Friday, April 9, 2010

The Words Free and Cheap Can Spell TROUBLE With Alpacas

As a marketing incentive some ranches offer free alpacas which amounts to a pet-quality animal. I have no problem with this practice if the receiving farm is local. Weaning a cria, putting it on a transport, expecting it to endure weeks of quarantine, introduction to a new social group, new climate, new food. All this spells change and stress, no matter how much probiotic you give. An alpacas immune system is not at optimum until 13 months. Fiber loss/breakage is not an uncommon repercussion. This temporary hair loss particularly on the back of the neck, will resolve in 6-9 months. However, it presents a new problem for the existing cria group who think it is great fun to chase tuffs of fleece around the pasture and sometimes ingest it. Not so good. At this rate, one little guy from Ohio is not going to need to be sheared this year!

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