I Hate this Job!!

No not my day job, looking after the alpacas, but the time you have to wean the cria from their mummies :-(  it was time to weaned the two suri cria born in March.  They are only just six months old, but they are getting very big and have I felt it was time to give the mums a break from feeding them, as they were beginning to loss a bit of condition.

So on Monday we moved them into the paddack along side the barn, with a couple of yearling girls they have got very close too and a couple of older girls to keep them company.  The first couple of hours they didn't seem to notice the milk bar wasn't available, typical alpaca more interested in the grass in their new paddock.  But then disaster struck one of them spotted their mum up the main field and tried to get through the stock fencing!!  and got a little bit stuck, luckly I had been watching them from the window ( I love the way we have positioned the mobile, we can observe all the paddocks from the windows -  I am glad we put a lot of though into how to position the mobile)

So I quickly went out and managed to free his head, he just couldnt work out if he put his head to the side he could get out.  He wasn't too stressed as I caught him almnost in the act, but I'm not sure how he would have been left there for any length of time.  Silly boy!!

So I decided it would be better to shut the gate to the paddock and restrict their access to the run into the barn for now and they seem to be very settled now without any more problems.

But sadly, although it seem the cria have setttled well, the mum's are not happy about the seperation at all :-(  I feel so sad watching the two mum's hanging around the gate trying to get a glimpse of their babies, they know they are there but can't seem them, (good job they don't scream well whinny like horses do, its awful to hear and generally the kindest way to wean a foal is to take it completely away out of sight and sound as I have seen a mare jump several fences to get back to her foal!

But for these two poor mums, this being their first cria they obviously didn't understand.

Its been five days now and they are starting to move away for longer and longer periods, and they have gone back to being very attached to each other, so hopefully it wont be too long before they have forgotten their babies and can concentrate on grazing and gaining back some condition.

Apart from this little bit of sadness and little drama all is well at Cotswold Vale Alpacas

Bye for now

Ginnie