Winter is coming...

We just started seeing some very light snow flurries here this weekend but luckily it's still too warm for the snow to stick. The wind today felt bitter cold though and I had to pull out the long johns for the first time this fall! I'm not looking forward to the cold winter ahead.

The time was right for us to pen up our crias away from their moms for weaning. Of course it doesn't make a difference with Leroy because he is still being bottle fed. Franny seems to be handling the separation okay, but Lucas wasn't very happy with it at all. Lucas was humming and trying to find a way out of the pen to get back to his mother. After a couple of hours though, it seemed that all three crias were calmed down and nibbling on hay in their stall. They are set up right next to their moms stall so they are still able to peek their heads through to talk to each other.

We'll have to keep a close eye on Lucas in particular to make sure he is getting enough to eat. Franny has been eating pellets and sweet multifeed for a few weeks now, but Lucas never really seems to be interested in it. I put a few bits of sweet feed in his mouth, one at a time, and he spit them out, one at a time...by the fourth piece though he seemed to realize that it didn't taste too bad. I saw him at the feeder for a little while but I'm not sure how much he ate. He finally relaxed in his new stall and was snacking on hay when I last checked on him. I'm sure he'll be fine but we have to keep an eye on him to make sure he's eating enough now that he can't rely on his mom for meals.

I've also noticed that Franny has a tendency to choke when she eats so I put some grassy hay in the feeder so she'll have to forage through it for the grain. This seems to help whenever we have a problem with an alpaca that chokes. I guess it slows them down so they can't eat as fast. When they eat really fast the saliva combined with the pellets causes the pellets to expand in their throat and they have trouble swallowing it. That's when they start to drool and choke.

Rick and I have different techniques to fix it and I basically try everything I can to help out the choking alpaca. One way that seems to work for Rick is to vigorously rub their neck in long strokes, up and down. Most times I try to pat up and down the neck to loosen things up in there. I'm sure everyone has their own method that works. The alpaca will usually start coughing up green slime from the loosened up feed and after they get some of it out they are fine. Just keep an eye on them and make sure they are acting normal and starting to eat again or nibble on hay.

I'll try to post some pictures this week of our three new roommates Franny, Lucas and Leroy.