Re: [AlpacaTalk] nutritional needs
We feed about a tablespoon of stabilized rice bran to each pregnant or
lactating dam, and to my old and under-conditioned almost 14 yr old
dam, I request 2 T to added to her bowl. She's still rather thin, but I
think it's because she's old, and maybe we ought to add 1/4 cup rice
bran to her top-dress to fatten her up some more.
I forgot to add that we also top dress with 1 T flax seed, whole flax
seed, by the way. We've never had a problem with it. It does not get
stuck in their gum or cause abcesses. And we store it so that the can
be no accidents... We've had very good results with adding flax seed to
our alpacas' diets. I would never go without.
And we follow the label directions for our pelleted feed, with the old
stuff it called for feeding 1 lb per day, that's 2 cups to get the
daily ration of vitamins and minerals and "stuff". With our custom
feed, it's formulated to feed pregnant and lactating dams 1/2 lb per
day, males 1/4 lb per day. Since it weighs out to 1/2 lb being more
than 1 cup, we make it 1 very heaping cup. :) And the boys get a very
heaping 1/2 cup plus what gets left on my hand while scooping with the
measuring cup. In fact, I think maybe my old girl could use more
pellets in addition to the extra rice bran she gets.
We do tailor each individual's diet as much as possible without making
feeding time for 50+ animals a nightmare. And we keep track of which
animal gets which formula by bowl color. Oh, yes, we bowl feed. And we
segregate into stalls with similar food-dominant personalities, so each
animal is more likely to get their correct ration no matter what. We
also try to make feeding as time efficient as possible. :)
As for hay, we feed 2nd cutting Orchard Grass hay, free choice. We have
hay boxes that hold entire bales, so when one is empty or when we can
fill up an adjacent feed box with the contents of another, we do, and
bring in a new bale to the newly emptied box. Our hay comes from
Eastern Oregon, and in the Pacific Northwest, we are extremely Selenium
deficient, so our pelleted feed is high in Selenium. And it is labeled
for feeding only to alpacas. Selenium is very important in the
prevention of white muscle disease, black leg, and it is important for
good fleeces and skin. Basically all connective tissue growth. So we
like to make sure we have the correct amount in our feed, and not the
bare minimum.
Heather
Heather Zeleny
White Lotus Alpacas
Creswell, OR
541.895.0964
Holistic Farm and Elite Fleece
http://www.whitelot
http://www.whitelot
http://tech.
On Oct 25, 2008, at 7:30 PM, LunarStruck@
> Heather - this is the first time I've heard of anyone feeding rice
> bran to
> alpacas - I feed it to my older horses to keep weight on them and its
> great for
> their coats! Does it have the same effect on alpaca fleece? How much
> do
> you feed and do you feed the rice bran pellets? Thanks,
>
> SUSAN OLSON
> Alpaca Loco
> Riverside, CA
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posted by Chaddo at 8:03 PM
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