On the Ranch...: The Milk Thief...

Our first breech baby, this is Tulio, doing
very well at about 6 wks old here~

Most alpacas moms are excellent mothers and produce plenty of milk to sustain their cria. Seems like there always has to be one in every crowd that needs to be different. We have one mom whose milk is a little slow to come in and we have always supplemented her cria with a little bottle feeding for the first few weeks. This year, that mom also happened to have our first breech delivery ever. Her little guy started out additionally challenged from the start coming out backwards his rear legs were a little weak and he was a bit wobbly. We were prepared to supplement feeding again, but he would have nothing to do with a bottle. There is a point where forcing this can do more harm then good and he was getting some milk from mom so we decided to let nature take its course. For the first week he gained about .2 lbs per day, typically we like to see a half to a full pound weight gain. This little guy seemed to be a fighter from the moment he was born and when it came to getting enough nourishment he took matters into his own hands so to speak.

A fuzzy phone pic, but best proof of our
dual nursing dam~

Our next cria was born about a week later to a first time mom. Sometimes new moms will do things other more experienced moms won't tolerate. She was a great mom to her new cria from the start, let her nurse, had plenty of milk and was very nurturing. Our little breech boy bonded with her new cria immediately. He also learned if he could sidle up next to the new girl when she was nursing he could sneak in and get a little for himself! It is extremely rare for an alpaca mom to let any other cria nurse. Some don't even like other cria around when theirs is nursing. So to watch our little milk thief get away with it was rather humorous, plus we were thrilled to see him getting a little extra to drink. We didn't think this would last, but instead the new mom seemed to start accepting him and just let it continue. Her cria didn't seem to be lacking, it didn't seem to be taking too much of a toll on her so it was truly all good.

Well we all know good things don't always last. After a couple weeks something clicked and she seemed to realize none of the other moms were sharing their milk with other cria. We had been hoping we might have one of those gems who tolerate being surrogate moms, but no, she started to kick him off. Knowing where the milk bar is isn't an easy habit to break. He is constantly at the side of this mom's cria and she seems to help him sneak a drink whenever possible. It still makes us smile when we see him get away with it, his sneakiness and persistence is a marvel.