alpaca diaries

Bonjour my little bloggites

So I've been working with some vets looking after alpacas for 3 days last week. Here is what I did on those days and what I learnt.
Tuesday: putting them on harnesses, checking there ears for flies and giving them fly cream, check for bald spots and apply cream to help growth, check for mites between toes and wash feet with mite shampoo. Checking whether they're fat by feeling there back bone. Checking to see if they're pregnant by feeling whether there stomachs are hard or soft. Checking nails to see if they are too long, if they are clip them flat against the plate. Make sure there bottom teeth aren't going past the top plate. Mating. If a alpaca has been fertilised they will reject males that come onto them. Cleaning out the water troths and putting copper in there so the alpacas get more copper intake. Feeding the alpacas, they always eat some and then go to the other troth because they think it might be better there.
Wednesday: looking for poisonous plants to make sure the alpacas can't eat them and get ill. Testing the colour to see what category to put your alpacas in at shows. Halter training to make them walk around with you. Weighing babies by putting them in a sling with a weight on top.
Thursday: Looking at the alpacas conformation: legs, jaw/bite, balance topline tail. Looking at the maternal traits: birth ease, cria vigour, breeding efficiency, cria weight gain, BS maintenance lactation. Looking at their fleece: fineness, CV, SD, density, staple length, fleece weight, lustre, %>30.

Hope this was enough information to please your minds and if you want to know what any of it means just comment or email me

Dino xox