The other evening I was walking out to move the alpacas out into their pastures, (these days it is too hot for the alpacas to be in the fields during the day so we pasture them at night) and I noticed Poquita was breathing very hard. I moved another group of animals and kept an eye on her because I thought she might be in labor.

As it came time to move her group, she went to the poop pile and pushed. She cried and something was trying to come out. “Oh my,” I said. “You are trying to have a baby! Let’s you and me stay up here at the barn while your friends go out into the fields. And we will have a baby.” I was on the phone with a friend while all of this was going on, talking on my headset. She got a big kick out of the whole thing.

I was concerned when I returned from taking out all of the other alpacas in Poquita’s group to the field because all I was seeing was a huge red bulbous thing coming out of Poquita. Also, she is older and she was tired. I feared that she had been in labor for hours and that she didn’t have much energy left to deliver the cria. I remembered having to help pull her cria from last year, Rachel Alexandra because she had been rather large. This time she was a week early and I was concerned about placenta previa where the placenta separates. This is a dangerous condition that often results in the loss of the cria.

Nervously, I popped the sack. (Do not try this at home. I’m not sure if I was supposed to do this…cuz I’m not a vet..But I’m not sure what ELSE I would have done…) And I found baby – Yay! Snorting and gasping…there were feet and a head in there obviously trying hard to get out. Mom must not have had the energy to push them out so I knew I had to pull and quickly. I did. I tried to get Poquita to get up and give me some gravity. Nothing doing.

She seemed to think that I was here to save the day and that she was finished. Like she was saying , “Finally someone else is here to get this baby out!”

Ladies, can anyone relate here?… I just had a flashback to some of my own deliveries. OK, maybe it’s just me…

The baby was easy to pull out. Thank goodness! Out within minutes. Then the dear little thing was scooching around trying to get up. It pooped within minutes! I couldn’t believe that. If it had been as big as last year’s horse-sized cria, Rachel Alexandra (almost 23 lbs.) I’d have needed the jaws of life to get that baby out, but this one was only 16 lbs. a good size but easy for Poquita to deliver. Whew!

I felt like a nitwit.

I first looked and determined that this cria was a boy. For the first few hours I was calling it a boy. Then I saw her going to the bathroom and I realized I had either made a mistake or there was something really wrong here. Uh, yeah, I had made a mistake. A rush to judgment. This cria was a GIRL! You would think after 11 years I could tell the difference…but I guess sometimes, in all the excitement, with all the children, and the phone calls, and the chaos, I totally GOOF!

In the above picture Poquita is helping her cria learn to nurse. She is making a clucking noise at the cria. This is a noise to communicate with her and tell her where to come to nurse. She also nudges the cria to the right spot.

Last week my Daddy took me to LuLu’s for lunch. For those of you not familiar with this wonderful restaurant, it is a Gulf Coast tradition, owned and operated by Jimmy Buffet’s sister (they call her Sista). It’s on an intercoastal waterway in Gulf Shores, AL. It has a beach and a fun atmosphere. Just having a margarita and some fried green tomatoes for lunch and dipping my toes in the sand make me feel like I’m on vacation even when I’m not.

I think I’ll name this little cria Sista Quita. It kinda goes with her sister’s name, Princess Quita too. Luv it.

Thank you, sweet readers, for letting me share my new baby with you!

]]> http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com/2010/05/meet-new-alpaca-cria-sista/feed/ 15 http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com/2010/03/georges-close-up/ http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com/2010/03/georges-close-up/#comments Wed, 31 Mar 2010 11:53:18 +0000 Katy http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com/?p=5516

Each cria season I have some favorites. Occasionally I fall hard for one. Like George here, who was born on President’s Day. He makes me weak in the knees.

Happy Wordless Wednesday.

Participating in Wordless Wednesdays and Pet Parade.

Are You My Momma?

I was going to the barn to prepare Merry’s evening bottle when I saw this cria. He had just been born. His dam (alpaca mom) dropped him and walked off. She really did not read the book on alpacas and birthing. She had him around 6:30pm and they rarely birth this close to night. So the poor dear was already a bit confused, bless her heart.

