Wondering about some things that you thought were not answered in our DVD? We are NOT veterinarians! But we can tell you how we do things on our farms, Mount Airy Alpaca Company and Alpacas of Sunset Fields. Here are questions that I have been asked by people who watched our Alpaca Care DVD and loved it but wanted to know:

• How much do you feed each alpaca?
  
  

  • We cover hay feeders, grain feeders and mineral holders in our movie. We didn't answer the question of How Much food in the dvd movie because it depends on the alpaca. You really have to know your own alpacas and know which ones are chubby, which may be skinny and how much food it takes to get that particular alpaca to a normal weight. Smaller farms are sometimes better at monitoring the weight of each alpaca since they have less animals to keep track of and may touch each one more often.
    
    At Mount Airy Alpaca Company, we have always had a field we call the "weight watchers field." We use our gates to close off some of the pasture in this field and we are careful not to feed these girls very much grain. Other girls get 2 or even 3 times the normal amount of grain (which is roughly one cup) because they are nursing a cria, pregnant again and getting a little skinny. All get free choice orchard grass hay.
    
    We also have several different doors into our barn with each leading to a separate pen so we can feed some alpacas alone, inside the barn if they are timid about getting their share of grain. Two things to remember though:
    
    
    • Don't overfeed chubby pregnant girls but don't diet them either! They need fuel for their bodies to grow the cria.
      
      
    • Don't overfeed grain to the point where you will cause a stomache ulcer! Talk to your vet about how much is too much.
      
      
• What mineral supplement do you use?
  
  

  • We purposely didn't say this in the movie because you SHOULD choose your mineral supplement based on what you know about YOUR soil. Is it selenium deficient for example? Ask your county's Agricultural agent about your soil then tell this information to the person you will buy minerals from and ask them to recommend a specific blend. There are several types of Stillwater Minerals which is the brand we use.
    
    
• What lab do you use to test the blood you draw?
  
  

  • We show how we draw blood from our alpacas in the movie and how we put it in the container for the lab. For pregnancy tests, we send to M&M labs and for DNA tests, everyone sends to the Alpaca Registry Inc. Some of our alpaca breeder friends send blood to Cornell University. Please remember that this is not meant to be construed as veterinary advice. None of us is a veterinarian. If you are unsure about drawing blood, ask your veterinarian to do it.

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• Why does Blair the Dog get a movie credit but does not appear in the movie?

  • We cannot comment on the latter question due to impending legal action against us by the talent agency that represents Blair the Dog except to say that his scene was cut for artistic reasons only.
    
    
• Why is the sound level so variable in the movie?
  • We have to apologize for not doing a better job of making the sound level consistent throughout the entire movie! We eventually figured out that, during the DVD burning process, the movie making software would burn some of the various soundtracks louder than others. So the levels seemed good while we were editing the movie but, after the burning process, the music track came out louder than the soundtrack that was set during filming and the voice-over track was quieter than either of those two. This is not too noticeable when the movie is played from start to finish but it is noticeable when you are choosing from the DVD menu and the music is loud. Sorry about that folks!
    
    
• a bit more information on eg. using the chute and your "dental station" would have been appreciated (why and how to use, where to buy, price info etc.)
  
  
• The chute that is seen in the video during the teeth trimming and cutting segment is homemade by Tom Perez using plans found in issues #39 & 53 of Llama Life II. The designers were Stan Ebel and Jim Hook of Colorado. Ebel is the president of Buckhorn Llama Co. Here is a link to the plans for the homemade chute. You can also buy a top of the line chute with many more features from Mr. Ebel's website Buckhorn Llama Co. For alpaca farms with a little more disposable income, I can recommend the chute made by Mr. Ebel for such chores as milking out the dam, treating cuts on the legs and belly and any other chores that require you to be under the alpaca, because the sides of that chute can be opened while the sides of our homemade chute cannot.
  
  The mystery object used to hold open the mouth of the alpacas in our DVD's teeth trimming segment is actually a soft plastic "hook" that used to be part of our son's Pirate (Halloween) costume. As for why we use the chute for the teeth trimming, it is merely a matter of trying to keep the alpaca's head from moving while the dental work is being done. I know that some breeders and veterinarians prefer to sedate the alpaca in order to keep the alpaca from moving around too much. None of the alpacas seen in any segment of our alpaca care DVD were sedated. I would not recommend having anyone but a veterinarian sedate your alpaca.

 

If you have bought our Alpaca Care DVD but still have a question about something you didn't think got answered, we DO want to answer you! E-mail us your question and, if we think it's something a lot of new alpaca owners might wonder, we will add it to this page along with an answer.