What an end to our amazing Sunday

JandJ Belle

By the time I arrived home I had 2 new little cria to go & look at. Martin had been busy all day with the new arrivals & also been keeping a very close eye on Luminaria who had been coughing & salivating for part of the day. We decided to call the vet out as it looked like choke, something lodged in her throat which she could not clear. The vet came within an hour. 

While we were stood with Lumi waiting for him, we were watching Nell very closely, as she appeared to be in labour, she is a first timer but a birth after 4pm is a little late for a cria to be born. The vet came & sorted out Lumi's choke, while he was doing this I was concentrating on Nell who appeared to be struggling with the birth. There is a 20 minute rule with alpaca births, as long as there is a progression in 20 mins you do not intervene. Unfortunately, the little cria's head seemed to be stuck half way out, perfect timing for the vet to be there, he said that Nell's contractions seemed to have stopped. So with the help of some gel he eased the little cria out. This is the latest birth we have had at 5.15pm. 
Nell's nickname is Nellibell, so of course her little female cria is called Belle. Belle is tiny, the smallest cria we have had (we thought Sparkle was tiny last year) & we have had problems with her not gaining weight. We did think that the fault lay with her mum & her milk, but we are not sure about that at the moment. Belle is feeding off Nell & we are topping her up with bottles of goats milk. Unlike our lambs, when we feed Belle she does not come running for her bottle but tends to try & run in the opposite direction. She is the cutest little alpaca.

Our second Sunday cria

I missed yet another birth on our very busy Sunday the arrival of Persia's cria. This happened at 2.15 & was a very straight forward birth, Martin was on hand to help it out a little. This is Persia's first cria, a little female called Ester which means Star in Persian, perfect I think.

McKenzie's un-named cria

A bit of motherly love
McKenzie with Maggie May

On Sunday morning I had a stall at the 
Dry Doddington Flower Festival, so had to be out all day. Martin was left in charge & what a day he had. 

As we were busy we didn't get to look at the alpacas until 8am & McKenzie had already delivered a beautiful black female cria so the day was off to a good start or so we thought. This little cria has been waiting for a name for a fortnight, James was trying to go for a something scottish but eventually she has been named Maggie May.

Wow we have a white girl

JandJ Felicia

I am a little late in posting this 2 weeks ago when the weather cooled for Saturday & Sunday all the due girls gave birth.

It started on Saturday with the arrival of Felicia, she is Luminaria's 6th cria & very special being a girl. We really like our coloured alpacas but it's fantastic to have another white, out of our 100 alpacas we only have 4. Lumi has had Felix, Kasper, Luminessence, Frazer, Flynn & now Felicia, Felix Kasper & Flynn have been sold & we were very upset last year as Esse developed a vertebrae problem & we lost her. This year Frazer has been promoted to a stud male & we have mated him with Mississippi, a very unlikely union of white & black, so we wait until next year to see what colour their cria will be, I think probably it will be black but a multi would be fabulous.

Felicia is a gorgeous little cria very gentle just like her mum but very inquisitive & really friendly. This year we seem to have very friendly, brave little alpacas, all come up to see us & want our attention.