Danny Has Another New Roommate

It's been interesting on the ranch, as always. Calving has started and some of our mares are starting to have babies. Unfortunately, one mare had difficulties and was unable to care for her colt on her own. So, Danny has another roommate. The picture is Danny and his new roommate, which we call Bucky. Sandy is still in there, just too short to be in the picture. Bucky is a Thoroughbred colt and is actually quite tall for his age.

Danny is showing signs of jealousy when we stop to play with Bucky. Danny HAS to be involved and will push his way in to also be petted and played with. So this is probably a good thing in his development as we are able to provide some guidance to Danny on what is appropriate behaviour in a herd. Probably very similar to what his mother would have done.

But the two of them together look very cute playing. Bucky is still unsteady on his feet and I think that Danny takes advantage of that by literally circling around him sometimes. But it is good for both of them to have someone else to be with. Because of how big they are getting they are spending more and more time out of their pen during the day. They are allowed to wander around the arena area and they are starting to explore the grounds. Although they generally like to follow people around. Bucky will whicker and Danny will grunt their greetings whenever they hear a favourite voice. It does mean that we have put off putting Danny with one of the Llama/Alpaca herds for awhile so that Bucky will have someone. We'll see how it goes!

Turning Into Our Little Man

It's been a big few weeks for Danny as he has gone from really being a baby into being a little man. Learning how to live with Sandy was a real turning point for him. Sandy weaned herself off the bottle first. And then around the third week of April, Danny started drinking less and less from a bottle and finally one day he took a gulp, swished it around, and let it dribble out to the ground. We tried again the next day to feed him his bottle but he wanted nothing to do with it. So now he is on hay and grain and water full time. They grow up so soon!

He is also trying to be more dominant. When he is walking around the yard he wants to be first and now Sandy is following him around. They are inseparable and Sandy keeps a close eye on him - keeping him out of travel and showing him how to traverse around the yard.

Finally, pics of Danny playing!

It's been a long time coming, but Danny and Sandy were finally playing around when I had my camera with me.

In both these pictures Danny is doing his best to push Sandy around. The one to the left where Danny look kind of weird shaped is because he is snaking his neck over Sandy - kind of like a big C. This is a typical Llama move when they are playing (or fighting or . . . ) in that they swing their heads from side to side and kind of weave them around.

The picture below is Danny trying to push Sandy around. She had already had her turn trying to head butt him and now he is doing his best to push her over. When she head butts him it's into his side because of the size difference. When he pushes her he does it with his chest because his neck and head are taller. He does a little scissor kick leap as well when they are playing that is just adorable.

We finally had a spot of nice weather and the birds are migrating. The Killdeer, Mountain Bluebird and a few additional varieties of woodpeckers are back. As well, our family of Sandhill Cranes arrived just before the weekend! They will be here until September as they nest and live in our back fields. Oh, and the Pelicans are working their way north - they left the Okanagan last week and should be here sometime in the next week or two. We are on their migratory route which makes for great birding - along with the Trumpeter Swans. Our lakes are slow in melting this year because it continues to be cold, so any open water is full of American Coots, Common Goldeneye, Barrow's Goldeneye, Lesser Scaup, American Wigeon, even some Long-billed Curlew. As you can tell I am part of the local birding group - I just love migratory season. Although I don't do much more than keep track of what's on the ranch I do go and see what's arriving at other ranches and lakes.

Danny and Sandy Playtime

One of the many interesting things about watching Danny and Sandy play together is the difference in playing styles. Sheep and Llamas have very different ideas of what playtime is. When we watch the different herds playing out in the fields we can really get an idea of what each breed does for fun. And watching Danny and Sandy play is like watching two species trying to communicate.

Sandy, being a sheep, has a much more aggressive play style. Danny will put his head down and she will think he wants to play at head butting, which is a great sheep play - similar to rough-housing. So Sandy will butt him in the head, and then he looks very affronted as Llamas don't do that. Sandy will try to butt him in the side, in the neck - pretty much anywhere to get him going.

Sheep also are climbers and frequently when we go see the sheep the babies are sleeping or laying on top of their mothers. The moms will be laying down and the babies will just literally walk all over them. The funny thing is that we have seen the baby sheep do it with Rosey as well, the adult llama that is in the maternity ward right now. Anyway, Sandy tries to do it with Danny as well. So he will be laying or sitting down and she will try and climb on top of him, or she will stand beside him and lay across his back with her front feet.

