Posted by roo on July 31st, 2008 — Posted in Bunnies
It turns out that the black bunny is a male, or at least strongly appears to be a male. Seeing I had already made the decision to retain a male if there was one, this will be the one we are keeping as a companion for Jasper. It also means that I will be offering the lovely chestnut agouti girl for sale, she was my favourite out of the two.
She’s very friendly, both she and her brother love to be scratched on their heads and faces, and they’ve both started nibbling on pellets and hay. They are soooooo soft!
They are three weeks old, so the agouti girl will be ready to go to her new home in about 4 weeks. Please email me if you are interested or have questions.
PRICE: $30 (no pedigree)
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Posted by roo on July 28th, 2008 — Posted in Marius, Mazara, Julia, Billie, Dee Dee
On Wednesday we spit tested Dee, and I was worried about her weakened hindquarters. Worried in that she may feel intimidated by Billie and cush even though she may be pregnant and give us a false indication that she is not. There was no sheepish waiting in the corner this time, as soon as Billie was let into the pen he began orgling and attempting to get her down. Dee, in turn, immediately began avoiding him like the plague. Not spitting at him, but definately not interested in breeding, focusing all her attention on staying out of Billie’s way. When Billie managed to corner her and began forcing her to the ground, I saw Dee’s hind legs give way under the strain, having no way to escape from him, and I intervened, stopping Billie from bringing her all the way down, and allowing Dee to get out of his way, which she gladly did. It was obvious that she had no intention of cushing for him, and therefore I can safely assume that she is pregnant, due around the 15th of June in 2009 with Billie’s second cria. I was proud of Billie, taking charge as soon as he entered the ring this time, and not taking no for an answer. He is becoming more aggressive and domineering when it comes to breeding, exactly as I had hoped. I did, however, have to save poor Marius, who was Billie’s next target as soon as Dee was taken from the pen *grin*.
Jazzabella, the female who is carrying Billie’s first cria, recently had a progesterone test done and was declared pregnant, should be delivering around Valentine’s Day of 2009.
Marius was no disappointment. He’s tall, he’s got presence, and he’s got the softest fleece I have ever felt on an alpaca. Yes, he’s just a cria, but when you compare his wool to Myra’s, the difference is miles apart. If he maintains his height and solid build, and develops the fiber that I have high hopes for, he may just have a place in our breeding program to contribute the fineness from his accoyo and alianza backgrounds to Billie’s offspring! During the course of our trip to Ohio I got to know Marius on quite an intimate level.
I’m not going to lie, I was terrified to take Julia and Marius on the road. Not only did the sole responsibility for their safety and wellbeing fall on me, I had them in an entirely unfamiliar situation, both for them and for me. Luckily, they loaded easily into the back of the van, and John gave me a bucket of hay to put in with them. Very slowly I pulled out of the driveway of Buena Vista Alpacas and headed for the freeway.
The humming in the back of the van was loud and consistent for about 15 minutes, after which Julia fell silent and became occupied with looking out of the side window with her face pressed against the glass and her ears pricked forward, much to the amusement of drivers around me. It was entertaining to stop at a light and see people pointing, no doubt asking fellow passengers, ‘what is THAT?’. She soon discovered the bucket of hay and settled down to eat. I put on a movie for Jesse and sighed a big sigh of relief. All was well.
Marius stood up from time to time to look around the van, hum, and climb over the top of his mother. He was terribly bored, although he spent the majority of his time sleeping. The 10 hour drive took 13, because I had to make stops what seemed like every hour. I had to get fuel, Julia had to nurse, Jesse needed the bathroom, I had no cash for the toll booths, we had to get lunch, dinner.
I say Julia had to nurse, but what it really meant was me hanging over the backseat tugging on her halter, encouraging her to stand up without success. She nursed the first time we stopped for fuel, but refused to get up after that even though poor Marius was frantically and VERY loudly humming. After 6 hours of not having nursed her cria, I looked around the van and my eye fell on my clipwand. I was able to pry it underneath her belly, creating enough of an annoyance for her to cause her to stand up. Marius happily dove underneath her.
We were perhaps two hours from Rachel’s farm when Julia finally couldn’t hold her bladder any longer and peed. I had lined the back of the van with two pieces of carpet and a tarp between them, but the pressure of holding it for so long was too much and she sprayed the back windshield. I cringed. How on earth was I going to clean THAT out? Luckily it was the only time she did anything in the van, because on the way back we moved a lot faster and she held it the entire time.
