Here are some of my ideas please add your own! Temperature extremes are a fact of life and there is no doubt they contribute to the stress in your animals lives. Managing alpacas and llamas is about managing stress and with some planning and creativity you can make it through both hot and cold extremes in good shape. Following is laundry list of ideas that you may not have thought of. If reading this causes you to think of additional ideas please go to the new topic “Advice for Severe Winter Weather” and add your ideas to the list. Food and Calories: Feed extra! Not only is it important to offer feed with more concentrated caloric value— think alfalfa hay in addition to your regular grass hay but more of it and all day. It is especially important that your animals have a chance to tank up just before the sun goes down and the cold really settles in for the night. Likewise it is important to get up early and get some high value food stuffs in front of them first thing in the morning. I am not a big advocate of grain but really cold temps provide the exception, especially for older animals that are not growing much fleece any more. Bedding: Make sure to provide very deep bedding in extremely cold temps. There is real value in bedding with lots of fluffy straw so that your animals can create a nest. I think when temps are really cold it makes much more sense to just add bedding on top of what is there and don’t bother to muck out. In fact there are many people in really cold climates that do this all winter. The bedding composts throughout the winter and provides warmth. If you aren’t up for mucking out an entire winter’s worth at least allow the bedding to accumulate for the length of the really cold weather. The additional insulation from the ground is a good thing and goodness knows you might enjoy a break from that particular chore when it is so cold. Don’t add unnecessary stress: I doubt you would opt for any training sessions in extremely cold weather but you might decide to do something like move some animals around for weaning or other management reasons perhaps to make it easier to deal with frozen water. I would suggest holding off on moving animals into new groups until the weather is warmer. Changing who lives with who can be stressful and you don’t need to add any stress when it is really cold! Deal with drafts: Have a look at your barn and check for places where the wind can get in. Our animals are hardy but when it is really cold a stray hole in the wall of your barn can really make a difference. Make the barn or shelter feel safe: I am amazed at how often the animals don’t even use a barn when the weather is bad. Years ago I discovered that having more than one opening makes a big difference in the perception of how safe an enclosure is. For example youngsters are much more willing to use a creep area if it is bigger and has more than one entrance and exit. The same is true of a barn. Multiple open doors mean that the animals feel safer being inside. You can always opt to herd animals into a barn and close them in but this is a trade off when it comes to stress. Being closed in against their will is not the ideal situation. The best of all possible worlds is that the animals feel safe being in the barn and out of the wind and hang out in willingly. Leaving multiple doors open may compromise the temps a bit BUT will provide the benefit of making the animals more willing to be inside voluntarily. Offer warm water first thing in the morning and last thing at night: Taking out a bucket of warm water with some molasses is a wonderful treat for animals on a cold day. Water heaters are great but there is nothing quite so good as some “camelid” hot chocolate! Be careful with immersible water heaters. My preference if you don’t have professional stock waterers is a kennel bucket with a heated sleeve instead of an immersible element. Check that all cords are in good shape and tucked away from animals that might try nibbling on cords. Heat lamps can see like a good tool but they can be dangerous. I would opt for other alternatives like deep bedding and blanketing animals and skip the heat lamps.
