Hello Matt and Jessica and Isabella!
 
Congratulations!  You didn't mention weight, conformation, "fleece" colour, density, crimp, eye colour.......   You certainly didn't pick very good weather to add to the family, hope you brought new bub into the house to keep warm !!!!! Well done! Future alpaca breeder/handler?????
 
You have obviously done a good job with Tegan too.  If you can't feel her ribs, then she has good weight on her.  If she is running around with the others, doing the late afternoon pronk, then she is in good health.  You could try gradually cutting her down to 3 feeds ( we use a human baby's bottle after the first 2 weeks so the amount is more) and then drop it back to 2 and see if she is looking for more between bottles.  We had a cria orphaned at 3 ½ months, he absolutely refused to take a bottle, but hoed into grass and feed and grew well.  They CAN survive without mum/milk after 3 months if looked after and offered good feed regularly, they are tougher than most people think.  If Tegan is in good health then you shouldn't have a problem, but being a female you will want to make sure she continues to grow well - sorry boys!!!! I will add a basic feeding schedule here, and it is BASIC, only you the handler knows your cria, but it is a good guideline.  Everyone has their own opinion on this, so I stress it is ONLY a guideline.  This is how we handle the situation anyway.
 
CRIA FEEDING.
 
 
10% of bodyweight every day (up to a maximum of 1.2 lts, and no more than that!)
 
WEEK 1 – 5-6 feeds per day, starting at 7am, ending at 8pm
 
WEEK 2 – 5 feeds per day, starting at 7am, ending at 8pm
 
WEEK 3 – 4-5 feeds per day, starting at 7am, ending at 7pm
 
WEEK 4 – 4 feeds per day, starting at 7am, ending at 7pm
 
Continue with 4 feeds per day, cria will usually let you know if she doesn’t want a bottle, or won’t drink the full amount.  As soon as you can, switch to a normal (human) baby bottle, makes life easier, holds more. By 8-9 weeks you can cut back to 3 feeds per day (ending at 6pm) if the cria hasn’t already cut back herself.  She should be eating grass and drinking water properly by this stage anyway. By 12 weeks you might be onto 2 bottles a day, morning and night, making life a lot easier still. But you can always offer another bottle if the cria seems hungry.  You must keep a check on her weight regularly, or body score her by hand, making sure her ribs are well covered.  Continue with 2 bottles until 5 ½ months old, then 1 bottle and then wean at 6 months. She may wean herself earlier.
 
This is a guide only, you will find the cria will dictate how much she wants, she may want more and she may want less. Depends if her mum has any milk at all.  Bottle fed crias always go to their mums to satisfy the sucking instinct, usually straight after a bottle, but don’t think this means there IS milk there.  Orphaned crias will usually hoe into grass/offered feed a little earlier as they have no mum to run to, but they must be kept with the herd, do not at any time make them a "pet", whether male or female,  they are livestock and must be treated as such or you could encourage a personality problem in the cria, which can be dangerous. At all times treat them with kindness and respect, but try to refrain from cuddling and petting them.
 
Good luck. !!!
 

***Bump***
 
Just in reference to Janet's discussion about bottle feeding. Thought this information would be helpful.

Hi Janet!
 
This is Matt, Jess will be home from a day out with Bella later.
 
Isabella is great, thankyou for asking, and yes she turns 3 next week! She has great confidence around all animals, especially alpacas...and they are quite taken with her too. Her only hiccup was being bowled over by a cranky poddy sheep last year...this particular ewe took a dislike to humans who were her height. The ewe narrowly avoided becoming mutton stew, but she had ALL privileges revoked, including access to Isabella's grandmother's house paddock...
 
Tegan is fantastic, she had a cria of her own late last year, after concieving to our male-in-waiting when they were both supposedly too young...Teenagers these days, I dunno! Not a planned mating, but a wonderful female cria as a result. Still a sook and happily eats from your hand at feeding time, while the rest of the herd haggle over the trough.
 
Hope your little one thrives...it really is SO worth the effort with bottle feeding.

Kerry, How sad, sad, what did Mum die of.?   I would try my level best to get the three month old to take a bottle, try making a bigger hole in bottle and squirting, carefully of course.  Some people would not agree but that to me seems desperately young and she may not grow out properly, we do not wean ours until at least 8 or 9 months. We use mix as well so of course here would get her on that too. Good luck.      Joy

Thank you Joy and Helen  
The Vet suspects pnemioua but she wasn't sick she had just started to loose condition ,so we drench her gave ade and all the hay she could eat  
Cria refuses to take bottle i have to syringe it into her mouth but most dribbles out ,i try stoking her under her chin so she will swollow ,i only get about 60mls in before i have to give up  
Cria is eating lucerne and drinking eating grass and yesterday ate a tiny bit of mix  
So Far she is going good but i suspect things could change very quickly  
As the cria becomes so distressd with me force feeding her i am a bit concerned about this if i am doing more harm than good by stressing her out so much
Thanks Kerry

Kerry, sorry to hear about your girl. It's never easy, is it?
 
I agree with other comments here that another month or so on a bottle would be best for your cria, but if you can't convince it to take the milk I would not be too concerned. We have a breeder near us who weans at 3 months, and while I don't agree with the practice, they have a huge herd and have won many shows with their progeny.
 
If your cria does take then that's great, but you should be right if it's eating well and drinking heaps of water.
 
There's another thread somewhere where I posted pictures of our bottle fed cria at various stages, I think she had pretty much self-weaned by about 7 months, but could have been taken off her bottle by about 4 or 5 months.

***BUMP***
 
Hi Kerry...I was just wondering how your little cria was coming along?
 
Cheers,
 
Matt.

Hi Kerry,
 
Great news on the cria - Don't worry about size too much, you know all too well that (like humans) there's a big range of 'normal'.
 
In relation to lice - We have previously used a pour-on lice treatment for MINOR lice problems. We had a couple of animals that had some one year, nothing serious. Just got some off-the-shelf stuff for sheep & goats from the rural supplies store.