Sweet Water Alpaca Ranch

Experience alpacas

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Starting to bucket feed my cria.

My Friend Flicka
OK, so where is the food!?

OK, so where is the food!?

Bucket Unit

Bucket Unit

Five weeks ago I was faced with having to bottle feed a young cria. The first week I took her in the house at night and kept her in the bathroom so that she was protected from the cold nights, and I could feed her in comfort. She was fed every 2-3 hours. After a week she stayed out at night and got the last feed late in the evening, then first thing in the morning.

She is doing well and gaining weight very nicely. However, with the holidays coming up I was trying to find a way for her to feed herself so that I could get away and celebrate with my family in San Diego. I heard about feeding crias from a bucket! I found the supplies had everything hooked up per instructions. Then I just had to make her realize that milk was available to her at any time. She still wants a bottle from me when I come down for feeding but she is obviously drinking from it as I can see the milk level going down quite nicely. She has doubled in weight and growing very strong. Now at 2 months old she is also eating quite a bit of hay. She is doing very well!