Posted by roo on October 28th, 2007 — Posted in Demi
This morning I got a call from John, who was worried. Demi had appeared sickly and without energy to him when he checked on her this morning and when he weighed her again she had only gained half of what she is supposed to be gaining. They finally managed to do a thorough inspection of Penelope and concluded that indeed only one milk glad was working… the other three are completely empty, not a drop of milk could be extracted. The three non-working nipples are clean, indicating that Demi is attempting to nurse from them.
He felt strongly that Demi needed additional supplements and told me that he wanted to feed her a bottle (goat’s milk, 28% protein) twice a day, using minimal contact so that Demi and Penelope would still retain their bond and that Demi would still be able to benefit from the little amount of milk that Penelope is providing for her. That will start this afternoon, as soon as the farm supply place opens and John can get there to buy the dried milk.
Just now he left a message on my phone to let me know that they had taken Demi’s temperature and that it was normal, which means we can rule out infection or pneumonia. I’ll call him tonight to see how she went with her first bottle feeding.
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Posted by roo on October 28th, 2007 — Posted in Katie, Dee Dee, Demi
‘Who is Harlow?’, I asked John in the deeply early hours of Friday morning. I had arrived at the farm exactly at midnight, right on time and without getting lost thanks to the GPS that kept in constant contact with me as I drove the six hour journey alone in the dark. After happy greetings, a glass of blackberry merlot, and excited chit-chat about the surprise arrival of Demi, Letti retired to bed and John and I were able to talk business without boring anyone, without me having my attention divided between the conversation and Jesse’s antics. In my hand was a small stack of registration papers, animals that were currently on John’s farm to be brokered. John told me that she makes fantastic babies, but she herself really is nothing to behold.
‘And who is Katie?’ I asked, peering at the hefty price next to her name and knowing full well that I would not be able to afford her at this point in time But I saw the note that she was pregnant. ‘Ah… now THAT is a different story’, began John and proceeded to tell me about her bloodline and history.
At about 3:45 that morning, I finally rolled into bed, only to lay awake with over-tiredness and excitement about seeing Demi when the sun came up, and the business prospects that lay ahead.
It seemed like mere minutes later that I opened my eyes and light was beginning to appear through the curtain. The sun was rising, and I felt nauseated from exhaustion, my heart beating irregularly and hard in my chest as it always does from lack of sleep. But of course my mind, rising rapidly out its slumber now that my eyes had spotted the rising sun, was again beginning to race. Trying to go back to sleep proved futile, so I got up, went to the window, and squinted out.
I could see the paddock fairly closely, the alpacas huddled near the barn waiting for their morning feeding, and I scanned the area for the little cria I had been dying to see.
And there she was. Even without my contact lenses in, I could easily make out Penelope’s long graceful form towards the back corner, a small brown form by her side. For a moment I sat, just observing, then decided I would get a much better view by taking the time to leave the window and put in my contact lenses. When I returned I saw her clearly and decided that she looked even more like a deer on the tall slender legs that moved her body around as though she was gliding - so graceful for being just 4 days old.
I scanned the herd for the new alpacas, and two caught my eye. A solid, hefty, brown female with dark chocolate points and an eel stripe down the centre of her back… yes, an eelstripe… I had never seen that before on an alpaca! How unusual, I thought, and made a point to take a closer look at her once I was out and about the herd later that morning. The other was a lovely light-beige female with an amazing fleece. She was very tall and solid, and I loved her colour.
Next door I heard Letti go into the kitchen to make coffee, and so did the alpacas, who all turned their attention to the house at once, and I was amazed at their ability to hear so well. Each clutching a cup of coffee, Letti and I stepped into the paddock just a few minutes later, my camera slung over my shoulder.
Letti had no trouble catching Demi. I could not help but notice the change in Penelope’s character. The flighty, full-of-attitude, and high strung alpaca was now softly humming (yes, they make a humming sound, unlike anything you have ever heard), and nuzzling at Demi as Letti held her, and at Letti’s face, almost as though she was being affectionate. And then I realised with a start that she WAS being affectionate! Penelope? I was just amazed to see her so warm and gentle, not at all concerned about humans handling her new cria. I wanted more than anything to hug her, but alpacas are not very accepting of this, so I merely stood there, trying to make a brief connection with Penelope mentally, to thank her for the cria and to communicate my appreciation of her.
