Why you should weigh alpacas regularly ?

Why you should weigh alpacas regularly ?

The health of our alpacas is the most important for us, and thus we care for proper nutrition, vaccination and supplementation of our animals. Alpacas are animals that do not directly show disease or that there is something wrong with them. Therefore, in the Heaven alpacas breeding farm we regularly check the condition of our alpacas in two ways.

The first and most important indicator of the health of our alpacas is regular weighing. Weighing adult alpacas in our farm is carried out once a week. This allows us to quickly detect weight loss in alpacas, which may be caused by giving the wrong food, difficult pregnancy, poor lactation during pregnancy or stress.

We weigh newborn alpacas more often to check if the mother gives them enough milk and colostrum. This is extremely important as cria is most prone to disease during this period due to low immunity. It is assumed that the mother's food constitutes of 10-15% of the weight of a newborn alpaca. If we notice that cria does not gain enough weight, we must react immediately and manually give a substitute milk. Weighing a newborn alpaca also tells us if the mother was eating properly during pregnancy. Newborn Cria should weigh around 7-8 kg. The average weekly weight gain of Cria ranges from 1 kg to 1.5 kg. Then we know that the toddler is developing properly. In the first two months, the young should gain about 12 kg of weight. Then, in the third and fourth month, their weight increases by about 5-6 kg per month. The weight of a six-month-old alpaca should be approx. 35-45 kg.

Weighing alpacas is an integral part of checking alpaca health in any farm. Often older specimens are heavily overgrown with fleece, which makes it impossible to see "by eye" the condition of the alpaca. In the event that she loses weight, we are not able to catch the protruding bones, and in the case of severe obesity, change the shape to a more round one. Thanks to the weight, we can quickly verify it.

It is also worth mentioning that when administering drugs to alpacas, the weight of the alpaca is mainly taken into account. Contrary to humans, where the usual use depends on the age and maturity of the person.

The scale should be placed in a place where alpacas are often found. It is extremely important because weighing takes place regularly and alpacas must feel comfortable during this simple procedure. In our breeding farm, the scales are inside our barn, right next to their lair. Thanks to this, our alpacas do not shed during weighting and usually the whole process is quick and efficient.

BCS SYSTEM (Body Condition Score of alpacas)

The second way to check the health of an alpaca is the so-called BCS system. It consists in manually checking the health of our pet. The BCS system has a scale of 1-5 points, with 1 being underweight, very poor health of the alpaca, and 5 being very overweight. ( for full information see the picture below - by clicking it you will get to full pdf. )

To assess the health of our alpaca in this way, place your hand on the animal's spine just next to the last ribs. Remember not to put your hand on the pelvis, as it is always very bony to the touch, even in the case of very obese alpacas, which can give us false feelings. The evaluation is based on a sense of the health of the alpaca's muscles on both sides of the spine. Press lightly with your fingers and thumb.

When the muscles are very small and we only feel the bones, we can talk about a large underweight

On the other hand, when we touch with our hand and we feel that the alpaca's back is convex, it may indicate obesity of the animal.

Detailed information on the BCS System and the test instructions are available by clicking on the attached photo.

In conclusion, regular weighing of alpaca and touching alpacas back is essential to check the health of these amazing animals. When you see weight loss or detect any differences by hand, you need to react quickly.