New Baby reindeer to my herd

The girls seem unimpressed, lol!

 

Wow, one of the girls has a very impressive set of antlers! Who is that? She is up close one minute into the video.

 

I loved how Hector had to run over to the fence as to get you, Mum's, attention or approval. He is so funny!

 

Hector is strutting his stuff, now if the girls will only take notice!!

 

The winds of love will be blowing soon - then Hector will become more interesting.

 

Mir, that's Twiglet... This is her very first year that she hasn't broken one or other antler. She has never had a decent set before this year pretty impressive even though they look like a Monkey Puzzle Tree.
Mischa used to have the prettiest antlers of all the girls but this year they are nowhere near as impressive but it is also the first year she has had a viable calf... Interesting

 

Great that Twiglet is trying to "change" her antler history.

I think I'd trade pretty antlers for pretty calf on Mischa any day.

 

Things happen daily but not sure they are interesting enough to share??
I weaned Freya yesterday (very late I know) but she was a VERY slow maturer. She honked enough to break my heart but I have found ways of distracting her... Ana (mother is more than happy moving to rutting paddock)

Hector is getting very rutty, despite non of his girls stripping yet... MY stats, show between day 1 and day 6, 90% of girls conceive after stripping.. so count down hasn't yet started... Picture Hector, this is the normal pose I get at the moment.. Not challenging per se but always playing with those antlers.

And just started working on finding a bull for Katya to visit as she is getting VERY stressy at not being allowed into rutting paddock...

 

Freya does look busy nimbling at the "new food". Good for Ana, birthing & raising her 1st baby....now she is done. Time to start all over.
I love Hector's pics. He is mister personality...that's for sure. Good luck with the rut. It's probably going to be a wild one.

 

In negotiations to take Katya to Monty's owner for the rut, as Katya is getting a little stressed being excluded from our Rutting paddock.

I haven't got a problem with the weekly charge but they want her for 12 weeks... I can't cope with that... they have 200 reindeer and not sure the can keep tabs on daily health of that many.
I know I can remove her from their rutting paddock, without entering & bull not noticing,as she is an easy girl...
Still working on it as she produces the best calves... Loki (this years) is becoming another Hector for his new owner... she has never even imagined such an easy reindeer.
Monty was Thor, Loki, Freya & Lexi's father - a bull I rented in.. Photo from last years rut

 

Katya then wouldn't be back until December....and that's if you took her right now! That seems waaaaay too long! Why do they have so many reindeer? 200 seems excessive!
It's great to hear Loki is a mister personality and so friendly with his new owners. It's a testament on how well you raise reindeer!!!

 

Brooke, it's to do with how long bulls "may" be in rut.. Bulls in rut can be lethal and no real telling when they will drop their antlers and become sweet again... But my bargaining power is that we don't need to enter a grumpy bulls paddock as I can tempt Katya to fence line, attach a rope and quietly move her to gate (with me other side of fence) and quietly get her through gate... They think it won't be possible or bull will get ar*ey but I have removed Katya from rutting paddock before using similar tactics when she went lame... I can do it but they may just want 12 weeks of boarding price... who knows, still negotiating!!!
PS Brooke they are the main importers/sellers of reindeer to the UK. They are who I purchased my original "wild" imports from... but 3 years ago they only had 2 live calves from all of their girls, felt quite smug this year as I rented a bull from them and had 100% sucess, for some reason the struggle to get their girls pregnant.. It's certainly not bull fertility, can only put it down to cow condition...??

 

What's the percentage in the wild?

 

That's really is strange. As you bought cows from them and didn't have any trouble getting them pregnant. Maybe diet??

 

Maybe it is just the numbers in the herd. I believe in nature if a species believes it will not have enough food and water its breeding becomes less and if like in the cat world babies are born they sadly kill them off! Just an uneducated guess!

 

I wonder if it is diet too. When Mom purchased sheep the flock was pregnant. They did have singles and twins but they were all small at birth. Some of the Moms developed Mastitis and unable to nurse so they became bottle babies. Mom fed them better than their previous owners and the following year, there were only twins and triplets, all births were almost double in size from previous year, all moms had plenty of milk and at weaning were in good body condition. Survival rates also increased but I don't remember the exact number of how many lambs were lost the first year.

 

That's very interesting, PnP! Thank you for sharing it.

This is one of the most interesting threads in the forum - thank you, too, Karen,for creating it....what an education we are all getting from one another!!

 

There are so many questions and very few answers, within the reindeer world...
My research prior to purchasing, even on the WWW, gave so few answers ... a few scientific papers that I waded through but of little relevance.
Since (with help from contacts I found in Alaska) we have managed to create a "closed reindeer site" worldwide to share the good and the bad. I can't tell you how wonderful it is, as we can give a SCREAM out if we have a very ill reindeer and it doesn't seem to matter what time of day or night... there may be someone awake that has come across a similar issue (our vets are still learning!).
When the group first got together they were working on calf survival rate at 50%, hoping now it is better. We haven't touched conception rate yet. But for me... just this year, I had 100% conception and 100% survival.
I did a scream out last year with Mischa's calf (Eric) who I found at day 3, cold limp but still vaguely alive. Had a reply from an Alaska vet (1am their time) to say put towels in dryer to up his body temperature or he won't feed..
Put him in my jumper while towel where heating but all too late BUT we now have world wide help, from each other.
Survival conception can only get better. I hope.

 

Amazing work you all (reindeer owners, vets, etc.) have accomplished in such a short amount of time. Your "closed reindeer site" must be a godsend to all who utilize it.
Kudos to you BohoKaren for your 100% in both conception & survival this year!!! This obviously is much more than a job...it sounds like it is your true calling. Your reindeer are so so so lucky to have you!
I feel like I've been attending reindeer class throughout this thread, especially since I knew absolutely zero!!!....before you created this thread!
Thanks....it's my fav!!!