You may scoff at this, but several hours later when I was among the herd taking photographs for John’s website, I noticed Demi on her own, cushed in the grass while she was dozing in the little bit of sunlight that decided to break through the rainclouds. I approached her, crawling on all fours through the grass so that she would not be intimidated by my size. I was about two meters away from her and she quietly stayed where she was, observing me with a curious look, not once searching for her mother. I, on the other hand, glanced over towards the barn several times, expecting Penelope to come cantering out to see what exactly I was doing so close to her baby. But instead, I saw her head appear over the low wall a few times, her jaws busily chewing hay, her eyes fixed on us… but each time she returned to her hay instead of coming to investigate. She trusted me. She had obviously been aware of me thanking her that morning, because Letti, who was watching from the kitchen window, was enormously surprised. She had stated earlier that as soon as anyone approached the cria, Penelope would come running immediately. It felt nice, Penelope’s trust in me. She was showing me an entirely different side of her, the REAL Penelope, and as her owner, I was thrilled with this.
‘So does anyone catch your attention?’ John asked me. I pointed out the two females that I had seen from my window that morning and he laughed. ‘It is very interesting,’ he chuckled, ‘that you should pick those two.’
The brown one was Harlow. The beige one was Katie. The two alpacas that we had been discussing earlier that morning. Harlow, upon closer inspection, was indeed nothing to behold, although with her low price she would be a good buy because of her ability to produce good looking offspring. Katie, however, I was amazed by. Harlow’s daughter, incredible! That’s her in the picture above. Soft fleece, pretty colour, and very, very friendly. ‘John,’ I said, ‘I cannot afford her. I cannot even afford to put down a deposit right now,’ I told him, which spurred a long conversation which I will not bore you with, but resulted in a possible plan to purchase her using a method that would be affordable. I took pictures of her and decided to present her to Jason as our next purchase and see what his thoughts are on it.
We weighed Demi - she had only put on half the weight that she’s supposed to, which puzzled John. He said that the scales had been playing up a lot lately, that Demi looked good and had lots of energy. Perhaps the scales had been wrong when he weighed her after birth. I suggested he weigh her again in a few days to compare it to her current weight. Penelope is still operating on just one milk gland. Not a huge worry - Demi can always be fed supplemental milk from a bottle if need be. But she’s healthy, we gave her her first vaccination after weighing her, and turned her back into the paddock to be with Penelope.
Dominic looked great! He greeted me by nuzzling me through the fence, and John admitted that he never should have sold Dominic. I laughed at this. ‘Oh please,’ I exclaimed, ‘you’re just saying that because he’s on the verge of being bred for the first time!’ Yes indeed, I have secured a female for him. A small, black female that resides on Rachel’s farm in Ohio. She’s pregnant right now to the same sire (AGO Gustav) that produced a nothing short of incredible female cria with her earlier this year. The full sibling is due in June next year. Rachel has offered her to me for a very attractive price. I can put a deposit on her now, paying the rest in installments by 15 May and claim ownership of the cria when it is born… or I can buy her without the cria for a mere $5,000 once she has delivered. Right now I am seeing if I can afford to buy her with the cria she is carrying. Even if she produces a male, the male has a very high potential to become a herd sire due to his bloodlines. But either way, we will purchase this small female for the sole purpose of breeding to Dominic to see of Dominic has the potential to become a herd sire. Why is this particular female so cheap? Because once we buy her we will never be able to resell her. She suffered a jaw injury at some point and her jaw is therefore sharply out of alignment. But she’s an excellent mother and I would rather use a less expensive female to breed Dom to for the first time. So broken-jawed little Dee-Dee is going to be our farm’s ‘broodmare’, our guinea pig so to speak, once she delivers the baby she is currently carrying.
Now I just have to device a plan to secure Katie, who I very much want to add to our herd. *sigh
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Posted by roo on October 25th, 2007 — Posted in Demi
Jason is coming home a little earlier today so that I can leave right away for Aiken. I’ll take his little car so that it won’t cost very much fuel-wise, seeing he has tomorrow off and won’t need it. I’m expecting to arrive in Aiken at about 11pm this evening, and will spend the night with the Tolleys.
Tomorrow I’ll be able to see Demi for myself, and her ear ’splints’ will be coming off then too. By now the cartilage should have set properly so that her ears won’t fold back again. I’ll be able to take lots of quality pictures, here’s hoping it won’t be raining constantly!
Here in Huntsville the past few days have been wet, cold and very gloomy, and when I called the Tolleys yesterday Letti reported that it’s been the same there. They attempted to put Penelope and Demi in the barn to keep them out of the rain and the cold, but Penelope won’t have any part of that. Not surprising, she’s got an enormous attitude! It’s a good thing that Demi is wearing her cria-coat… I just hope it’s waterproof. Because of the heavy rain they were unable to weigh her yesterday, which is a shame. I’m anxious to know whether Penelope is supplying her with enough milk and the only way to know that is to see if she’s gaining the correct amount of weight.
I’m very excited!
We’re still trying to come up with a name for our farm - it’s harder than you think, and every time I think I’ve got something I do a search online and find that someone else already has that name. We’ll get there, though.