It's very funny watching to see all the antics that Sandy gets up to with Danny. Danny being a llama prefers to keep his playtime to doing twisty things with his neck and Sandy's neck isn't long enough. And he prefers running and jumping. In the herd you will frequently see the babies running together and leaping and kicking up their heels - not a lot of physical contact.

So Danny and Sandy are learning to play together - or at least to put up with each other when the other wants to play.

Name Chosen for Roommate

At long last we have chosen a name for Danny's roommate. She is a half Dorset and half Dorpor ewe lamb. And the winning name is . . . Sandy!

Yes, we've gone the route of movie names. As Danny was named after Danny Zuco, the character played by John Travolta in the move Grease (we felt they had similar eyelashes), we have named the ewe lamb after his love interest in the move - Sandy.

So now it is Danny and Sandy!

Spring is in the air!

Of course, it was snowing yesterday (just flurries) but today is a beautiful day. I had a great time in Chilliwack. Met some really nice people. The weather was horrible, but we were dry inside. As promised I took down a lot of our own ranch products and I was pretty happy with the variety that we had available.
When I got back I had a great time visiting with all the animals. Baby sheep are doing great, we have started calving, so we had half a dozen calves while I was gone, even one of the rabbits had babies. I had a great time playing with Danny. He really is becoming such an individual. We are going to move him and his roommate into a larger stall beside Rosie. After we had finished playing (unfortunately I can't play and take photos at the same time!) and I put him back in his stall - he was soooo hungry! He just started chowing down! Anyway, I snapped a couple shots of him with his head completely buried in his hay and then when he came up for air he had hay sticking all over him - completely adorable!

Going Away for a Few Days

Just to let everyone know that I will be away for a few days. I am going to Chilliwack to participate in the Chilliwack Outdoor Decor and Garden Show, on from March 28-30 at the Chilliwack Heritage Park. The Park is located at Exit #116, Highway 1 - just look for the big red barns at 44140 Luckakuck Way.

I hope to have a great time and I am taking down lots of our Llama, Alpaca and Sheep products to sell, so I hope it's a buying audience.

Hope to see you there!

Just General Danny

What an exciting weekend its been! We had a baby colt born Sunday morning - it's doing fine and is beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful babies I can't believe how well Danny is growing. Now that he is getting older (3 months old this week!) his days are becoming more stable. He is only getting 2 bottles a day now (sometimes three if he acts like he needs it), his hay and grain consumption are going up. He's got his routine of when he's allowed out of his stall to visit the other animals.

One of the dangers that we are now encountering is that he has no fear. We need to keep him in his stall when we are driving the tractors around because we're afraid he will get too close and hurt himself. He is just trying to be with us and follow us around, but he has no fear of moving vehicles. That was probably something that his natural mother would have taught him. But of course, he sees us getting in and out and starting them up and nothing happens. So he has learned to believe that vehicles are safe. We'll have to pay attention to this as he gets older - my concern is that he won't get out of the way when we are trying to drive up the driveway. Of course, during the spring and summer when we have animals running around they sometimes forget to get out of the way as well, so maybe he'll fit right in!

Quick correction

Just a quick note. In the blog before - it should be Oyama Lake Alpaca Farm, not ranch. My booboo! Still a great place though!

Everything's Coming Up Danny!

This must be the quiet before the storm. Everything is relatively peaceful right now - in fact, it's Dan-dy!

Danny and his roommate (no name yet!) are doing really well. Plenty to do and see in the arena right now where they are staying.

We are trying to get Danny used to being brushed and handled. With any animals, if they get used to being handled at a young age, it makes them much simpler to handle them as they get older.

You wouldn't know it from the picture, but he has been getting lightly brushed. And then of course, he immediately starts playing in the shavings and then he has these little pieces of it stuck in his fibre. I think he's doing it for the attention, because then we spend time with him brushing out the little pieces.

Last weekend I was visiting in Vernon and stopped in at the Oyama Lake Alpaca Ranch. Darlene (and her husband Jim) were great hosts. Darlene is a real artist with alpaca fibre and has amazing clothing and other items at her ranch store. I really appreciated the opportunity to talk to another alpaca person. Darlene very patiently answered all my questions and I really appreciated the time. Hopefully, as Danny gets older and I try the nuggets of wisdom I picked up from her, I'll be able to share.

One of the things I really wanted to know was just about raising babies and were we on the right track for the long term. After talking with her I feel pretty good about what we are doing and how Danny is doing.

Spring has not Sprung

I thought that Spring was here. I was wrong. It has been snowing again. It snowed last week - dumped at least another 6 inches and yesterday and today it is snowing again. I like the snow, really I do. But come on! I have plans for spring, we have ranch guests that will be arriving. I would really like to get to some landscaping and yard clean up, which I can't do when it's under 2 feet of snow. Okay, that's my rant for today.

