Alpaca first time no milk

[samssimonsays]

I have no advice but am interested in watching this.

I agree with the goats milk, fresh goats milk is the best way to go if you can not get milk from the mother.

 

[Latestarter]

Greetings @Crazy Hill Farms and welcome to BYH. I'm sorry this present issue with your new cria brought you to us. We have a limited number of camelid owners on the site and some of them have already posted. The others I haven't seen active in quite some time... As others have said, that first colostrum from mom is critical in almost all cases. You didn't say there were other adult female alpacas, but from the pic you shared, are you SURE that's the mother? If there are other potential mothers, was there afterbirth or other rear end staining that indicated this was the mother? The cria may be confused as to which one is mom...

I don't have any personal experience but would agree with what the others have shared. IMHO, fresh goats milk for the cria, if you have it, is better than a powdered formula (if it's available to you). As for mom, I think she needs much more high quality protein than what your present feeding regime is providing. What quality is the hay? Whatever you decide to do, as you add more/better nutrition for mom, do it in slow stages so she can adjust.

Here is some info I found regarding nutrition for camelids. I hope there's something there for you of value. http://www.rmla.com/html/-camelid_nutrition.htm

Hope everything works out for you and that you'll stay around and let us know how this turns out.