Weaning the crias

It wasn't easy getting a picture of these three because somebody was always facing the wrong way or had their face buried in the feed dish. I finally got this picture of Franny (brown & white huacaya), Lucas (center) and little Leroy this afternoon.

We've had a little trouble getting Lucas to eat and drink on his own. I noticed earlier this week, after just about two days separated from their moms, that Lucas was straining over the poop pile. I hadn't seen him drinking on his own so we gave him a bottle of supplement like we've been feeding Leroy. He wasn't too keen on drinking it but we made sure we got the full bottle into him so that he wouldn't get dehydrated. The following morning, to be on the safe side, we let Lucas and the other two crias back in the pen with their moms. Lucas nursed like there was no tomorrow.

Now we've got them on a schedule where we pen them up in the evening at feeding time and let them back out with their moms in the morning. Franny and Leroy dig right in to the sweet multifeed, but Lucas is still not as interested. I've noticed Lucas eating more of the feed this weekend though. I'm hoping he is starting to drink water on his own too. I've made sure he's aware of the water by letting him dip his mouth in the bucket and wetting my fingers and getting a little water in his mouth. We'll still have to keep a close watch on him for a while I guess.

In seven years of raising alpacas, I don't remember ever having this much trouble weaning any of our crias. Fortunately, Lucas is the only one we've ever had to worry about. I can see he's catching on but I don't want to rush him if he isn't ready. For now we'll continue to give him time with his mom during the day until we can see he's able to drink enough water on his own as well as eat pellets.

Oddly enough, as small and young as Leroy is, he's been eating and drinking to his heart's delight - that little guy is definitely a fighter! Since Leroy's eating regular feed now, we're cutting down his bottles to only four per day. He's well over 30 pounds and doing great. Maybe he can teach Lucas to become less dependent on his mom...