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Thursday 3 February 2011

Concerned - a bit

Still horribly windy , but not wet - is that an improvement I wonder ?

When doing the vit injections yesterday I did a quick condition score on everyone , all good at 3/5 except Artemis who is a 4/5 ( but she is a suri) , and Calpurnia who scored 2 - 2.5/5 . She is the only weanling who has shown any distress at being parted from mum , and even after nearly 3 weeks still spends a reasonable amount of time standing at the gate humming . She is happily eating grass , and hay , but refuses to touch hard feed like the others. I have tried feeding her separately with the rest of the herd nearby but unable to get at her bowl , but she pays no interest , I have tried sugarbeet- hot, warm cold , nothing! Does anyone have any ideas how to get her to eat better? All advice welcome , I've never had this problem quite as bad before . Calpurnia's mum still doesn't like to eat with the herd and will only eat substantially if penned next to them , is this the alpaca version of ' too posh to push'?

By the way , the new additions are ...... turkeys! A sort of rescue , 1 male 2 female , Norfolk bronze I think , but not really sure . The idea is to breed them and eat the offspring as DS #3 said to granny ' Of course we're not going to eat them , just their babies '!!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

We all seem to have one Suzanne...ours is very aptly named 'Hoity Toity'...she also requires private dining. We solved her weight loss problem with the addition of peas and beans (she didn't care for sugar beet either). However she is an adult. We do give our weanlings a very small amont of peas and beans but this is in addition to Camelibra. Wouldn't like to make any suggests bit of a delicate balance I guess.

Suzanne@ Panteg Alpacas said...

Thanks Barbara , I will try peas , I am also trying fibregest as well as camelibra , but so far very little interest. She will eat camelibra if it is sprinkled on the patch of grass she is eating , but its a bit of a hit and miss affair!

Rosemary said...

No really helpful suggestions I am afraid. I have a midget weanling - Greeves - who is still under 15kg at 6 months. I have tried everything I can think of with him with no success, but last night he did eat the Alfalfa - probably by mistake as I mixed it in with his hay in desparation - he loves hay. We had a worm count done on him a month or so ago and picked up coccidia. Having treated that I think he may be marginally less bony. Good luck with your little one!