Moo’s Blog

Visa is a female brown alpaca and was born on 06 July 1999. We bought her in April 2009, as her and another female we bought had always been together since the birth of the younger one, Guinevere (born 30 July 2004).
When we bought thes ealpacas we were told that Guinevere was pregnant and her cria was due in June 2009. That didn’t happen. We mated Guinevere with Sumac and just a week or so previous to this we put Visa in the paddock with one of our males, Chopaka. We saw no action by day, but we were not always around. Several weeks later we tested Visa for pregnancy and she kicked and spat at Sumac, so we concluded that she was indeed pregnant and would likely give birth in June/July 2010.
It was August 19th 2009, in the afternoon (about 4-10pm )and I popped into the females area just to check on their water, not really thinking they would need any since the water had been topped up that morning. However, it was a hot afternoon and I was at a loose end. Bo (our three year old very lively Border Collie) was with me but decided to go into the boys paddock which is beside the girls. He can come and go in this paddock as he chooses.
As I came through their shelter and out into the little barn area, there, lying on the floor in the dust was a brown bundle in it’s membrane, with just it’s head free of the membrane from birthing. It was obviously breathing,making little noises now and again and moving though not great movements. Visa, the mother was beside him, looking at him, and producing the afterbirth.
I quickly ran to the house to inform my very surprised husband of the arrival, and grabbed my camera!
We both hurried back to the stable area and to watch and make sure all was going well. The afterbirth, one big red sac, was collected and put in a garbage bag for disposal later (alpacas in captivity don’t seem to eat this).
All seemed to be going well so hubby went back to the house to phone our neighbour’s farm that has the Sunshine Valley Alpacas. He is experienced with alpacas and their young, and he came along to join in our celebration of a new arrival and to see that all was well.
He lifted the new cria and carried him to the field where he put him down on grass and in the shade. He removed some of the membrane sacking and the baby in his movements removed the rest (he was doign these movements in the dust but the dust was not causing enough friction to get the membrane off).
Bo in the meantime is very excited in his paddock with the boys as he can see what is going on. He forgets he can get himself out of that paddock and tries digging holes into the girls paddock,and when that fails tries nearer the gate. He succeeds several times only to be taken back to the other side of the fence! Each time he got in with the girls he was very inquisitive but very gentle. The females were all on hand watching anyway and woudl not have let anything happen if possible to the new arrival.
Our neighbour sexed the cria for us and began rubbing the baby on his next which appeared to stimulate him. By 5pm the baby was up for the first time and took a little step,fell down, rested, then tried again and succeeded. Not very much longer after this the baby suckled from the mother and we then knew that we could leave mother and baby alone and all woudl be well.
What a wonderful surprise for us and what a proud mother Visa seems to be!!!

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Today we put Visa and Chopaka in the same paddock in the hope that they will mate. They have been in together for about four hours so far, and Chopaka has shown no interest in Visa! However, he has been eating and munching non-stop since he has been in there! I think it has more grass than his old paddock!

Frankie, the little white Alpaca that we had gelded a few weeks ago, was put in with the two pregnant girls, since we thought he could do them no harm. However, he got very friskie and started harrassing the two girls, chasing them and trying to mount them. So we decided to put him back in his paddock on his own.

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Our alpacas were sheared today.
They were done in a different manner to last year. Last year they were strapped to a table and sheared. This year they were sheared standing up.
First we did little Frankie Blue Eyes. Then he was let into the paddock to graze. Then we did his mate Chopaka. While he was being sheared Frankie somehow got himself through the bars and came to investigate. Once Chopaka was sheared then both boys happily grazed in the paddock.
Next to be done was Sumac. He complained a bit more than the others! Then he was let loose in his usual paddock, which is now well away from fgrankie and Chopaka as he has taken to attacking them! (he is eager to be king-male, especially now we have a female who is ready to mate.)
Next Orlando got sheared and his face hair got trimmed so he can now see clearly. He too was then let to graze in his usual paddock with Sumac.
The girls were next. Visa was first of the girls and she complained bitterly, throwing herself everywhere. Meanwhile Guinevere decided to flip herself over the wooden railings of her paddock, into the grazing section of their paddock (we had limited where they could go in readiness for clipping.)
Then came Guinever and lastly Sasha.
All animals now look exceedingly thin and thin necked! However I am sure they will appreciate the clipping once the hotter weather arrives!!

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I have been planting our vegetables and so far have planted potatoes, kohl rabi, carrots, beetroot, lettuce, peas and onions.
I am determined to look after it better this year and not neglect the watering… but we shall see!
Last year having visitors around caused me to neglect the watering and hence the harvest was NOT a good one!

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Our new alpacas seem to be settling well.The two girls and Sasha come up to eat the grain out of my hands. Guinevere has been more reluctant, but now eats out of my hand. Visa has eaten the grain readily from day one!
Orlando, the boy alpaca is now in the same paddock as the other boys and seems to be liking it. He still does not eat out of my hands but eats the grain that is put in with his hay in his feeder.

