Wombaroo Alpaca Milk Replacer is a nutritionally balanced milk substitute for alpaca and llama. Use for orphaned cria or when mother's milk is limited.
Key Features:
* Specifically formulated to match the composition of alpaca milk.
* Elevated protein content to cater for the rapid growth rate of cria, and allow for early weaning.
* High in essential amino acids, including cysteine for healthy fleece growt
Success in hand-rearing young alpacas (cria) greatly improves if they receive colostrum at birth. Cria that don't get colostrum from the mother can be fed Impact Colostrum Supplement. Commence feeding Wombaroo Alpaca Milk Replacer after the initial feeds of colostrum.
Making up Milk:
To make 1 litre of milk: Mix 170g of powder to 850ml of warm water.
Add half the water first and mix to a paste. Then make add the remaining water and mix thoroughly. Pre-boil the water to ensure it is sterilised. If the water is too hot it can cause the milk to curdle. If it is too cold then it will be difficult to disperse the powder. Wombaroo contains elevated protein levels, so the milk needs to be well mixed to prevent it from separating out. An electric whisk can be used for mixing. Milk can be stored in the fridge for up to a day or can be frozen for up to 2 weeks. Once thawed out, discard any unused milk, and wash feeding utensils thoroughly.
Feeding:
Warm milk to about 35°C. Feed from a bottle and teat, with the bottle held vertically to simulate suckling from the mother's udder. This posture allows fluid passage directly to the third stomach compartment where milk digestion occurs. Feeding milk via a teat is preferred over bucket-feeding as this avoids milk from entering the first stomach compartment and causing digestive upset due to fermentation. Feed every 2 hours for the first 4 days, reducing this to every 4 hours by the end of the first week. By the third week feeding intervals may be reduced to every 6 hours.
To avoid dehydration during periods of hot weather give cria a drink of pre-boiled water between feeds. Always have clean drinking water available. Consult a veterinarian or experienced breeder for particular advice about cria husbandry.
Growth:
Depending on its sex, alpaca cria should weigh from 6 to 9kg at birth and double their body weight by 4 weeks of age. After this they should grow at a rate of 200-300g per day until weaning (figures are higher for llama cria). Where possible, weigh cria regularly to verify weight gains and determine the volume of milk to feed. Overfeeding milk can cause diarrhoea so feed the suggested volumes in the feeding guidelines.
Weaning:
Mother-reared cria are usually weaned at 6 to 9 months of age. However it is usually impractical to hand rear a cria for this amount of time so many owners will begin weaning as soon as possible. We would advise feeding milk for at least 3 months (approximately 25kg body weight), requiring about 75 litres of milk replacer. Cria can be offered high quality, digestible creep feed and hay from 7-10 days of age. This starts the development of microbial digestion of plant material in the first stomach compartment. Once they start to eat sufficient quantity of solid food, reduce the milk and increase the solids until they are fully weaned
SIZES: 1kg;
5kg;
5kg, 10kg & 20kg are *SPECIAL ORDER ONLY* and may take 4 weeks to arrive into our warehouse.