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Posted by roo on October 22nd, 2007 — Posted in Demi, Penelope
John Tolley called me earlier while I was loading groceries into the Pilot, and I dismissed it, thinking I’d call him as soon as I was finished. John talks a lot, you see… *grin*
Imagine my surprise when I flipped open my phone to call him and saw that John had called 3 times while I was in the grocery store, and had left two messages urging me to call him as soon as possible. My heart sank. This could mean only one thing… alpaca problems. Our biggest concern right now: Penelope losing the cria she is carrying.
With a heavy heart I called John.
“Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news,” he reported to me.
I braced myself.
“The bad news is that Penelope is not pregnant.”
I had been expecting this, and said, “Oh John… what happened?”
“Well,” he said, “it’s because she’s just had her baby - and that’s the good news!”
I was so shocked that I started to cry. What???? Her baby was not due until March at the earliest. This was totally unexpected! “What happened?” I blurted again, this time yelling with excitement and disbelief.
John told me that he had been sitting on the front porch with his neighbour when he heard a commotion in the back. He grabbed his rifle and with his neighbour behind him stormed into the backyard, expecting to have to confront some kind of predator that was preying on his herd of alpacas. Instead, the commotion was about Penelope’s new arrival that had been delivered into the dirt (not the grass, mind you) under the pecan tree. So John and his wife Letti not having expected this AT ALL, sprang into ‘delivery’ mode and inspected and cleaned the cria. IT’S A GIRL!!!!! A GIRL!!!! A GIRL!!!!!! Very important for breeders - when a girl is born you know you have just made at least $10,000 if you sell her. If you keep her, she can give you a new cria each year for the next 12 years. Her ears were inside out, not surprising seeing they are so long and get all crushed inside the belly. They gently folded them back out, weighed her (she came in at 14 pounds something which is a good size for a female cria), washed her face. Her fleece is very long, which is a good thing. Winter is coming and this is a very bad time to be having crias! They put a blanket on her (like a miniature horse rug, I guess) and if worst comes to worse, they will keep her inside. She had been born about an hour before John and I spoke, and she had not yet nursed… not unusual, although John likes to see the cria nurse right away.
Wow, I am so blown away! It turns out that the vet obviously misdiagnosed Penelope after John had her serviced the first time by Fandango. She DID become pregnant that time… not 4 months later, when John serviced all the females by Fandango in an attempt to let them all have crias in the spring at the same time. Wow…
I am awaiting photos. John still had some things to take care of with the newborn, and he’ll take pictures after that. As soon as they arrive in my inbox I’ll update this post. I am so excited! We now own THREE alpacas… IT’S A GIRL!!!!!
6:50PM - UPDATE
She looks like a baby deer, doesn’t she? Just too cute! John reported that after he took the pictures they stuffed cotton balls in her ears and taped them so that the cartilage has a chance to set properly, and that she’s got a blue blanket on. Temperatures in South Carolina are dropping down to between 40 and 50 degrees tonight, so that is very chilly. We’re throwing around names right now and should have one later this evening hopefully… we did not expect to be doing this for another 4 months!John sent these pictures to several breeders that his farm is associated with, and accompanied it with the text:
Jason & ‘Roo’ Kline of Huntsville , Ala. are the proud owners of Fandango’s newest Daughter. She is ‘Roo’ & Jason’s first cria , and it looks like they have hit the ‘Jackpot’ with their purchase of Penelope. Please join us in congratulating them on their first Cria and wishing them continued success.
23 OCT 2007, 2:00PM - UPDATE
I chose the name Demetria last night - Demetria, in Greek Mythology, was the goddess of corn and the harvest, and this is just perfect for this little girl that was born at the peak of harvesting time, right before Halloween. We will call her Demi (DEH-mee), and I passed this along to John this morning when I called him to see how she’s doing. Her full official name, the one that will go on her registration papers, has not yet been decided because we want to include the name of the farm. And no, we still haven’t chosen one. Until we do, we can’t notify the alpaca association of her birth.
John reported that Demi is nursing well, but as of late last night only one of Penelope’s four milk teats is supplying milk. The other three glands were completely empty of milk, but the one that was full was REALLY full and seemed to be supplying enough to Demi for now. John has high hopes of the other three kicking in, hopefully some time today. Tomorrow Demi will be weighed - she should have gained a pound since she was born (they gain about half a pound per day, doubling their birthweight in one month). I am hoping to do the 6 hour drive to Aiken on Thursday evening and spend the night at John and Letti’s farm. On Friday I can take a look at Demi myself, and take lots of pictures. I’ll also take a bunch of pictures of the other alpacas on the farm, seeing I promised John I would build him a website.
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