Welcome Acuaria - (and some much needed Alpaca advice)

Cast - Me (Mum) & Husband

Starring - Alpaca Lady, Acuaria (Acua), and the other six Alpacas

Hooray!  We happily welcomed Acuaria to our herd on Saturday.  Acua (pronounced Aqua), is a stunning black female Alpaca with a dense but fine fleece.

She is Lucky's half-sister (same Mum), and has a beautiful temperament.  She came up and greeted us all, then she took off in front of the herd and had a run around the paddocks (she had come up from Hobart, so had been in the trailer for three hours!).  Then she simply 'assumed' the matriarch role, and the others followed her!!

Acua is just gorgeous, she is a great Mum and has produced solid black progeny (with the same fluffy ears!).  Acua was Alpaca woman's first show Alpaca, and she always stands proudly.  Alpaca woman advised us to mate her with another solid black (if we put Eclipse over her who is soild white, we may have a 'mosaic' cria!).  On the subject, I asked her advice on Vodka and Malibu.  She said that Voddy isn't having a baby any time soon as she hasn't 'dropped', and Boo could still possibly be pregnant, but carrying in a different way to Voddy.  Alpaca woman gave me some great advice on the immediate needs of cria in our Tassie climate, as we don't need to provide any injections other than a Vit D course from a month old.  This was suprising, as on other blogs I have read that many different breeders have had to give injections - but I guess that it depends upon climate, conditions etc.

Alpaca woman then rang her shearer, and booked us in to have all of the Alpacas shorn, injected, tooth file, nail clipped etc (a beauty treatment), late November.  She said that she would come up and help out; show me how to sort the fleece out and what to look for.  She then (just a fantastic source of info!) told me to get some Stockgain to wet down the pellets, and to add a little apple cider vinegar to help the pregnant girls.  LOL, the girls were NOT impressed with that mix!  Boo actually refused her bucket today - so we are introducing the feed change slowly.

Acua and her half sister, Lucky

Anyway, Acua has some suprising behaviours which I think are her way of trying to dominate me!  Today I bent down (to put a bucket down), she tried to lay her neck over my head and pushed down.  She then tried to raise one of her front legs onto my leg.  I stood up quickly and told her off, and she just put her ears back and walked off.  Later she came up and gave me 'kisses' on my cheek and ear.  She displayed the same behaviour for Daughter, and actually put her foot up on Daughters leg. Hmmmm...Alpaca woman did say that she was ready to be mated??!  Maybe this behaviour is her way of letting us know she is ready?  Maybe she is trying to dominate us?  Either way, I told Daughter to push her away firmly and tell her 'No' when she did that.  I can't help but love her already as she has such an affectionate and outgoing personality.  This afternoon she was pronking around the paddock madly!  I guess she likes it here :) Vodka however, was not amused LOL

What?? Another one??