Tips and Tricks!

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Schell ~ Walnut Hill Farm on August 9, 2008 at 11:15am

Here's one...

When I start halter training, I put the halters in their feed pans at first. They put their noses in and around the halters to get their feed. They are not so afraid of them later when it's time to put them on. I remove them from the feed pans as soon as they are done eating. After a week or so, I put them on before feeding them. They are then used to them and not afraid.
Nancy

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Permalink Reply by Jo Anne Leonard on August 18, 2008 at 11:27am

AppleDex electrolyte supplement - we use this instead of Gatorade because of the cost. It is available at all horse tack supply stores and is soooo much cheaper than Gatorade, although it only comes in the Apple flavor that we have found. Since our alpacas love to pick alpacas from the trees outside of the pasture, we figured they'd like the AppleDex, and we were right.

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Permalink Reply by Lori on August 29, 2008 at 5:45am

I've never seen an alpaca tree! Where can I get one?? (sorry, couldn't resist; must be the editor in me, catching typos. That one made me laugh, trying to imagine picking alpacas from the trees!)

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Permalink Reply by Chris and Kathy Fischer on August 25, 2008 at 11:37pm

We have one older gal that would carry on terribly after any oral medication what-so-ever! She would start coughing and gagging, etc. No matter how careful we were or how slowly we administered! Finally one night I prepared her pellet bowl and immediately after giving the oral medicine, I put down her bowl, on the ground in front of her. She went straight to her pellets and never coughed/gagged/drama queened on us at all! Just something worth trying .... -Kathy

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Permalink Reply by Dena Kotka-Holtz on August 29, 2008 at 12:47am

Try making a house gutter contraption, along the fence, close to the ground, and spread your grain in it, be sure to smooth the edges on the end. Alpacas can't take big mouthfuls and are forced to eat smaller amounts. Dena

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Permalink Reply by Dena Kotka-Holtz on August 30, 2008 at 9:18pm

Okay, I tried the house gutter contraption. It would require a long house gutter I found out. The closer they are to each other the more they feel they have to hog the grain. So I've come to the conclusion that the best way for them not to choke on the grain is to keep the grain bowl at least ten feet from each other and not to put more than a cup in the bowl. (I feed my nursing girls two cups, so now I'm using the house gutter contraption as the extra grain that these girls now. [And they go to it] then they go to their bowls). I've noticed that when I seperate the bowl this far apart and put the bowls in the same place every day. Each alpaca seems to have their desinated place where they will eat peacefully. Every day that I put the bowls in the same place I know which alpaca will go to what place. Certain things cause chaos, like my dog eating the grain, or the crias coming to nibble, or a new alpaca introduction. But, each alpaca has their spot every day and if they are far enough from each other, they don't want to leave their grain bowl.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Schell ~ Walnut Hill Farm on August 30, 2008 at 11:22pm

I have also found that i have a girl that likes to eat inside and a girl that likes to eat outside...
makes my life much easier!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Jannette Cox on October 24, 2008 at 2:33pm

I attached a file that has pointers and tips for alpaca owners. Add to it if you have any suggestions. Jannette Cox

Attachments:

• Alpaca Handling Tips.doc, 47 KB

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