Monday 24th April 2017
Sheep and alpacas
A somewhat bemused Mercury is intrigued by a sleepy lamb deciding that the feed trugg is the perfect place to sleep. And there was Mercury thinking she might find a last few scraps of food!!! The relationship between the sheep and alpacas is wonderful. If we take the dogs into their fields, the alpacas will instantly put themselves between the dogs and the sheep in order to protect them. It is not unusual to find alpacas lying down with a lamb or two snuggled up besides them AND some of the lambs have now started to use the ‘cushing’ alpacas (lying down with legs tucked under them) as climbing frames!!
We still cannot say for definite if Saturn and Venus are pregnant, time will tell as they say. Both are looking and feeling in reasonably good condition so if they are with cria then hopefully they are fit enough to deal with it!!
We have lost the battle with feeding mind you. No matter what we do, the sheep (and it is now more than just Lamorna) seem to manage to get to the alpacas' feed. Aside from being annoying it is potentially dangerous as alpaca feed contains copper and sheep, whilst needing copper in their diets, have difficulty disposing of excess amounts. If they get too much therefore, it can build up in their livers and then potentially be released all in one go, so poisoning them. Usually on good grass or with good forage in the winter, sheep get all the copper they need but if they don’t they are just as likely to suffer from copper deficiency as any other animal. Nonetheless, it is advisable to ensure they don’t get extra copper, which is why we have to be especially careful about their access to any kind of mineral block or licks with added minerals.
As with other substances that can make animals ill, it is the BUILD UP of copper that can be dangerous which is why daily nibbling at alpaca feed may be okay for a few days BUT daily nibbling at it for a few weeks, may not be! Lamorna has definitely led the trend for the naughty behaviour on this one!!!!
We are going to use sheep feed for the sheep AND alpacas for the moment but we will be phasing out our hard feeding soon anyway as the animals should be getting all they need from the grass!!
We have lost the battle with feeding mind you. No matter what we do, the sheep (and it is now more than just Lamorna) seem to manage to get to the alpacas' feed. Aside from being annoying it is potentially dangerous as alpaca feed contains copper and sheep, whilst needing copper in their diets, have difficulty disposing of excess amounts. If they get too much therefore, it can build up in their livers and then potentially be released all in one go, so poisoning them. Usually on good grass or with good forage in the winter, sheep get all the copper they need but if they don’t they are just as likely to suffer from copper deficiency as any other animal. Nonetheless, it is advisable to ensure they don’t get extra copper, which is why we have to be especially careful about their access to any kind of mineral block or licks with added minerals.
As with other substances that can make animals ill, it is the BUILD UP of copper that can be dangerous which is why daily nibbling at alpaca feed may be okay for a few days BUT daily nibbling at it for a few weeks, may not be! Lamorna has definitely led the trend for the naughty behaviour on this one!!!!
We are going to use sheep feed for the sheep AND alpacas for the moment but we will be phasing out our hard feeding soon anyway as the animals should be getting all they need from the grass!!