Nancy and I returned to the Vets the next day to check on the cria. As soon as we enterd the barn we could here her crying for her mom, it was a very sad sound. She had spent the night alone in a stall and had not eaten since her mother died. The Vet had tried to get her to drink from a bucket, but she was not receptive to this form of nurishment.

We went into the stall to try and comfort her. I was wearing a large polar fleece jacket and as soon as we entered the stall Honey started poking her head up under my jacket in an attempt to nurse. I guess she recognized me and the combination of a familiar scent and a warm dark area meant food in her little hungry mind. We asked the Vet if she had some kind of a bottle and soon she returned with a soda bottle full of warm milk with a Pritchard nipple screwed on the top. I held the bottle out toward the baby, but she ignored it and continued to hunt for a teat under my jacket. I pondered this for a moment then decided that if she thought milk should come from under my jacket then that is where it should come from. I bent over at the waist, held the bottle up under my stomach, and called to her. She immediately came up behind me, stuck her little head between my legs and started nursing. We were extremely pleased, it appeared that the immediate crisis was over.

We could have tube fed her, but being an inexperienced alpaca farmer I was saving that option as a last resort. Tubing can be very effective when done properly and can be deadly if done wrong. If you insert the tube into the lungs instead of the stomach you can instantly drown the cria. Also whatever method we chose was going to be her only source of nurishment until she was weaned. That meant we were going to repeat this method 4 or 5 times a day for 5 to 6 months. The bottle sure seemed a lot more appealing to us.

If you find yourself in a situation where you need to tube feed a cria I would suggest that you seek assistance form someone who has experience in the procedure. As a minimum you should read the information about tube feeding in "Llama and Alpaca Neonatal Care"

Now that we were getting some food into Honey it was time to get some instructions on what to feed her, how much, and how often. I must say that we were a bit surprised at the amount of milk these little critters drink in the course of a day. A cria will consume 10% of its weight in milk every day. She weighed about 30 lbs so that meant we needed to feed her 6 pints of milk a day. Feedings should be spread out evenly throughout the day, if possible, at about 4 hour intervals. This schedule may be difficult to achieve so you do the best you can under the circumstances. We used the following schedule and it seemd to work just fine.

1. 4:30 AM I fed her before we went to work
2. 10:00 AM our neighbor Charyn came down to feed her
3. 2:30 PM The girls feed her when they go home from school
4. 5:20 PM I fed her when I got home from work
5. 9:00 PM I fed her before I went to bed

Even though we only were able to get in 5 feedings a day in lieu of 6 and they were not evenly spread across a 24 hr period this program worked well for us. On the suggestion of our Vet we used regular whole cow's milk with a little yogurt mixed in as a formula. Crias have been successfully raised on a variety of formulas. Many people used sheep milk replacer. If you need to supplement a cria consult with your Vet for advice. Also check with other alpaca breeders in your area to find out what has worked for them in the past.

After a couple of weeks of bending over and holding the bottle up under our bellies we were able to convince Honey that it was OK to drink from the bottle in the light of day. We were all quite relieved. I would have included a picture of the under the belly feeding technique, but fortunately no one thought to take a picture of me in that position. So I have decided to include one of Honey instead. She is much more attractive than me anyway.

Got Milk?

As Honey grew her milk consumption went up accordingly. By the time we were ready to start weaning her (about 5 months of age) she was up to 5 litres a day. She could empty a litre bottle of milk in half the time it took the adults to eat their ration of grain. Proper venting of the bottle is important to prevent nipple colapse. Click here for detailed info on what we used for bottles and nipples.

Even though the winter was cold and the stream of bottles seemed endless, I must say that the experience was rewarding. Looking down into those adoring brown eyes while Honey nursed seemed to make it all worth while. Her late night feedings became rather interesting once the path in the pasture turned into a sheet of ice (as most things do during a Maine winter). I would begin calling here name when I was on the steps of the house and by the time I got to the pasture gate she would be running towards me at full speed. There were several times that I looked up just in time to see a white ball of fleece hurtling out of the darkness in a four wheel skid. She never actually took me off from my feet, but it was close a couple of times.