Three more crias were born since last week’s journal.
Meet the New Crias
All the new moms & crias born so far were moved to a grassy field south of the birthing pasture, except Waymaker & her mom Wayja. Waymaker was born a month early & had a serious case of "dummy syndrome." (See 6/3/2022 journal entry for description of dummy syndrome.) As such, she’s needed a lot of extra care the past 5 days. This included wrapping her diaphragm with a tight towel for a few hours the first day, which applied thoracic pressure to mimic normal pressure that occurs during the birth process. This stimulates natural chemicals released during a healthy birth. (This technique, called the Madigan squeeze, was developed with foals born with "dummy syndrome".) Next Cindy covered her bleeding umbilicus with an antiseptic infused cotton ball & wrapping her abdomen to keep it in place.
When I arrived for the day Cindy & one of her 4H volunteers were attempting to bottle feed the preemie cria. When that didn't work, Cindy put a tube down the weak cria's stomach to feed it a few ounces of warmed cow’s milk to help strengthen her enough to start nursing. Turns out mama alpacas don't take kindly to being milked by a human, so using cows’ milk was less traumatic for all. Click here to watch video of Cindy tube-feeding Waymaker. In the video, notice mom & baby humming to each other the entire time. This, along with sniffing each other, helps them bond & identify each other when released into the larger field with the others. Until Waymaker consistently feeds from her mom & is stable, they both will be kept in a pen closest to the barn so they can be closely monitored.
While the mom-to-be’s were grazing I wandered over to & into the moms & crias south pasture to see if I could get some good pics of the new crias with their moms (See photo, top of post). While waiting, 2 playmates approached me with curiosity.
Field Action
As pregnant alpacas get closer to their due dates, & weaned crias, yearlings, & juveniles boys & girls get older, each are moved to pastures with others in similar circumstances. Today, the juvenile boys who were starting to display dominate behaviors were moved to a pasture next to the most mature males where they will remain for a while. This helps the older ones get used to the younger, spirited boys & identify which will need to be "kept in line" when the pastures are merged. It also helps the youth get to know the pecking order of the older males, i.e., who not to challenge! For some of the youngsters, this year will be their first year to breed.
End of the Day