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I see it is a Long Time since I blogged last! The snow has finally disapeared; Spring seems to be here though every now and again we get a cold day! I have spent 3 lovely weeks in England visiting my family and now it is time to Spring Clean, garden and get chores done around the house and farm.
We have bought two more female alpacas, Visa (sister apparently to one called Cash!!) and Gwenavere who is pregnant and due to produce in June and is about seven years old.
Visa is a darker color to Gwenavere, and several years older but since the two alpacas have grown up together we felt it would be unfair to part them. A male was on offer too but we do not need any more males here, as we have two (Sumac and Chopaka) already and little Frankie Blue Eyes who we will have neutered when he is old enough (we do not want to breed him because of the risk of deafness to his offspring (Frankie is deaf).
The two alpacas will be here in a few days time!

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The shelter roof collapsed yesterday. Last night it was the turn of the greenhouse! The snow from the barn and the side slid off and ONTO the greenhouse. It could not hold it. It collapsed!
In retrospect, it was not a good location for the greenhouse. However, saying that, maybe the past never got the snow storms we are having now? This is our fourth winter here in Grand Forks, and this is the first year we have seen snow staying on the rooves for so long. The snow got to a depth of over 16 inches on the rooves, and as it got wetter with the raise in the temperature, it got heavier.

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The girl alpacas have been with us over a weeknow. They appear to be settling in well. They don’t eat as much hay as the boys, but they are a slighter build so I am supposing that is normal. The boys love gettign their grain forst thing in the mornings, and come running up to me and eat out of my hands, with Frankie eating out of the bucket. The girls took a few days to get used to me, but now they come running too,and can’t wait for the boys to get fed their grain and for it to be their turn. Keremeos was the first to take the grain, eating out of the bucket. Sasha, our girl alapca has been eating out of my hand for three or four days now. The littlest one, I call her Delilah, does not eat the grain either out of my hand or out of the bucket, but she does now nibble at bits of grain that have fallen on the grass. She still suckles from her mum, and is still very wary of getting near me.

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We are excited as our girl alpaca arrives tomorrow! Sasha is the new girl. She is about 15 months old and is the sister of Chopaka (male, single registered)and the half sister of Sumac (male,single registered). They all share the same mother, Keremeos (single registered), and she will be coming too along with a baby of hers so that Sasha (siingle registered) will not be lonely.
Alpacas need to have company. One on their own is no good as they get lonely. And since we can’t have our boys in with any female in case they mate, and particularly with Sasha who is a close relative, then we have done the next best thing to buying a couple of girls, and that is borrowing them!
Female alpacas are expensive to buy, more expensive than male alpacas. Double registered alpacas (those registered in Canada and the USA) are more expensive than single registered (those registered in just one country).
Sasha should be pregnant. Sasha is dark brown in color and Caesar, the male she was mated with, is a light brown color so we are hoping that the offspring will have brown fleece. We thi8nk she is pregnant as she spits and kicks at the male once she has “taken”. The cria, or baby,shoul dbe due about 11 months after mating, which means sometime around about September she should give birth!
We (the Royal “we” here…meaning mainly my husband!) have cleaned up the paddock where the horses used to be, fenced a new area off and made the shelter more suitable for the alpacas. Plus we have a heated bucket for the water for the females and more hay coming tomorrow to make sure they all have enough to eat over the winter.
Chopaka should be pleased to see the females. We took our males down to the neighbours alpaca farm (Sunshine Valley Alpacas) while we went to England and they stayed there for three weeks. (this is the farm that has Sasha and Keremeos and her baby, plus many other females,most of them double registered and the farm where we got our male, white, blue eyed (unregistered) Frankie.) When we got our alpacas back and walked them down the road back to our farm all but Chopaka were pleased to be home. Chopaka however spent many days looking over the gate to see if he could escape back down the road!!
I wonder what he will make of having females around?!

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We have had the horses on our property for three years. They have been a pleasure to watch and although we have not had to look after them (apart from the odd day or two when requested), we have got used to having them there.
Last night, at about 6pm they moved location.
Their owners are moving out of BC to Swift Current. The horses are not able to go with them so they have been relocated for the time being to new owners about three or four miles from our farm.
Bo saw them going for a “walk” last night, their owners riding them (when he was in with the alpacas. However he was surprised and disapointed this morning to find no sign of any horses in their paddock. I know he is going to miss them very very much as he used to love to spend time watching them from the other side of the fence, getting in with them whenever he could!

The up side of all this:
we now have room to have female alpacas!!! We have “Sasha” coming in about a months time. At the moment she is at her farm, being bred with a male stud “Caesar”, a fawn coloured male. Sasha is the sister to Chopaka and the half sister to Sumac, so they will not be allowed to breed with her. Frankie Blue Eyes coudl breed with her if we choose to allow him. Hopefully Sasha, a very dark brown coloured female, will have a baby (cria) in 11 months time!!!!

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