Penelope was a first time mom and sometimes they will do this. I think Penelope would relate to those ladies who don’t realize they are pregnant and suddenly give birth. I guess Penelope didn’t understand the ultrasounding, the kicking inside her belly, and what it was going to mean to “pass” the little thing that had been inside her.

When this happens we usually pick up the cria and bring it to the dam for her to smell. They usually sniff it and realize that it has something to do with them. Generally, we will put a cria in a stall with it’s mother for a couple of days while they get the nursing thing worked out. I like to see 2 days of weight gain before I let them back out into the bigger herd where the cria might get confused and try to nurse on every female he comes across. Other times the dam and cria bond so well and the cria is so aware of everything that I don’t have to separate them at all.

In this case, Penelope walked away and it was going to take more intervention on our part to connect this momma and baby. My daughter was with me and loved that she could help with the new baby. I asked her to stay with him and dry him off while I got their pen ready. A bond began to form.

The cria began to try to nurse. On anything. Her shirt, face, towel, whatever. He tried it all. We wound up having to bottle feed him that night because his mom still needed some convincing that it was her job to do that. (It took her a day and a half and some coaxing, but she finally came around and is now nursing him.)

Got Milk?

When my daughter turned to leave the field, this little cria trotted right after her, as if SHE was his mom. Since we had to bottle feed him, the idea that humans were the milk source was confirmed in his mind. In the pen with his dam, he ignored her and kept trying to get out of the pen to be with the humans. When we walked by, he tried to get close to us.

The moral of the story is to refrain from getting TOO lovey with new cria. They are adorable and huggable. If you must hug them, try to do it AFTER they’ve bonded with mom. This was an unusual occurance, I haven’t seen this happen before so I wanted to share the experience.

I consulted with another alpaca breeder who has dealt with alpacas who don’t like to nurse their cria, at least initially. Her advice was to always let/make the dam be the first to feed the cria and also to feed the cria the bottle very close to mom’s udder so that he associates the location of the udder with food.

It turned out that Penelope had some udder edema. We milked her out and gave her some anti-inflamatory medication. Once the edema subsided and we left them alone together overnight, she did much better and allowed him to nurse.

"OK, so you're saying I'm an ALPACA?"

Leave a comment and tell us: What imprinting experiences have you seen? Were they good or bad?

Lewis napping in camouflaged fashion.

Participating in Wordless Wednesdays!

SABRINA!

Thanks so much for voting! I think it suits her.

A Star is Born!

We were able to see this little cria being born. I will blog about it later – with pictures. But first things first. This lovely alpaca princess needs a name. It’s been 4 months since the last time our readers helped us pick a name, and I thought it was time to ask for your assistance again.

When you breed animals, you never quite know what you are going to get. Sometimes you get what you are hoping for, sometimes not. It’s a crapshoot. Certainly we can choose parents with particular traits to stack the deck in our favor, but really, you never know how it’s going to turn out until the baby is born.

Every once in a while, you get EXACTLY what you “ordered”. That is what happened with this little princess. She is charcoal grey. Gorgeous. She has her sire’s star quality, the kind of presence that will make her catch the eye of everyone who visits the farm. She has black around her eyes like eye makeup. *Sigh!* She’s simply divine.

The names for you to choose from include: Sabrina & Tiffany (inspired by Audrey Hepburn movies. The Artist thinks she favors the actress), Freckles (because she does have the cutest black freckles on her white face & I love when Sawyer calls Kate that on “Lost”), Bronwyn (what my mother wanted to name ME before they decided on Katy), and Jocelyn (a name my son came up with that we liked).

Does she look like me?

Freckles?

Okay, Okay. She’s a baby alpaca, not a movie star. But this girl needs a movie star name. She’s really something special.

I have cute freckles

What's my name?

Vote in our poll and help us choose a name! The poll will close in the evening on Monday, March 23rd. Thanks and come back next week to see which name wins!