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Cria Care
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Alpaca babies usually make their entrance into the world with little fuss and muss from either mom, cria or even breeder. But there are times, that special attention is needed around their arrival either due to a poorly positioned cria at delivery, a premature birth, a dam's death during delivery, or even simply birth during cold weather. These items here are a few of the must-have items during these rare problems births. Please note this is not an exhaustive list of cria care items. Please see our other sections within the Alpaca Readiness Guide to learn of other useful things to have on hand for both healthy crias and those needing a little more care.
Items shown above are as follows:
Pritchard Nipple:
These nipples are the best for use in administering Colostrum supplemental milk or electrolytes. They can be screwed on to a graduated bottle, or even to a recycled standard 20 oz. plastic pop bottle. The flutter valve within the nipple adjusts flow, making it well accepted by crias.
Latex Obstetrical Gloves:
There may come a time when you have to actually assist in the delivery of a cria. And most likely that assistance will involve more than simply pulling on any of the cria's limbs already exposed. And regardless of the level of your involvement, you should sterilized both your arms and hands and where an obstetrical glove on the arm that may be going into the dam. Latex gloves come in shorter lengths, but these are not adequate for ensuring that no pathogens enter the dam while you assist. You must where the long, shoulder length obstetrical gloves. One box should be good for a very long time!
Cria Coats:
Having a cria coat around for use during cold weather can be the difference between life or death, especially if your facilities do not provide a way for you to get the mom and baby out of the weather, and preferably into a heated area. We use cria coats made of water resistant cordura nylon and lined with a layer of Thinsulate insulation
followed by a layer of polar fleece to keep the cria warm and dry. The are adjustable ay the front and bottom closings to accommodate a growing cria. And they are washable! We have used cria coats even on our healthy crias at times to give them a break from fighting the weather during the late fall and winters.
For additional cria care items, see the other sections for info on such things as the following:
feeding syringes, thermometer, stethoscope, nasal aspirator, karo syrup, probios
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