Hurricane Irene spared much of the northeast part of Vermont, thank goodness! Many towns in other parts of the state sustained heavy damage from flooding and will be cleaning up for a long time. The day after the storm, skies cleared and it’s forecast to be a beautiful week. Today … Read More
We like to shear our crias before the end of summer. This removes the discolored, often tender, tips of their fiber and gives us a better fleece at shearing next spring. This week we sheared the nine crias that have been born so far here at Snowshoe Farm. This is … Read More
The first offspring of our White Male Color Champion, Snowshoe Aristides, were born this spring and more are coming along. I’ve posted photos of those crias that are currently on the ground on Ari’s web page here. We’re pleased to be seeing some very nice crias! Contact us to make … Read More
The cria that was born on June 11 and showed signs of being a bit premature still has problems. He can’t get up. We’re working under the assumption that he has white muscle disease, since he has responded to injections of selenium. Within a day or so of the second … Read More
We had a busy day in the barn today with two crias being born. One was an uneventful birth; a first time mother who did just fine and has a healthy and beautiful cria who is nursing well. The second birth was a little more exciting. As soon as I … Read More
The two newest crias on the farm were born this week. Both were uncomplicated births and the crias are healthy and active. That’s the way we like it! Our little preemie is maintaining and getting slightly stronger, but is still unable to pick himself up. He requires regular feeding. He … Read More
This little guy was born yesterday – just a couple days short of 11 months gestation. Not extremely early, but he exhibits all the signs of being premature: teeth not erupted, floppy ears, weakness. His dam – who is usually a very good mother – doesn’t have a lot of … Read More
Rosita has been under our watchful eyes for weeks now as she often has her crias early. Finally – at day 340 – she had her cria at around 2:00 this afternoon. A big boy – 19.5 lbs. He looks to be medium silver gray. He’s active and pretty steady … Read More
After 11 years of raising alpacas, we finally have a bottle baby. And no – it’s not a good thing. Alpaca crias can become bottle babies for any number of reasons – mother’s lack of milk, loss of mother, etc. This happens to be an orphan. This cria, Phylicia, was … Read More
We spend a lot of time in the summer waiting for crias to be born. The length of an alpaca’s gestation is quite variable. We always assume 11 months as a “due date”, but we’ve seen gestations almost 3 weeks short of that and we’ve seen others over a year … Read More