The other problem with all this snow is that we are, of course, expecting babies. And the snow just makes it hard to move animals around. We haven't been able to let Danny go outside yet. So playtime with the others llamas and alpacas is just going to have to wait until there is grass on the ground.

Rosey is waiting us out in her maternity pen. We now have 3 mares in the arena and one lamb decided to have twins outside this morning. So we brought her in and she is now in the maternity pen beside Danny and his roommate (no name yet!) The ewe is a Hampshire (white body, black head and legs) and she had two boys - one all black and one spotted. I can hardly wait until they are ready to start visiting and go next door to see who the neighbour is. I'll have to start lurking with the camera so that I can gets pictures of them meeting Danny!

Finally, a picture of Danny eating Hay!

It took a while but I was finally able to take a half-decent photos of Danny and his roommate. The angle is a little funny - makes them look smaller than they are, but I was focusing on their faces in the hay.

Danny is doing really well. Eating and growing. I'm thinking of putting up a post to measure his growth against. We used to do it for children, but I think it would be a good way to determine how much he's growing. Instead of standing around watching him and saying "Well, he looks bigger to me today." I think we can probably be a little more exact than that.

Having that lamb with him is working out very well. They really watch where the other is. The only problem is I can't keep calling her Danny's roommate. I'm figuring we should probably name her. So it is a Girl, she has no real markings, is basically just white, her mom was a Hampshire and her dad is a Dorpor - how she ended up pure white I have no idea because both those sheep have colour. She has a stubborn temperament but is watchful/careful and learns quickly when she wants to (particularly around where the food is). Anyway, any ideas on names would be great.

Some of Danny's Relatives

Well, I'm hoping that Spring is arriving. What is that old saying for March "in like a lion and out like a lamb". I'm certainly hoping that holds true. Danny is doing really well, and he now has Llama company in the arena. We have finished lambing for the year (well, almost - just 3 left) and we have some really nice coloured lambs this year, so we are very happy. So now it is the turn for some of our Llamas to have babies. Baby Llamas are called Cria's. Anyway, the first one into the arena is Rosey. She is one of our favourites - that's her picture on the left. So she is in the arena now and we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of her cria. She is a repeat mother so she knows what she's doing. After her we've got another 2-3 that we are watching to see how it goes. Between now and June we're expecting 8 babies. We're not sure exactly when Rosey is due - they are pregnant for 50 weeks (11.5 months) so it should be sometime this spring. Rosey also has the longest ears we've ever seen on a Llama.

The picture on the right is from our herd of geldings - two big llamas and the little guy is an alpaca. They all live quite happily together.

So Spring is arriving, the babies are arriving and soon I'm hoping that we will have lots of company for Danny running around.

Danny is doing really well with his new roommate. He is rooming with one of this years lambs and she is showing him how to eat grain and hay like a pro. It's funny to watch them cavorting around.

Danny Runs Everywhere!

We can really tell that Danny is feeling and doing much better. Whatever was bothering him has most definitely cleared up. He is eating everything and running everywhere. Snow is just starting to melt here. But watching him run around the indoor arena today made me very hopeful that soon he will be able to go outside and visit with some of his relatives. One of our smaller fields has our ewes and lambs and llama/alpaca geldings and he will probably go and visit in there for awhile. I'ld like to see what he could do running around outside.

We'll probably wait until until Spring is officially here in another couple months, but his behaviour the past few days have made me very hopeful!

You can really tell in this picture the way his colour is delineated. We don't normally shear our babies until after their first birthday, so he won't be sheared until Spring 2009, but I am already looking at his fiber and thinking of things we could make out of that great fibre and grey colour. We have a number of white llamas/alpacas, a multitude of browns and fawn/rose coloured and even a few dark brown/black colours, but he is our first grey. So Danny is exciting for us on a number of fronts.

Next week we are going to start doing some serious halter training with him. That will make it safer for him and easier for us to move him around the ranch. That way we can safely lead him outside to play. If it goes well I'll take more photos!

Danny Continuing to Grow

Well, Danny is a growing boy! He continues to do well. He really is socializing well with people and is so cute trying to follow us around the yard. We have moved his stall back out into the main indoor arena so that he is back with the ewes and lambs.

We sometimes have to put him back in his stall during the day because he will try to follow us everywhere. Today we were moving some cattle around. We brought them up to the yard from the pasture so that we can check them out, make sure everyone is still doing well. So we put him in his stall so that he wouldn't get accidentally run over - being a little guy!

