Rosemary

Hobart, Tasmania, AUSTRALIA


Joined July 30th 2007

Number of Posts:
111

Number of Comments:
496

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10



About Me
I have a small hobby farm south of Hobart, in Tasmania. My little farm is home to 20 or so alpacas, which are wonderfully entertaining and great fun to have around.

My blog is simply the day to day ramblings of life on an alpaca farm.

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Recent Posts

Alpaca Associations

May 7th 2008 22:18
In Australia, there are currently two main alpaca associations you can join, the Australian Alpaca Association (AAA) and the Australasian Alpaca Breeders Association (AABA).

The AAA was the first alpaca association set up and maintains a register of alpacas called the International Alpaca Register (IAR). AABA also has a register which is called the Australasian Alpaca Register (AAR)

Alpacas can be registered and a record of their pedigree is kept for future breeding purposes. This is useful if you are buying alpacas to help determine the bloodlines of the alpaca you are thinking about.
Australian Alpaca Association Logo
Australian Alpaca Association

You can register an alpaca with the AAA if both his or her parents are registered, and the father is also certified. (Certification requires a DNA test and a veterinary check to ensure the male has no genetic faults).

With AABA, you can register any alpaca, but if you don’t have information about the parentage, the alpaca will also need to be DNA tested. AABA has a ‘Verified Register’ which records alpacas with full DNA testing and verified parentage.

Australasian Alpaca Breeders Association Logo
Australasian Alpaca Breeders Association

Most registered alpacas will be sporting an association ear tag and come with a certificate stating their name, number and pedigree details.

You can register males, females and even wethers (castrated males) if you want to, but it can get pretty expensive to register all of them, so many breeders are now registering just their very best animals. Some breeders don't register any of their alpacas.

The AAA runs the majority of alpaca shows in Australia currently and you can only enter an alpaca if he or she is registered with AAA. The exception is wethers. You can show them, registered or not.

AABA is a fairly new association and only runs a couple of shows currently, but I believe they are planning to run more shows in the future. AABA have set up an online auction website AABA Market, where you can buy and sell alpaca products.

If you’re new to alpacas, joining an association is a good way to meet other alpaca people and find our more about alpacas. They send out magazines and newsletters and have various events throughout the year that you can attend.
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Protexin – for the slops

May 1st 2008 00:57
This is going to be an incredibly boring post for 99.9% of the people in the world today. HOWEVER, there is probably a person out there in the world (or even maybe two) who have an alpaca, or a pig, goat, chicken, horse or dog, with the slops. And if you’ve ever had an animal with the slops, you’ll appreciate that this post may be very useful for them.

This is about a product called Protexin which is a multi-strain probiotic, useful in the treatment of scours in animals. Scours is another name for the slops - or diarrhoea if you want to get technical.
Protexin
Protexin

Scours can be caused by any number of things, from something as simple as eating too much lush, green feed and insufficient fibre, to a very serious disease. So, having a good vet on hand is very important if you are caring for any animals, including alpacas.

Protexin contains microbes which re-balances the bugs in the intestines and optimises the digestion of food. For those who like to know the specifics, these are: Lactobacillus acidophilus; L. delbrueckii subspecies bulgaricus; L. plantarum; L.rhamnosus; Bifidobacterium bifidum; Enterococcus faecium; Streptococcus salivarius subspecies themophilus.

Anyway, let’s just say it’s good stuff!

Protexin can be useful in cases where the cause is something like a change in feed, stress due to transporting, or a change in living conditions - for example when you’re weaning a young alpaca off his mum. It can also be useful in re-establishing the system balance after a course of antibiotics.

You can add Protexin to the animal’s feed or water so it’s pretty easy to administer. It’s available from most rural merchandise stores, some pet shops or from vets. Thankfully, we haven’t had many poo problems here, but we still keep some Protexin in the cupboard for when it’s needed.

So, if you are the person out there who has an alpaca with the slops – I sympathise. It’s distressing to see soup coming out the back of your alpaca (particularly if you had indian last night too!). Please don’t ignore it though, as scours can be very serious (or even fatal) if left untreated and often it’s a very simple thing to fix.
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The Bombay Call Centre

April 28th 2008 06:11
They've been on the boil pretty much non-stop today. I’ve got some work on which involves excel and word documents with lots of data and graphs etc all linked up to each other - yes, I know, the day’s already doomed when you’re dealing with anything microsoft.

Anyway, I got a few calls early on. People I simply could not understand, someone asking for the “gentleman owner please of the business’ (grrrrr) and a couple more who sounded like they were phoning from down a mine shaft.

All the while my dandy excel spreadsheet kept telling me the links weren’t found and I started getting, well, just a little frustrated.

A couple more calls, the ones where they just hang up on you, and my word document decided to shit itself.

Now, here’s something funny and it’s the truth. One of my dogs (he must be a mormon or something), absolutely hates me swearing. Whenever my wonderful ms programs start giving me joy, I let loose with a string of expressive, colourful words (I work alone, so I can do that).

Whenever I start swearing, I hear the familiar flip flap and turn round to see the little guy’s bum disappearing through the doggy door. He goes and sits outside for a while and comes back once I’ve calmed down.

Talk to my dog.


