CONDITION SCORING 

Condition scoring is a hands-on (literally) method for assessing how much fat cover an animal has.  It is a vital method for measuring the success of your feeding programme, because once your animals have a reasonable degree of fleece cover, it is impossible to tell how fat or thin they are just by looking.  The two major sites to get your hand on to feel are over the loins and down the ribs at the side of the chest.

[Diagram of condition score sites and condition score profiles.]

Various scales of numbers are used, most commonly 0-5 or 1-10, so it is important to make sure that any recorded measurements actually state, e.g. CS 4 out of 5 or CS 4 out of 10.  An ideal condition score is around 3.0 to 3.5, out of 5 but it is normal for each animal to fluctuate over the course of the year.  One who is condition score 3.5 out of 5 in the depths of the Winter while feeding a cria, is probably going to spend most of the year far too fat.  Conversely, an animal who goes down to 2.5 out of 5 at its lowest, need not necessarily be cause for alarm if it recovers to 3.5 out of 5 for the most part of the year.  When assessing condition scores, take into account what the animal is trying to do: E.g. feeding a cria, coping with Winter, and what score its grazing companions are, too.  If they are all much the same and not dangerously under or over weight, there’s less to worry about than if one is very different from the rest.

Weighing scales are more accurate than condition scoring, and larger enterprises will have and use them.  For keepers of fewer animals, catching each individual once a month and condition scoring it will provide vital monitoring of your feeding plan.  It’s a good idea to get into the habit of condition scoring any animal that you catch, as a habit.

Simple Eh?
The fly in the ointment with all of these calculations is the physiological limitations of the animal itself.  If we determine that a particular animal needs more or less of this or that, it is not always easy to make the adjustments in practical terms.  Will the lactating, pregnant hembra actually eat all of the ration we calculate for her?  Will her bossy neighbour steal half (or more) of it, or at least bully her away from it so that neither of them get it?

The other problem is that if we make the ration too concentrated in terms of particularly energy but also protein, we can exceed the alpaca’s ability to digest and absorb it.  The environment in C1, C2, and C3 becomes over acidified, the microbes become less efficient and active, then their ability to regulate their environment reduces, so it gets worse, and so on.

Feeding Practices
Your animals need sufficient space in which to feed.  This won’t usually be a problem in the Summer when they should be grazing, but if they are fed in yards or sheds in the Winter, you need to bear in mind that a dominant alpaca could guard an area around it of at least two metres’ diameter.  Troughs for concentrate feed need to be long enough to take account of any greedy and dominant individuals.  If possible, assort groups so that these animals are not kept with shy feeders, or supply individual feeding trays so that an animal driven from one station can move on to another.

Hay Spoils
Once exposed to air out of its bale, hay starts to spoil and in a day or so will become unpalatable.  You can delay this process by keeping it dry, and the use of roofed hayracks and polythene feed bags reduces wastage due to spoilage. 

Alpacas are discriminating feeders, and it’s unwise to try to make them eat up the hay they’ve pulled onto the ground.  They won’t consume sufficient of it to meet their needs, and they probably rejected it because it’s not good enough in some way.  Take the losses on the chin and give them plenty - it’s cheaper than Vets’ bills.

Feeding Weaners
Young animals can take time to get the hang of concentrate feeding.  Some take to it straight away and others seem to think that because a grownup spat at them when they were little, concentrates aren’t allowed.  It can be helpful to scatter tasty treats on the ground in the early days; (sticks of carrot or apple work well for lots of animals, but don’t give them whole fruit, because someone will choke, I promise you).  Once they know they like something, you can put it into the feeding bowl or trough to tempt them to take food from there.  Again, you need plenty of space so that the greedy ones don’t get it all.