Our “Officially Amazing” Mama Mananita
By Kate Blackburn
Antelope Alpacas, LLC
Elizabeth, CO
I’m pretty sure they laughed all the way to the bank when we bought her back in 2005. She was just 8 years old, part of our starter herd, and boy was she a handful. One of the local vets even categorized her as a wicked wa-hee-nee. It took at least 2 people to wrestle a halter onto her and when she kicked, she really packed a wallop. I used to say that she was the Karate Kid’s mama. She’d always try to knock your head off your block and THEN ask questions. But what did we know? My husband and I were newbies and just getting started as alpaca breeders. We had made a pact. When we bought our starter herd of 4 alpacas, we agreed that they would never be sold. They would live out the rest of their lives with us.
By Kate Blackburn
Antelope Alpacas, LLC
Elizabeth, CO
I’m pretty sure they laughed all the way to the bank when we bought her back in 2005. She was just 8 years old, part of our starter herd, and boy was she a handful. One of the local vets even categorized her as a wicked wa-hee-nee. It took at least 2 people to wrestle a halter onto her and when she kicked, she really packed a wallop. I used to say that she was the Karate Kid’s mama. She’d always try to knock your head off your block and THEN ask questions. But what did we know? My husband and I were newbies and just getting started as alpaca breeders. We had made a pact. When we bought our starter herd of 4 alpacas, we agreed that they would never be sold. They would live out the rest of their lives with us.
Mananita came to us with her 6-month-old baby boy by her side and a free breeding. That breeding gave us the first cria born on our ranch in 2006, a beautiful baby girl. That’s when we started calling her Mama. Her next two crias were also baby girls. Ironically, they were both actually born on the Labor Day holidays in 2008 and 2009. What are the odds on that? Everyone was always hopeful to get a female cria and we got three in a row. She was an excellent protective mother and took very good care of all of her babies.
Over time with some training, patience, and understanding, Mama learned to trust me. I was eventually able to get a halter on her without anyone’s help and was always respectful of her back kick. I even taught her some key words like stand, touch, get dressed, coat, and walk. Those words would prove to be most helpful in the years to come. She lost the vision in her left eye first and a couple of years later she lost the vision in her right eye. I found out when one morning she was bumping into the others and they were all spitting at her. We set up her own stall next to the others right away. She learned that her hay was always here and her water was always there. We also set up her own pen within a pen outside so she could get some fresh air and sunshine and still be with the others too. I would tell her to stand and get dressed, put a halter on her, then take her on a guided walk around the property to exercise her legs. With my elbow rested on her neck as we walked, I would tell her that I would help to be her eyes and would always take good care of her. After her right eyeball disintegrated and she was left with an empty eye socket, I would flush it out with warm water and put a dab of lubricating ointment in it on a regular basis. Mama learned a new key word, medicine. The vet told us that alpacas will often just quit eating and die after they lose their eyesight. Not Mama. Our special needs routine continued for another three years.
They say the lifespan of an alpaca is 15-20 years. As Mama was approaching her 24th birthday, I checked the Guinness World Records for the oldest living alpaca. I found a record for the oldest living Llama but nothing for the oldest living alpaca. So, I paid the fee and applied to have a new category approved for the “Oldest living alpaca in captivity”. Three months later the new category was established. After carefully reading through the guidelines for collecting and submitting the evidence needed to become a Guinness World Records title holder, we established the date for conducting our formal record attempt and invited our vet and two independent witnesses to participate. The entire process was captured in photographs and video. The vet performed an examination that was observed and documented by our two witnesses. Her physical health was evaluated, her microchip number was validated, and a blood sample was drawn from her neck for DNA analysis by the lab. Her certificate of registration was documented evidence of her July 29, 1997 birth date, the microchip numbers were matched, and the blood DNA results positively confirmed her identity. It took three days shy of one full year to accomplish getting Mananita the Guinness World Record title for the “Oldest living alpaca in captivity”. I could have paid a hefty fee to expedite the process but opted not to. We were so proud that our Mama was now and forever in the record books and declared “Officially Amazing”.
Mama turned 25 in July of 2022. One morning in September, she was found lying down in her stall and she wouldn’t get up. She didn’t appear to be in any pain at all, her breathing was normal, and she seemed to be resting peacefully. Her ears twitched when we talked to her and we were confident that she knew when we were there. It really didn’t make any sense to load her into a trailer and drive a few hours to get her to the CSU emergency room. She didn’t need to be put through any unnecessary stress or procedural trauma. If she was going to leave us, it seemed to be by her own choice. I didn’t want her to be alone so I spent 15-1/2 hours in the barn with her that day. We made her a soft bed of hay and covered it with an old bath towel for her to lay on. She was kept comfortably warm and I used a syringe to get a little water into her mouth. Our vet advised us that it could take 7 to 10 days and then paid us a somewhat strange compliment. She said that we were now paying the price for taking such good care of our animals. We had no idea that it would take so long. Although in nearly 20 years our herd had grown to 21 alpacas and 3 llamas, we had never gone through losing an alpaca naturally like this before. We cleaned her up, changed her bedding, and frequently checked on her every day for the next nine days until she finally passed. She was privately cremated and is now back home with us where she has always belonged. Over the years we learned a lot from each other and it’s comforting to know that she lived a very long and happy life with us. Our pact remains unbroken with Mama and now includes all the others too.
