Karen's alpacas: June 2014

CRIA CATCH UP

I seem to be very behind with my posting, but it's not for the lack of news, just the lack of time to sit and write it. Some of my Face Book friends will have seen all this before - so sorry if I'm repeating myself!

I know most of you just like the pictures anyway, so I'll keep it short, we've had a couple of little problems which are mostly sorted now, and as far as the results of our breeding is concerned we are thrilled to bits so far. We've had 11 cria and 6 of them are female, with another 8 to go all due now - come on girls!

Athos by The Sorcerer out of Aglaia - love him he's so chunky with a very promising fleece

Here he is again with his mum - her first cria and she loves him

Then came our little special needs girl from Calico and Snowmass Golden Legend and whilst being just over 11.5 months gestation was very dysmature with inside out ears and membranes attached - listing to the right, too crooked and weak to stand for long enough to suckle. She was also unable to wee or poo on her own so had to be promoted - like a puppy. We bottle fed colostrum and gave her plasma too and gradually over the next few day she grew straighter and stronger. She follows us everywhere and is still being topped up by the bottle and is suckling from her mum too. We're calling her Munchkin at the moment!

Then came Bozedown Jumpers cria - Joffrey a strapping big boy,
a light fawn/beige by Snowmass Roll of Honor

Agrippina and Arya

Next we have Arya from Agrippina and Snowmass Puna Sky, gorgeous little girl
with ears that need taping when I get round to it!

Then Yasmina, a Snowmass Royal Vision daughter, had this stunning little female which we have called Ygrette from Snowmass Puna Sky - a really special fleece and can't wait to see how she develops

Ygrette

Next a another little problem - cria Melisandra from Puna Sky perfect, but her dam Medusa a big fatty with virtually no milk. Bottle fed a litre of wonderful local cows colostrum over the first 12 hours and now bottle feeding with some difficulty as she would rather have just the little that Medusa offers - we will persevere!

Then it was one-eyed Candy's turn - she's also a daughter of Snowmass Royal Vision out of The Sorcerer's grandmother, a dark grey. and we had bred her to Snowmass Roll of Honor in the hope we might get something dark - look what we got! We called him Roll the Dice.

Here we have Missy with her female cria Mystique by The Sorcerer,
we're very pleased with her as you can imagine!

Bliss, of bottle feeding fame of three years ago, has given us this handsome little chap. He spends a lot of his time on day one sleeping and I keep having to see if he's ok, and he's fine. His sire is Snowmass Roll of Honor and his grandsire Snowmass Royal Vision - beautiful fleece

So, now you've caught up and it's time to do the bottle feeding again!

SURPRISE PACKAGES

I like the combined smell of iodine and new born crias, just as well, as even after bathing and applying something more conventionally fragrant I'm still getting it! Anyway, it comes with the territory and of course I just love new born crias. There's the inevitable worries and moments when I think why do I do this, but generally it's hugely exciting and they are adorable. Each birth's like a huge present that you've been waiting for for almost a year, the result of careful breeding decisions and large investment. You know what's going to be in the package, but you don't know what colour, gender, or just how good it's going to be! And then there's the names ... this year vaguely following the Game of Thrones as our theme, but some just name themselves as we go along.

So far we've had two births, the first, a week ago now from Toffee Apple who was a week short of 11 months and the second, today, a week over from Dove, and they're both just gorgeous - I will leave you with pictures.

Toffee Apple giving Tilly a kiss

Tilly

Dove & Daario - a surprise on the colour as her last two were multi - this one from Snowmass Puna Sky

Daario Nahalis

BUMS & TUMS, LIPS AND NOSES

OK so now it starts - the pregnant girls have all been moved into the fields near the house and whilst I have been watching them gradually expand, now it gets serious. Time to get obsessed with bums and tums! A couple of them are already doing the standing staring thing, look fit to burst and generally looking a bit slack, if you know what I mean. The birthing kit is in the porch, the cria coats and towels are all washed and ready. The binoculars are on the bedroom windowsill and another pair on my desk. The only thing left to do is to stock up with ready meals for the freezer for those times when the family has to cater for themselves because a new cria takes priority. They'll go in the same drawer as the lovely yellow frozen cow colostrum and the bags of plasma!

Last year I only mated the girls for a 4 week period starting on 6th July, so they're not far away now. We have one or two who are usually early, so I'm on standby for the end of this week and for the last week or two I've been making the most of going out for the day as all that will have to stop...

The grass is growing like mad with the alternate sun and rain we're getting and the 5 acres of buttercups we sprayed off has now been topped and will be ready for grazing in a couple of weeks. With our shearing all done the pacas all look beautiful, I love to see them sheared. I've managed to dry off the fleeces on sunny days and all have been skirted now ready to send off for processing, we've kept back our special ones for our hand spinners as usual.

So, just as soon as we get some crias they'll be up on the blog, but in the meantime here's some pics I took this morning of the due girls... I have a thing about their lips and noses!