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Ahhh, weanlings. Sometimes I wonder if weaning is harder on the weanling or harder on the farmer. Listening to their pittiful cries or watching them pace when they are due for a snack is at times heartwrenching, but something that has to be done. I always have felt this process is more difficult for the boys than it is for the girls. The boys not only are weaned, but are exposed to a new group of alpacas and they have to find their place in the pecking order and develop new releationships. Which brings me to the story of Ben.
We have a beautiful junior herdsire, Wawiobwan, who is being 'weaned' for his third time now. He is far from a macho, at just over 1 1/2 years old. The first time we put him in with the older boys he paced the fencline day and night whining for his mom (Clover). Through sleet, snow and freezing rain he stood out in the paddock, stoic, waiting for me to give in. We tried to use feeding time as a way to bring him closer to the rest of the boys in the group. He refused to leave the fenceline so we would feed him in that area, away from the rest of the boys. Eventually we brought his bowl closer and closer to the group feeding area hoping he would catch on and develop some sort of bond with the other guys.
During this time we monitored his health and weight. Many weanlings will lose weight during this stressful time. It is to be expected. Unfortunately Ben lost too much weight during the stress of this weaning period that we put him back in with the females. He was not showing any interest in doing the things that boys would do, so we knew it would be okay to mix him with unbred females.
By this time his mom's milk had dried up so he was officially not nursing and technically weaned. But we knew at some point he would have to go back in with the big boys.
Well, that time has come. Luckily we had another little boy on our farm that Ben has bonded with, Bob. Today I put Ben and Bob in the boys paddock to a much different experience. You see, where Ben is the soft spoken momma's boy, Bob is a terror. From the day he was born he was all boy all the time. Harrassing everyone and everything. Quite the go-getter. Sparring between he and Ben is entertaining and a daily occurrence. Very wild kingdom without the blood curtling screams. Just playful.
This time the experience of separating Ben from his mom seems to be a little better. The moment I put them in the pen with the big boys, Bob and Ben kicked up their heels and ran around exploring their new environment. Once that was over, Bob went and picked on every male in the paddock, running full speed, gaining air time and checking them full force. Which is typically retaliated by a large ball of spit and scolding from the victim. Ben seemed less interested in where his mom was and I even caught him heading down to the boys shed to get to the hay feeder. We will continue to monitor his weight in the coming days and if he starts to drop we will come up with a special feeding routine to keep the calories coming in. But I have good feelings this time around.
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