PLATEAU BREEZE RANCH

I sit here and reflect on what a day it was. While I sat here alone and watched the riots and protests on tv, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to feed my baby, Spirit. I threw a bottle together and rushed down to her to find the herd distraught and the boy's bam on the other side of the property pretty loud with lots of sounding of alarms. I realized something was wrong and thought about predators, coyotes, snakes, and God knows what else. "I'm here alone", I thought but I have to do som read more...

I should have known all along that she was a "Party girl" just by the way she admired herself in the mirror. She was the only one in the herd that just couldn't quite get enough of herself but I bred her anyway and eleven months later, she gave birth to PBR Gun-Metal Bugatti and then abandoned him. As I sat night after night, day after day, feeding her newborn, I started to realize that I just didn't like that "bad mother". I was throwing darts at her with my eyes and whispering swear words as I read more...

It was a beautiful day, the breeze was blowing and the temp was perfect when a true black baby alpaca was born in our pasture on a bed of green grass. She was up, dry, and nursing within the first fifteen minutes of life. I was in awe as I watched her race from one end of the pasture to the other without a care in the world while her mother lounged and casually kept a close eye on her spirited baby. I knew the name Spirit in the Sky matched her perfectly. Suddenly, out of nowhere, her mother die read more...

Well, it's been three-four weeks since we isolated the incoming girl from Illinois and our other three animals who contracted the nasty worms. The fecal samples were sent out, and we received the results five days later. All four of the animals came back with zero occysts and eggs. Yay!!! We opened gates and let them in with the rest of the herd. Talk about a celebration and a grand reunion! There was pronking, jumping, running, some were even playing tag. The herd was joyful, and we could feel read more...

It's been a rough three plus weeks. I've only had my herd for a year or so, so I guess you could say I'M A AMATEUR! After a friend suggested I pull some fecals (that's the scientific name for poop)on a few of my girls and especially on a new girl I brought into the herd without isolating her first. BIG MISTAKE! I agreed and pulled five samples (they for the most part look like coffee beans) from unsuspecting alpacas. They were all pulled randomly. No specific animal, no specific order. (Of cours read more...

We'd only had the ranch up and running (if you could even say that) for a month or two as we watched our females stomach's expand. We had no experience with alpaca childbirth but I must say Marc and I were very experienced with human childbirth. Together we had delivered four children, one in the elevator at the hospital with no doctor present, the other three very quickly and completely natural. Did that help us with Freckles birth? "Hell no!!!
I sensed something was going on at the barn read more...