The continuing adventures of Musette.
Musette, our little C-section baby that could, was weaned from her mom, Boheme, the other day. That was in point of fact, more the psychological weaning, as she had already more or less weaned herself some weeks earlier off of the hanging goat bottle which had been her primary food source since birth. Nonetheless, it was definitely time for her to strike out on her own away from her mama, with whom she was as deeply bonded as any of the other cria/dam pairs in her feed group, in spite of the rather difficult way she came into this world.
We had purchased Boheme from Jeff and Judith Zimbalist of Chatham Alpacas a couple of years ago after first seeing her at the North American show. And by “seeing her” what I really mean to say of course is, “getting our ass kicked by her in the show ring.” In any case, they were willing to part with their beautiful Peruvian Lancaster daughter and we were able to add some badly needed genetic diversity into the colored side of our breeding program. It was a win-win.
Granted, none of the ribbons or banners won by an alpaca matter even one iota if in the long term they are unable to replicate themselves. Well, suffice it to say that though Musette’s birth this past spring was more traumatic than anyone could have wished for, we have been thrilled with Boheme’s first cria. It says a lot that in a year when fawn and brown were a definite theme here in the birthing pens at CCNF, that Musette is close to a virtual lock to make the 2013 show string next April. For now she and a group of her fellow female weaners are romping around one of the pens and paddocks on the south side the Main Barn. In fact every time we’re down in the kitchen or living room of our house, we can see that feed group horsing around. Though there was some definite (and expected) whining happening those first few days post-weaning, Musette has settled right down and has quickly adjusted to her newfound independence. The next big thing for her will be halter training, most likely some time in February. For now we’ll just continue to watch her and see how she develops. Though most of her feed group at the moment is made up of white crias born in the first part of the birthing season, there is definitely going to be a demographic shift coming in relatively short order as more and more her paternal siblings get weaned. Is there such thing as a brown-out?
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