Julia and Marius shared Mazara’s pasture that evening, and early in the morning we were off to Zenith. Captain Black exceeded my expectations. His photographs on Alpaca Nation by far do not do him justice, but then how do you photograph presence and macho-ness? This boy was the size of a pony, broad chested and heavy-set, and if he’d had hooves on the end of his legs I would not at all have been surprised. He was obviously the king of his pasture, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to breed Julia to him. And breed they did, the entire time I was there… about 2 hours I guess. Brad had to separate them in the end because he wanted them to breed again that evening so that Julia had a good chance of pregnancy, and a nice long rest period before undertaking the journey back to South Carolina.
During the breeding Marius entertained himself with a chicken, sniffing it and running after it, completely engrossed in his new feathered friend.
When I returned to Rachel’s farm I spent some time meeting the alpacas there, including Julia’s sire Accoyo Merlin, Marius’ sire Dakini AOC, and little Myra’s sire AGO Gustav. Time flew, and before I knew it it was morning and I was loading the van with our suitcase and my sleepy child, was saying goodbye to Rachel, and was underway to collect Julia.
She loaded easily and immediately settled down to eat her hay, ears pricked forward. I watched her like a hawk for several hours - was she stressed? Each time Jesse shrieked with delight at something in his movie, I reminded him to be quiet because Julia had a new baby in her belly and we didn’t want to lose it. Soon I relaxed because Julia was not at all stressed, in fact, she travelled better than she did on the way up there, even standing each time we stopped (without pompting) to nurse Marius. She had learned the drill. Marius was such a comfort to her! If he wasn’t sleeping, he was constantly grooming her, nuzzling her, or rubbing up against her neck, and Julia returned the gestures constantly. It was amazing to see those two behave so intimately and emotionally, and to realise how close mother and cria really are.
How happy they were to arrive home! Myra came to greet Marius immediately and together they ran through the herd, Marius kicking up his heels and pronking and jumping, Julia heading straight for the poop pile and accepting the gentle nuzzling from her herd companions. Fingers crossed that she is pregnant and stays that way, because this is not a breeding I can repeat.
Of course I finally had the chance to meet Mazara, too. I bought her unseen, and was definately not disappointed! She is amazing on a halter, almost as though she has been show trained. This girl leads like an attentive horse, and carries herself with grace, agility and pride, consciously showing herself off. She’s extremely photogenic and LOVES to tease the boys. So much so that Rachel and I both strongly suspected she was open. But a spit test with Merlin soon proved her not to be, she had no intention of letting Merlin anywhere near her. She’s got some bare patches on her face and ears, and a piece of her ear is missing from a suspected bite from another animal, but aside from those cosmetics she is very lovely. She’s got incredibly soft and fine fiber, and is also surprisingly tall and solid for a 1/2 Chilean. Definately well worth the price!
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Posted by roo on July 21st, 2008 — Posted in Marius, Mazara, Julia
Tomorrow I’ll be leaving Huntsville and travelling to SC. On Wednesday I will spit test Dee with Billie, and get to see Marius for myself for the first time since he was born. Thursday morning I’ll load Julia and Marius into the van and drive them to Ohio - we’ll spend the night at Rachel’s farm, then take them to Zenith on Friday morning for Julia’s breeding. She’ll remain there until Saturday morning, when I’ll pick her up on the way back to SC. A quick trip, but it will be fun. The Peruvian Captain Black is currently still at Zenith, hopefully he’ll still be there on Friday!
A bit of a shock today when Rachel called to say she’d opened Mazara’s health records - it turns out that her first cria was born with a birth defect and had to be euthanized by Ohio State… argh… I thought that something like that really should have been disclosed before the sale, but I’m going to assume that it came from the sire she was bred to, as she’s delivered healthy cria after that. With all the extra goodies she came with, that more than make up for her purchase price, the saying goes, ‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’.
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Posted by roo on July 21st, 2008 — Posted in Bunnies
The little black kit had its eyes open when I checked on the babies tonight. The agouti’s are still closed, although I’d say they’ll be open tomorrow. Also, their ears are moving now and although they both love to be scratched and rubbed gently around their faces (especially their muzzles), the agouti definately takes after Sienna, pricking one ear forward as far as it will go, while completely leaning into the scratch. How cute! I cannot believe how fast they are growing right now! They are about the size of moles right now, whereas just several days ago they were hardly bigger than a good sized, fat mouse. The agouti has really changed colour over the past couple of days too!
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