We have a number of husbandry tasks that are done on a regular basis. Today we took advantage of the relatively mild weather and weighed and body scored our 2011 crias and weanlings. We weigh young alpacas more often than adults as a way to keep track of their growth. An alpaca – even an adult – can get very thin and it won’t be noticeable under that full coat of fiber!
All but four of last year’s babies have been weaned. The rest will be weaned when they are a little older – and bigger. We also gave each one its biweekly doses of Vitamin AD&E. This is something we do during the darker months to help prevent rickets.
Since the weanlings have been moved to a separate barn, we took advantage of the opportunity to do some training by haltering each one and leading it to the barn for weighing. As usual, we had a few that balked a bit, but it went smoothly for the most part. Lots more training needs to be done before our first alpaca show at the end of March!