I generally calm down pretty quickly – because he makes me laugh when he leaves the room like that. Such a good reminder for me to chill out and consider the important things in life – which aren’t word, excel and indian telemarketers. (Note, I’m using all lower case there intentionally – it’s just what I think of them today).

Anyway, I’ve just left one hopeful on hold for a while, pleased that he won't be harassing someone else for a couple of minutes.

I’ve pretty much written off the afternoon. I can’t concentrate on my work long enough to get anything done and I’ve already upset my poor little boy. Its way too cold for him to be hanging around outside, so I’ll just have to get my work done later on tonight (after hours, when I no longer have to pick up the phone).

For now though, thanks to my little ‘soap and water boy’, I’m in a good frame of mind again and in the mood to have some fun. I came across this site, Sorry Gotta Go which has some funny messages to play to the next caller.

Doh! That one just hung up on me. Mmmmm. Could go a nice Vindaloo for dinner. Yum!
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Alpaca with Apple

April 25th 2008 05:48
No, not an exciting new recipe I’ve thought up, just an alpaca, with an apple.
Alpaca eating an apple
Alpaca eating an apple

This is Alice. Alice is 8 years old. She was born here. Alice knows that if she’s friendly, the two-legged’s will give her yummy things to eat


[ Click here to read more ]
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More Mating Madness

April 22nd 2008 04:29
Well, Ginger’s still not pregnant, nor is Maddy. Cappy had a great time with Ginger yesterday. I didn’t have my watch on, but it seemed like he was there for an extraordinarily long time, much longer than his usual 20 minutes.

Alpaca mating chaos
Alpaca mating chaos

[ Click here to read more ]
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Alpaca Notes Categories

April 18th 2008 01:02
I’ve been busy organising my posts into categories. I’ve got a few posts on here now, so I thought I should break them up so if you are looking for something particular about alpacas, you can find it more quickly.
Alpaca Notes Categories

I probably should break it down a bit more into sub-categories, but that will take some thinking about, and hell, it’s Friday, All I’m thinking about today is the weekend


[ Click here to read more ]
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Fleece to Wool

April 16th 2008 04:26
I’m looking for a spinner. Someone who likes to take the lovely soft fleece from my alpacas and turn it into beautiful, hand-spun wool to be knitted into comfy, warm things to wear in the winter time.
Alpacas
From pacas...


[ Click here to read more ]
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Why dogs bite the postman

April 13th 2008 22:44
I was going back through some of my old dachy photos and videos and came across these ones.

Dachys opening the mail
Dachys opening the mail

[ Click here to read more ]
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Needle time - Vitamin D

April 10th 2008 23:35
Going into winter, we give our alpacas a dose of vitamins. We give a combination of vitamins A, D & E, but it’s the vitamin D which is particularly important for these guys.

Vitamins A, D & E
Vitamins A, D & E

[ Click here to read more ]
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Mating Mayhem

April 9th 2008 01:02
I put Cappy and Daizi together this morning, so now most of the girls have now been mated. Ginger has mated three times!

Cappy & Ginger
Cappy & Ginger

[ Click here to read more ]
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Recent Comments

Comment by Rosemary
on change our lives, why should we?

May 8th 2008 00:32
Taking away might be the only solution. People like comfort and convenience. It's too easy to give in to.

Example: If air conditioning is available, people will buy it and use it for sure.

If it's not available, people would just have to get used to that.

Hoping that we humans will sort it before nature decides to get rid of us.

Comment by Rosemary
on Alpaca Associations

May 8th 2008 00:19
Hi Louie.

It does, might call my next cria Bjorn and register him with them

Comment by Rosemary
on SPORT and the BRAIN

May 7th 2008 23:29
Must be a hard job dealing with injuries like that. Specially in emergency dept where it's every case you see. They must have nerves of steel.

Some stress is good, keeps you thinking and on the ball (no pun intended there), but surely the nurses and doctors must suffer burn-out after a while, specially when they're doing double shifts etc.

Comment by Rosemary
on Alpaca Associations

May 7th 2008 23:21
Thanks katyzzz.

Comment by Rosemary
on Protexin – for the slops

May 1st 2008 05:15
Hi Louie, yes it's something you do what you can to avoid, but otherwise avoid thinking about.

All's well here. No curry last night

Comment by Rosemary
on we read you loud and clear

May 1st 2008 05:12
Sadly, it still comes back to $$$ and until the food, water and air becomes scarce for those with all the $$$, not much will happen.

Comment by Rosemary
on Alpaca Notes Categories

May 1st 2008 03:44
Ah. Now I'm with you. Thanks katyzzz.

Not sure why a video of Manly would turn up on an alpaca blog, but if it enticed you to click and have a look then the ad must be working

Comment by Rosemary
on War and Peace

May 1st 2008 01:50
Very thought provoking. Makes you consider what different people (and animals) are experiencing around the world. Good post.

Comment by Rosemary
on Protexin – for the slops

May 1st 2008 01:40
Ah, you never know when you might need to refer back to this post katyzzz ...

those bugs are lurking, lurking, just waiting for the slightest opportunity to grab ya. Cheers.

Comment by Rosemary
on Quick update: I got the job

May 1st 2008 01:09
Congratulations!

It's an extra buzz when you're in front by a mile too. Well done.