The Princess Breaks a Nail!
The only significant news in today's cria watch is that Chloe broke a toe nail.
Actually, we're glad it broke -- now we don't have to trim it.
General practice in the alpaca industry is to avoid stressing pregnant females in the last sixty days of pregnancy. This is because stress tends to induce labor and premature labor is not a good thing. Chloe is well into this sixty-day no-stress period and we've been debating trimming her toenails. The discussion centers on the stress caused to Chloe by trimming her nails versus the stress caused by walking around the pasture with untrimmed nails. We don't want to stress Chloe and the long nails aren't really causing her much problem in our soft, wet pastures. We'll leave Chloe's nails until after delivery unless there are real problems.
Today's broken nail was not a problem.
I've been told that alpacas in their native habitat don't need nail trimmings because the ground is rocky and the nails wear down. In our experience, long alpaca toe nails tend to break off just beyond the quick. We've seen the same pattern enough times to think it's a natural process and I'm beginning to doubt the rocky ground theory in favor of my nail-breaking theory.
Hard to imagine a day when the Princess breaks a nail and everybody cheers.
Actually, we're glad it broke -- now we don't have to trim it.
General practice in the alpaca industry is to avoid stressing pregnant females in the last sixty days of pregnancy. This is because stress tends to induce labor and premature labor is not a good thing. Chloe is well into this sixty-day no-stress period and we've been debating trimming her toenails. The discussion centers on the stress caused to Chloe by trimming her nails versus the stress caused by walking around the pasture with untrimmed nails. We don't want to stress Chloe and the long nails aren't really causing her much problem in our soft, wet pastures. We'll leave Chloe's nails until after delivery unless there are real problems.
Today's broken nail was not a problem.
I've been told that alpacas in their native habitat don't need nail trimmings because the ground is rocky and the nails wear down. In our experience, long alpaca toe nails tend to break off just beyond the quick. We've seen the same pattern enough times to think it's a natural process and I'm beginning to doubt the rocky ground theory in favor of my nail-breaking theory.
Hard to imagine a day when the Princess breaks a nail and everybody cheers.
posted by Upper Alpacas | 6:53 PM
1 Comments:
it's wonderful when nature intervene so aptly.
another thing about alpaca learned today.
Post a Comment
<< Home