Well, he was sooooo unhappy! Llamas make all sorts of sounds - vocalizing. So first, he doesn't like to go in his stall during the day because he knows that means he is going to miss something. And then he stands there and whines - and whines and whines. If he hears you moving he starts up again! I'm hoping that he will outgrow this stage.

Danny Was Sick, Sort Of

We had a very stressful week - the week that Danny was sick. Llamas and alpacas are the only animal that we have encountered that when they get sick they seem to quickly give up hope. If you don't catch whatever it is in the early stages, then the prognosis seems to be fairly grim.

It started when Danny's eyes got a little mucusy. We weren't sure what that was about, but it seemed to indicate some general level of infection so we gave him a shot of penicillin (which is the only medication we keep at the ranch). It seemed to work and he was fine for the next few days.

During this particular day Danny was fine - usual eating, pooping, playing. After his dinnertime bottle he was put into his stall as per normal. When I went to check on him later that evening, something was definitely wrong. He seemed to be bloated and uncomfortable. This was strange behaviour from a llama! At first I thought that something wasn't right in his stall, so I checked all that out, but everything was fine. As per any baby you go through all of the checklist - have they eaten, have they pooped, did they pick something up, any knicks anywhere (okay, that one may be only relevant to animal babies!). Everything seemed to be fine. Except that in the process of running through everything to eliminate all the obvious signs, he laid down on his side and started thrashing his head about.

In Llamas and Alpacas this is a very bad thing. The Llama normal sitting position, "cushing" is very similar to what you see camels do (they are related) in that they fold in their front and back legs and get up and down in a rocking motion. If a Llama goes over on their side, it is a good indication that something is VERY wrong. The head thrashing is the next sign that something is very bad. If you don't figure out what is wrong very quickly at this point, the opportunities to fix the situation rapidly get worse. Needless to say, I was in a panic at this point trying to figure out what was wrong.

Panicking, but at a loss as to what could be wrong, I picked Danny up and made him stand and forced him to walk around. I was concerned that maybe his intestines were twisted or he hadn't pooped enough or something was wrong internally that would explain the bloating. So I walked him for the next few hours, and massaged him, and talked myself hoarse.

After a while I could hear something working inside his stomach region, but was no closer to figuring out what was wrong. Every time I let him go he would be fine for a few minutes and then down he would go. So we kept at it. And then he got the hiccups. I didn't even know that Llamas could get the hiccups - but that was definitely what it was! And then I thought he was going to throw up. Now I know in other animals that throwing up can be deadly - they are not built for food to come back up that way and llamas necks are soooo long. So then I tried to talk him out of throwing up. Thankfully, that worked but he didn't stop hiccuping.

To make a really long evening short, he eventually stopped hiccuping. I think he had some gas because he relieved some of that in the natural way. So by about 3:00 am I was thinking that he had stabilized to an extent. He wasn't going over on his side anymore, so I was semi-hopeful. I put him back in his stall and went to mine.

Next morning he was fine and it was like the previous night had never happened, except I had the bags to prove it.

Danny Playing With Sheep

In our ongoing struggle for Danny to make friends, we've had him out in the arena with the ewes and their babies. The babies just love playing with Danny - they bounce over and run around him. Danny, on the other hand, has been a little slow on the uptake. He hasn't quite got the handle on the give and take required for playtime. He either stands still while the lambs bounce around him or he runs off in another direction. I'm sure in time he'll get it.

The picture isn't very good, but it's a picture of Danny standing beside one of the maternity pens with a Dorset sheep in it and you can just make it by Danny's front feet another little white object. This is the ewe's lamb. We always build our maternity pens so that the lambs can get out and run around and visit back and forth. So the lamb and Danny were visiting back and forth. It's interesting because some lambs just ignore Danny, while others lambs are always right up to him. But we see that in all of our herds of animals - some animals gravitate towards each other and can always be found in each others company - best friends forever.

Danny Making Friends

Because Danny is alone we are trying to make sure that he has play time with other animals. Our herd of Llamas and Alpacas is at about 48 right now, well 49 with Danny, and they are separated into three different fields. The females and babies are in one field with a few of our riding horses, the geldings share a field with our flock of sheep and the studs are sharing a field with some of our steers. So we don't really have any llamas or alpacas that are immediately on hand that we could let him associate with.

I know that it probably sounds a little anal - making sure an animal has play time with other animals - but we know from experience that a happy, socialized animal grows up to be a happy, well-adjusted adult. And there is so much that animals learn from being with their mothers and with other animals. So we are trying to ensure that Danny has some similar experiences to draw on.

