Peach, Clementine & Lana

Peach with mum Clementine &
Grandma Lana in the background

Meringue Scarf in Clementine & Enya

A cute little ZsaZsa

ZsaZsa with her mum Kiki & Cain nibbling her ear

I had to go out Thursday morning & guess what, missed another birth. Martin was watching the girls, still mainly Claire but this time is was a black alpaca giving birth. Kiki who is a first time mum, sister to Clementine, her mum Lana is waiting to give birth in the paddock as well. Martin nipped back to the house for a towel to clean the little cria's face & she was on the ground before he got back, speedy delivery:) Pretty little black cria, her mum Kiki has a beautiful face. With my word association to remember all the names - Kiki is a character from Hector's House, television programme of the 70's, Hector the dog, Kiki the frog & 
ZsaZsa the cat & as my little cria is not a boy, ZsaZsa it is & the name really suits her.

Introducing our beautiful Peach

On Monday I was waiting for a new arrival. Claire had never had a cria later than this, but this year she is still holding on. When I went down to the paddock instead of Claire in labour I saw Clementine.
Clementine was pregnant last year but unfortunately all did not go well & the cria was not born alive, so I was really keen for a better outcome this year. Luckily both Martin & I watched as she gave birth to make sure nothing went amiss that we could help with, but all went well & apart from a little easing at one point it was a very normal birth. So Clementine is the proud mum of a beautiful girl Peach, she is a gorgeous brown colour very unlike her mum & gran Lana who are both fawn. Clementine like Lana is very steady & gentle & I really hope that Peach takes after them.

Lana, Luminaria & Clementine

Couldn't resist taking this photo, my pale colours together!

JandJ Swift

Swift with a milky mouth

Last Friday, where has this week gone! Skylark gave birth to a beautiful little girl called Swift. As Skylark is my alpaca & one of the original 4 she is very special to me & I was determined to see the birth. For a not too big alpaca she is always huge at the end of her pregnancy & we have often seen bulges of legs appear on her stomach, when we sheared her back at the end of April she looked ready to give birth.
Skylark always gives birth later in the day, only once with Wren it was 11am, with the other 4 it  has been between 1 & 2.30 so I kept watch. At 2.30 nothing but she was so uncomfortable & by 3 we definitely had an alpaca on the way,  Swift arrived at 3.30 much to my relief. 
Swift is beautiful, gorgeous shiny jet black & because of this very hard to photo.Skylark's cria are named after birds so we have Raven, Wren, Robin, Ani & Kitt. Swift was up & trying to feed within 15 mins Skylark's babies are always like this, especially the girls, they whizz around on the first day & then become calm & relaxed like their mum. 


All day Clementine has been uncomfortable so I am hopeful for another birth tomorrow. She is 11 months & 6 days & so are Miss MoneyPenny & Ani, all are pregnant to different sires.

First cria of 2012 JandJ Magic

Yesterday morning in all that horrible weather our first cria of the year was born. Luckily when the weather is bad & the babies are due or are a newly born we often shut our girls in the barn overnight to protect the cria more than anything else as we have mums who would like to be out in all weathers with their cria at the bottom of the field but we also have mums who like the warm & comfort of the barn & wouldn't dream of being out in the rain! 

 Gem & Magic at 7 hours old

Motherly love
In the background Skylark, Ani, Miss MoneyPenny, Clementine  & Spirit

Anyway our first girl to give birth is Gem, this is her first cria he was born at 9.20am & we watched the birth along with the other girls in the barn especially Clementine who kept checking him. Gorgeous little dark brown boy who we've called Magic.Gem is a brilliant mum & Magic is doing well, he had to have a coat on last night as it was so cold & we are hoping that he will get chance to go outside tomorrow if it stops raining long enough.

JandJ Caspian

We had to wait another couple of weeks for the second to last cria of last year. Lana Caspian's mum is very sneaky, she does not like us seeing her give birth. When Clementine, Caspian's big big sister was born I was checking Lana every hour & when I went to check her near a bunch of nettles a little cria stood up! The next year she snook big sister Kiki out at 7.30am. Caspian is the closest to seeing the birth I have had, he had only just touched the ground, he was born at 9.45 & Lana gave no indication she was in labour as normal, she is a very good mum, keeps her cria close & is very attentive. He has always been very photogenic & cute & very inquisitive.. We took him to the Newark & Notts Show & he was in a class with Henley, Hen came 2nd & Cas came 4th a very good result.