Baby Born yesterday, not sure if she's feeding!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Emaly Leak on March 12, 2009 at 5:32pm

Do you have any way to monitor her weight? She should gain between 0.5 and 1.0 pounds per day, if she is getting enough nursing from mom. If not, or especially if she starts losing weight, you should try and bottle feed her. She may lose a pound or so the first day, but should gain consistently after that. Even if you can just pick her up and stand on a human scale, weigh her daily (around the same time each day) and monitor her weight change. Emaly

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Permalink Reply by Stacey Albert on March 12, 2009 at 6:32pm

Thanks Emily,

Go figure, I don't have a scale but maybe I can get one. She (the baby) appears to be alert and active. I have seen her pee and eyes are wide and healthy. Her ears are perky and she is VERY curious of her suroundings. I have tried giving milk with a bottle but she has no interest in it.
I am wondering if mom is feeding when no one is around. Would the baby not be listless and inactive by now if she wasn't getting any milk?

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Permalink Reply by Emaly Leak on March 12, 2009 at 6:36pm

If she has energy, she is probably getting plenty, but it is better to weigh her if possible. Babies can crash fast, and with llamas you'll never know until they're down. They do tend to nurse when no one is around. Can you see any milk on the baby's mouth (think milk moustache)? Good luck with her. Emaly

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Permalink Reply by Stacey Albert on March 12, 2009 at 6:42pm

Hi Emaly,

I will for sure try and get a scale, as for milk moustache I have not seen one yet but baby does tend to lick her lips ALOT. I did post a pic of her and in the one I posted I think you can actually see her licking her lips, lol. But she is active so that must be a good sign.
I hope she does okay because if she's NOT drinking the powdered milk here costs $20 a bag and it will last approx 2 days. I would not be able to afford to feed her that for the next 6 mths.

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Permalink Reply by Fred & Renee Tarr on March 13, 2009 at 8:30pm

If you have to give the cria milk replacer, we had great success with Sav-A-Caf Ultra 24 it is in a black bag.
We bought a 2 wk old cria and a 2 month old cria at an auction. They gained very well.
Maybe you can at least try to supplement if you don't think it is sucking, they are resistant to take a bottle at first.
Check out:
www.savacaf.com

Renee

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Permalink Reply by Margret & Ed Bender on March 14, 2009 at 4:20am

If you think she didn't get enough milk (colustrum) from mom in the first 24 hours, I would recommend getting an IgG done to check for passive transfer of antibodies. It means a vet visit, but without good passive transfer of the antibodies, she could be in trouble. If she didn't doesn't have a high enough IgG count, you'll need to give a plasma transfusion.

Hope this helps

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Permalink Reply by Stacey Albert on March 14, 2009 at 9:21am

Well "Rosie" appears to be doing fine. We are now on day 4 and she is still alert, energenic, and ears are still straight up. Mom is very attentive, baby is very curious of sourroundings. I guess she just doesn't like to feed when we are out there otherwise if she wasn't drinking I would think she would be almost if not now dead.
Thanks so much for the sound advice.

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Permalink Reply by Meg Steensland on March 22, 2009 at 11:10pm

Sorry - I just now found your post - hopefully all is well and baby is doing fine. You can look up the dam on ILR www.lamaregistry.com if she is registered and find out if there are other offspring. If you aren't a member - buddy up w/someone that is and ask them to look her up. It would be useful to have/develop a local network of llama or alpaca contacts to share info with. You just never know when you are going to need help/advice. Just Friday a woman that bought 2 llamas and a few Jacobs called me as one of her Columbias had a prolapse. I called two sheep people before i found one with a sheep prolapse holder (don't know what you call it really) and stopped by to borrow it to deliver to my friend. Next time I see my llama vet I will ask her if those things work for llamas and alpacas.

On crias - alpaca people may have a lot more experience than the casual llama owner as they try to keep every female bred and working whereas some llama people have llamas working as guards, PR and performance and treking animals. Someone will dispute this I am sure.

In 2006 Nov - I had a new mom and baby that could not figure it out despite my getting my goat owning neighbor to help me chute the mom and stuff the cria under her. Ended up using powdered colostrun from TSC and then cows milk for ~ 8 days until I walked by the paddock one day and saw them performing flawlessly. Stopped the hand feeding 2 days later and all went well. Next baby was no problemo for mom. She is due w3rd in early May-hope its a girl and she can still get it right after 2 boys. Yes, we rested her a few months after that first boy

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Permalink Reply by Stacey Albert on March 23, 2009 at 10:15am

Thanks everyone for your replies. Sadlt Rosie has died, we are not sure what happened. I know mom was feeding her but I think she didn't have enough milk to keep her alive. I was unaware of this (obviously) at the time because baby was appearing to do well. Alert, active, ears up, eyes clear and alert (not dull, and listless).
I checked on them last tuesday night (feeding time) and baby was doing well, next morning went out to check on them and feed again, that's when I found Rosie dead.
I felt VERY sad for Lily (mom). She cried looking for her baby for about 2 days straight, she just wondered around looking for her baby, calling for her.
I found baby in their stall so I put Lily outside while I took baby out of stall and then the barn. Lily stood at the door all day waiting to get back in. I cleaned out the stall and put a full bag of stall deoderizer (sp?) down to cover baby's scent. Then I let Lily back in so she could see baby was gone. I watched her for about 1 hr walking around the barn looking for her baby (it BROKE my heart).
She is doing well now and is back out in the field. I am THINKING about getting another Llama to keep her company, do you think she would "hang" out with another one or would she keep her distance? She was pretty much alone at the place she came from, and has been by herself (besides horses) since she has been at my house. She stays away from the horses (they chase her off.)
Any thoughts?
Stacey

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Permalink Reply by Pamela Tait on March 24, 2009 at 12:25am

I haven't had a cria pass yet (thank God!), but I have read advice from some people who have. Their advice was to let the mom sniff the cria and leave her her time to realize that her baby is gone. I've heard that some girls will stay with their dead cria for a while, but then they realize that the baby is gone and move on. Llamas do get attached to their crias, and also to other llamas. I have seen emotions in llamas.

As far as finding Rosie a friend, I would say YES! Absolutely, Your girl will need a friend. Llamas are herd animals, and do NOT like to be alone. They get very unhappy. Think about how you would feel alone, and that makes the decision to get her a friend an easy one. I would suggest another female for her as a friend, maybe even one that is related.

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Permalink Reply by Stacey Albert on March 24, 2009 at 8:12am

I agree, I wouldn't like being alone, but like I said the place she came from had 2 other llama's and she was never around them. I am looking into getting Lily (Rosie was her baby) a companion and hopefully she will not feel lonely. I don't want to get a male because I don't want to take the chance this may happen again. Maybe she just can't produce enough milk for babies, and if that IS the case I would hate for this to happen again.
She was in the stall with it all night when I died but I didn't want to leave her in there because she wouldn't have been able to "leave" after she figured it out and I couldn't bring her and baby out of barn because my horses hate her and will run after her. I would have REALLY hated it if one of them (Lily OR horses) ended up hurt) She is doing fine now and happily touring the fields.

Thanks for the advice.

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