Snowshoe Farm Alpacas

This is Wizard’s first shearing, but also he was the 1000th alpaca to be shorn this year by me (Ron)!

Before

After

After 11 years of raising alpacas, we finally have a bottle baby.  And no – it’s not a good thing.  Alpaca crias can become bottle babies for any number of reasons – mother’s lack of milk, loss of mother, etc. This happens to be an orphan. This cria, Phylicia, was just over a week old when her mother died. We’re happy that Phylicia at least was able to nurse off her mother long enough to get the colostrum and the immunities it will provide. But suddenly we were faced with a very young cria who needed to be hand fed. She has been trying to nurse off the other mothers in her pen, but with no luck.  It’s very sad to see her getting kicked and pushed away when she tries to nurse!

Alpaca crias are notoriously difficult to bottle feed – they don’t generally take to the rubber nipple easily – and Phylicia was no exception; she sat with the bottle in her mouth, but didn’t drink.  We finally used a syringe to feed her and she drank that right down.We figured that was a good way to get her used to the taste.

Sonya – the owner of Phylicia’s mother – brought up several gallons of fresh goat milk which is perfect for feeding to a cria. Finally – after a few sessions with the syringe – Phylicia started to suck on her bottle. She’s more active today and seems to be doing OK. She’s taking the bottle more readily, drinking down what she needs, then jumping up to go back into her pen. For now, that’s great. We’ll see how soon she becomes more independent.  We’ll keep you posted…

Thanks you to all who helped with Phylicia this weekend – Ellie & Lisa, Annette and Larry and of course, Sonya who is providing her with fresh milk!

Annette feeding Phylicia

The Caledonia County Fair in Lyndonville, VT starts today!  Ron or I will be there every day through Sunday with alpacas. Come and visit!

Yesterday was our monthly herd health day. All our alpacas – except the youngest crias – received their deworming injections. The advantage to this monthly routine is that it forces us to put our hands on every alpaca every month. We can check body conditions and keep our eyes open for other potential health issues.

The weather is brisk this morning – it feels like fall is on its way!

The last couple weeks have been pretty hectic here at Snowshoe Farm. First, we prepared for our Mid-Summer Sale and our efforts were worth it.  We had beautiful weather and a good number of visitors. A number of alpacas were sold and will soon be going to new homes. Thank you to all who visited and to our friend, Doug, for all his help with getting the farm cleaned up early each morning that weekend!

We’re happy to announce the winners of our drawing for free breedings: Foggy Bottom Ranch won the breeding to Nibblewise of Elfenwood. Many thanks to our co-owners at Elfenwood Alpacas for letting us give away a breeding. Stonewall Fields Alpacas won the breeding to our champion white male, Snowshoe Aristides.

Our niece and nephew visit last week and we put them right to work.  We had 4 crias born over the weekend and put over 600 bales of hay in the mow.  They were soooo much help!  Now we’re faced with putting in the rest of our hay with just the two of us – we’re spoiled!

Last night was a late night with a dystocia that ended up with a cria born at 11:30pm.  A dystocia is when you have to assist with the birth. This cria had it’s front legs bent and the vet was called out late on a Saturday night to fix the problem. Large animal vets are amazing!  We are so lucky to have access to good vets who are willing to come any time. Our friends Tracey and Kathy from Foggy Bottom Ranch came and helped hold the dam and give moral support. Thank you!! In the end, the cria was pulled and was up and nursing in less than an hour.  The dam, I’m sure, was sore, but she is a great mother and all is well with the pair.

We had a great day at the Fiber-a-Thon at Grand View Farm and now we’re looking at a busy week of getting ready for our big sale next weekend.  Our Mid Summer Sale will be held Sat and Sun, July 31 & Aug 1 from 1 to 5pm.  From 11 to 1 each day, we are offering a free seminar on the practical and financial aspects of alpaca farming. Seating is limited and reservations are required. Check our website for contact information.

The sale will include alpacas from 6 farms and will feature great prices on quality breeding stock. If you’re considering raising alpacas or want to take advantage of low prices to increase your herd, please join us!

For more details on our Mid Summer Sale, visit our sale page.

We spend a lot of time in the summer waiting for crias to be born.  The length of an alpaca’s gestation is quite variable.  We always assume 11 months as a “due date”, but we’ve seen gestations almost 3 weeks short of that and we’ve seen others over a year long. We currently have four females that are past their 11-month due date. There’s not we can do but stick close to home and keep an eye on them. They’ll be ready when they’re ready….

Our newest herdsire and white male Color Champion, Snowshoe Aristides, has settled his first females!  We had two positive ultrasounds last week and have at least a couple more females that have been bred and are continuing to spit.  For those of you who are not familiar with breeding alpacas, “spitting” means the female has been bred and is rejecting any additional breeding because she is pregnant – at least that’s how it works in theory. Our vet can perform an ultrasound at about 21 days to confirm a pregnancy. So we hope to have a few more confirmed in the next couple weeks!

We sold out Aristides’ breedings for 2010, so are thrilled that he’s doing his job!

This male cria was born on Saturday to Mia, a female who is owned by Starry Mountain Alpacas and boarded at Snowshoe Farm.  The not-so-little guy weighed almost 20 lbs and was standing and nursing 45 minutes after hitting the ground!  Now that’s what we call an easy birth… ten down, 16 more to go.

Mia is for sale with this cria and with a free rebreeding! 

We’re having a stretch of very hot and humid weather that’s a bit unusual for us.  Thank goodness! Neither Ron nor I like this weather. And the alpacas don’t like it much, either.

We spend a lot of time trying to keep the alpacas cool in this weather.  Of course, they have access to the barn and we have overhangs on most sides that provide additional shade.  We set up fans in the barns to help circulate the air and provide some cooling. Water buckets are filled over and over with cool water.

All our pastures have a sprinkler or two.  We use the round brass rings. These work well as the alpacas like to lay down on the sprinklers and there are no moving parts or sharp edges. We set them to spray up just a couple feet above the ground. This lets the alpacas cool off their legs and bellies. We rotate sprinklers all day, just leaving them on for 15 or so minutes at a time in each pasture.  The alpacas cool themselves off and go back to grazing or to the barn.