Like starting to eat hay. Since I don't intend to eat hay to show him how it's done, we make sure he spends time with some of the ewes and their babies. Baby sheep can start to nibble on hay in the first week of life, I've seen them do it when they are 2 days old! Of course, they still drink milk as their primary meal, but they learn what to eat and how to eat from watching mom. Since we have a number of ewes and their babies in the arena right now - easier to make sure the new babies are okay - I figured it would be great for him to spend time with them to learn how to do things.

The baby sheep didn't care - they bounded over and wanted to run and play. I'll try and get some photos to show because it is adorable. But the moms weren't sure what he was all about and they didn't want him around at first. They are gradually warming up to each other. That's okay - it's winter and we have plenty of time.

The other animal that Danny is getting to know is our Dalmation, Spring Fever. Spring is a spayed registered female Dalmation. I love having a Dalmation as a ranch dog because it is so unexpected! Anyway, Danny and Spring spend time together around the ranch. Spring completely tries to mother Danny and watches him to make sure he's not getting into things. Spring could be sitting down and Danny will bound over to her, kicking up his heels, and Spring doesn't bat an eyelash. Just sits there watching him.

In the picture Spring is cleaning Danny off after a bottle. Maybe Spring just likes the taste of the milk! You can see the Danny is already growing taller than Spring. It'll be interesting to see how tall he ends up being.

Naming and Feeding Time

The first week we had Danny life was only concerned with two things: what were we going to call him and what were we going to feed him.

We spent the first week trying out different names every day and seeing how they fit. Everyone got into the act - he was Fred or George or Titan or Pavlov - nothing seemed to really fit. We settled on Danny for a couple reasons: we wanted a strong name that he would be able to learn to recognize, we don't have a Danny on the ranch, and someone thought he looked a little bit like the character Danny in Grease (played by John Travolta). Okay, that was the real reason we settled on Danny. But it really seems to fit him!

Since we've never had an orphan llama before we've been kind of reading and phoning friends and figuring things out as we go along. Because we also have a herd of sheep, we had an emergency supply of lamb milk on hand (It's dried, like powder milk and you add water to it). So we made up a batch of lamb milk and tried him on that. He hated the first bottle and wouldn't swallow it so that it just dribbled down his chin!

We made the second bottle hotter, figuring that llamas have some of the highest body temperatures of all livestock, so maybe they like their milk a little hotter as well. It worked! He started drinking out of the bottle. It took a couple feedings for him to get used to using a rubber nipple, but he adjusted fairly quickly. We also like to use Dasani water bottles for our feeding bottles. They are a good size and most of all, the livestock nipples fit the tops really well! They also stand up to repeated use and a variety of temperatures really well, so we are not having to replace them frequently. Just wash, rinse and reuse.

This picture is of my mom feeding Danny. He's a couple weeks old in this picture and obviously has the whole drinking from a bottle down pat. He has his own nest at night, but during the day we encourage him to hang out with us. A couple things that are important to remember when feeding llamas is that they need to have their heads almost all the way up - she actually doesn't have his head far enough back in this photo. This is a very natural position for them when they are drinking from their mother and because of the neck and stomach this position makes sure that what they are eating goes down without causing any difficulties.

Danny's First Days with Us

Danny first came into the world on a somewhat cold and snowy winter day - December 26, 2007 in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. Danny is a grey and white male llama. We found him the day after he had been born. We were driving the small tractor around doing chores when I looked over at the field where our female llamas are and noticed what I first thought was small deer crossing the field. After really looking at it I realized it was a baby llama! We were very surprised because we weren't expecting any babies during the winter. We had received some more female llamas a few months before to add to our herd and had been told that they weren't pregnant, but obviously one of them was.

When we went into the field to check him out he was very obviously with the horses and not with the llamas. In fact, it looked like my quarterhorse gelding was protecting him and one of our Standardbred mares was anxiously looking on. When we tried to reunite him with the llama herd the mare circled the llamas whickering anxiously for him - just as if he was her foal. We think that he was probably born in the afternoon - evening of December 26, the horses took up with him the morning of the 27th and then we found him in the afternoon.

We spent the afternoon trying to figure out who his mother was, but no female claimed him, so we took him in with us. This was very odd behaviour for the females and not one we have ever encountered before. In fact, they are generally so protective of their babies that we can't even get close until their six months old! We weren't even sure if we would be able to keep him alive but here he is a month later and he continues to do well! He sure is a fighter. So this is going to be his story.