Alpacas like buses wait ages and two come at once!

Golden Ember age two weeks

We have had another eventful weekend, Friday saw another change over in the cottages, so a quick clean out before getting on with Alpaca things.  We had noticed some fibre loss on one of the females feet so we got them all in for their weekly check over and treatment was administered where necessary.
Ella who was by now 355 days pregnant had been looking a little uncomfortable but came in with rest of the herd so whilst checking everyone over I thought she was looking a little agitated, so I let her and a couple of others out whilst keeping Demeter in.  I am doubtful if Demeter is pregnant as she is very slim which is not like her she usually by now be a very wide load.  As we had a Stud male available we wanted to do a spit off just to see, so Humming Rolex was collected from his paddock and put into the pen with Demeter who proceeded to spit like a good un! then launched herself over the hurdles back into the field.  So that puts a new light on the matter she is either pregnant or is not going to get pregnant, she is very old and may be had enough.

Whilst this was going on Ella decided to give birth to a very large black male cria (9kg) with absolutely no fuss at all in fact I don't think she stopped grazing through out the whole process.  His father is Inca Picasso and he is a half sister to our Champion Black female so we look forward to seeing how he develops.

West Webburn Salvador meeting his Granny Lily (left dark brown)

So two down in the last two weeks, one boy one girl.

Saturday we should have been going on a llama walk but the weather was not suitable which was a shame as two of the people on the walk had to be canceled earlier in the year for the same reason.  They under stood and were quite happy to come and see the two youngsters.  We will reschedule and hope for better weather next time.

Sunday arrived and we still had to do a llama walk for two customers who were staying in the cottages so we were all prepared for that when we notice that Cassini was looking very restless, she is a maiden so we decided to watch for a while to see if she was in labour or not, she is 348 days. it soon became obvious that this cria wasn't going to wait for much longer and the legs and head were soon visible.  we went up to the top paddock to collect the llamas and bring them down to the Cottage field ready for the walk.  By the time we got back about 20 mins later another very large cria was on the ground in a cush position,  the sire is Golden Nugget who is dark fawn, his mother is a mid fawn and this is what we got.

No name as yet (suggestions on a postcard or e.mail will do!)

we have never had a fancy before but we have to admit she is very pretty, she weighed in at 8.5kg.
Once we had dealt with navel, admiring the cria and watching the rest of the herd come over and say hello to the new arrival we went on out llama walk which was very pleasant if not a bit windy.

Tonight we have been watching all three cria racing around the field on Alpaca Cam and I am sure they are entertaining the customers staying in the cottages.

and finally and update on Marietta, she has continued to improve and can now get up and down on her own, she is steadier on her legs and has spent most of the day grazing, she is still not right and has lost a lot of muscle condition but we are optimistic she will make a full recovery, we will just have to wait and see about her cria.

Marietta