Quarter House Alpacas
The ultra-sound scanning was predictably unpredictable again this year. Two of our mated females were declared ‘empty’, despite having used well-proven studs for their ‘drive-by matings. The females were tested and even mated a second time, but we’ll never know what really happened. Luckily one of our own studs and one other ‘professional’ stud both delivered a 100% record, so we should still have some new cria next year.
One female who is definitely not going to be mated any more is our elderly matriarch Fleur. She had a lovely boy this year, TinTin, but is looking very bony and is a little less active, so we have been supplementing her diet with some flaked sugar beet soaked in water or a handful of chopped Alfalfa. If it was any of the other girls, feeding a special supplement would be very tricky, as all the rest of the adult females would try and get some of it too. That’s when you can discern the herd hierarchy or ‘pecking order’ amongst a group like this. Luckily, Fleur is still the boss despite being the oldest and smallest of our females, so nobody dares to muscle in while she eats her treat.
We have also given a dose of vitamin gel to them all, as the dark-coated animals in particular can suffer if they don’t get enough sunshine during the winter. They have also had a drench dose of multi-wormer as a routine precaution even though a recent analysis of a sample of Alpaca Poo suggested they were completely free of worms. The Alpaca poo is collected every week from their ‘poo-patches’ and after a while it breaks down to a consistency exactly like peat. It completely loses any other odour too, so in the late Autumn and early Spring we spread the well-rotted ‘peat’ on some of the fields. It’s good to see the grass in the fields still growing into November, but it would be nice if the lawns would stop!
Meanwhile Tonto, Philly’s cria continues to give us cause for concern. He seems bright and active enough, but is still behind the other 4 in weight, and we are continuing to bottle-feed him. He managed to put on nearly 2 stone one week, then almost nothing the next, and is getting increasingly wary and unwilling to take a bottle. We are persevering however, and we weigh him every week hoping that he’ll eventually start putting on enough that we can stop the bottles.
As the nights get colder, the cria and adults are all developing thick fleeces, and they can take anything the weather can throw at them, though they prefer it dry and cold rather than wet, but don’t we all. Meanwhile we will get on with felting this year’s fleece, and selling the last of the previous year’s wool and scarves. If you want Alpaca wool to keep you warm too, do get in touch in time for Christmas.