What a difference a day makes, today has been misty damp and horrible all day, so I took Carol's advice from last nights blog and spent the afternoon knitting.
Talking of last nights blog, Dave was asking if I had any explanation for Minimus size, well not really. His mum Chiquita isn't the largest alpaca and herself was quite slow growing but nothing like her son. Minimus is her first cria (baby) and was only 4kg born at full term (345 days) last July. If you take his percentage weight gain at 6 months he is doing just as well as his mates so I'm hoping that he will continue to grow.
I remated Chiquita last year to a different stud male, she and Golden Guinea were joined so we will see what they produce. If she has another small baby that doesn't grow then we will have to reconsider mating her in the future which will be a real shame as she has a fantastic fleece and has produced a cria with an equally stunning fleece.
In hindsight maybe we should have waiting until this spring to remate Chiquita so she would birth at the start of the grass growing season to give her baby the best possible chance to thrive, as it is she is due to birth at the end of July.
Friday, 11 February 2011
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2 comments:
But the other side of the coin is, that if you let her have her cria in spring, she would have to face the end of her pregnancy through the worst of the winter, and this may mean another small cria!
Looks like you are "dammed if you do and dammed if you don't!"
Thanks Debbie, Dave.
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