings. However, because we only have 3 board horse fencing it is very easy for them to tuck under the boards and get into the pastures. This in inself would be fine for me but if I let all four maremmas out I would have a big fight on my hands. Both males can’t stand each other and both females can’t stand each other, therefore, each breeding pair is kept apart from the other breeding pair. At this time I have to keep one set in the barn for half the day while the other pair get to go out and roam around. It will have to be this way until Tom and I can put up the wire fence on the inside of the 3 board fence.  None of them are complaining since whoever is in the barn is living in comfort in front of the fans and out of the heat and humidity.

I’ve got my heals dug in and am ready to make this my ranch and home.

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.

 This is Michelle Rose. She is a proven female with 4 offspring on the ground. She is a wonderful mother who always has plenty of milk for her crias. In March 2009 I took Michelle to the vet with symptoms of weight loss, fiber stress breaks, and coughing. Blood tests came back showing that Michelle had valley fever which is a fungus that comes out of the dirt in Southwestern states.

Michelle took very ill combating a secondary bacteria that was giving her a respiratory infection. We had her on ketoconazole for the valley fever as well as an antibotic for the respiratory infection. Michelle continued to lose weight and got weaker and more depressed. The vet didn’t have high hopes for her as Michelle’s lymph nodes were the size of golf balls. The vet told me she had only seen this size lymph nodes on dead alpacas.

We switched Michelle’s medication to fluconazole but that med proved to be worthless for her. Michelle dropped 15 lbs in one week alone and her lowest weight was a very scary 133 lbs. Michelle’s normal weight was anywhere from 165 – 175 lbs. We had to remove Michelle’s 4 month old cria and wean him early as Michelle continued to nurse and lose even more weight.

At one point in time Michelle was literally only skin and bones. She could barely walk since she had no meat between her legs separating them. She would try to walk and could only stumble over her own legs. Her eating was maybe a mouthful or two of food per day. I called the vet and she told me to bring her in to euthanize her as Michelle was starving to death. Heartbroken I called the insurance company who advised that the vet needed to see Michelle one more time before euthanizing as the vet hadn’t seen Michelle in three weeks. I called Tom and told him I didn’t think she would make it until the end of the day. At this time she was laying completely on her side and breathing irradically.

I went into the house and got a shot of banamine. I wanted to try to make Michelle as comfortable as possible. I also wanted to move her back into her stall so her cria wouldn’t see her die. To my surprise after the shot Michelle got on her feet and walked back into her stall where she started to eat. This was not just a mouthful or two of food but she ate like she knew this was her last chance to survive.

I took Michelle to the vet the next morning and in transit she ate some food. When the vet saw her she said she could not consciously advise to put her down as Michelle was alert, standing, and eating. We switched Michelle back to ketoconazole and continued with the antiotics. Michelle started to improve slowly. Around December we took Michelle off the antibotics as she no longer had a respiratory infection and the med wasn’t making a difference in her lymph node size.

 Here is Michelle 16 months later. She weighs 170 lbs and if you notice she actually has meat between her legs so she no longer stumbles around. As a matter of fact she runs and jumps with all the other females. Her coat is beautiful again with no stress breaks and just looks healthy.

In April of this year after taking Michelle’s blood we learned her valley fever titer was 1:32 which is a huge improvement over her initial 1:256; however, Michelle’s white blood count continued to be over double the normal count. The vet switched her to itraconazole.

Now we are on this med for the past 4 months. Michelle’s lymph nodes have made a drastic change in size. On the left side of her neck it is probably the size of a marble and the right side is slightly larger but definitely reduced in size. In a couple of weeks I will take Michelle back to the vet to get retested to see where we stand.

We’ve stuck by Michelle all this time. If she wanted to live then we were going to help her. Our goal is to see Michelle get pregnant and have another cria but this won’t happen unless she can prove to be healthy enough to do so. We can wait and so far she is proving she wants to live!

You can read more on Michelle’s past valley fever ordeal by clicking on the health category and the alpaca article menu from the right side of this blog.

Santino                                      Gianna

Our next breeding pair will be Santino and Gianna. Santino is first generation of Italian imports. Santino is just under 4 yrs of age and has fathered two litters so far. He is very loyal and loving with his family that includes 25 alpacas. Santino has been guarding alpacas since he was 8 wks old. He was our first maremma and never had to be taught how to guard. It was all instinct. Santino is a large sized male weighing 103 lbs.

Gianna is an Italian import right from the Abruzzi region. She is currently 18 months old and this will be Gianna’s first litter. Gianna loves to play catch and run around. She too is very serious about her guarding duties. Gianna came to us when she was 9 wks old and learned from the other dogs what to do. Gianna is a big dog weighing 101 lbs. She has now become the alpha female and demands respect from the others.

We expect Santino and Gianna to breed this summer as early as July. Puppies are born 2 months later and ready to go to new homes in 4 months. We expect this pair to produce gorgeous puppies that will be big just like all the prior litters we have had to date.

We are currently accepting names for our waiting list. Price per female puppy is $850 and price per male pup is $750. Discounts will apply on multiple puppy purchases. Take $50 off the list price if you send a deposit prior to breeding. Included in the pups’ pricing is first shots, first deworming, microchip, and registration paperwork.

Previous litters have gone to goat, sheep, and alpaca farms in the western states. Since we are moving we do plan on this next litter to be born in Georgia.

For more information on maremmas Click Here.

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.

I’m tired of having to retype entries onto multiple social networks. Wordpress has a plugin that will supposedly link to my ping.fm account and from there will post to all the networks I have added. This will make my life much easier. So here is the test.