I was on my way to my first crochet class. I looked out in the field and noticed a lovely little light fawn cria sitting up. Hmm. “That’s not Clark…Wait that’s Hope with that baby. That’s Hope’s baby! It’s here!”

Had to miss the crochet class. Ran over to her. Yes, it’s a her! We have had seven males in a row from our herdsire, SCA Peruvian Magnum. This little darling broke the streak. Don’t get me wrong, the Magnum sons are wonderful. Each one surprises me with how incredible he is. But, females are the name of the alpaca game and this sure is a pretty little one. She is the first cria from our dam, WRR Hope for A Cure. Hope was named in memory of a woman who died of cancer. We are donating a portion of the proceeds from the sales of all alpacas from Hope’s bloodline to cancer research. How great to have a female who can carry on that tradition.

Occasionally we will have cria that are born with curled up ears such as these. It’s kinda funny, kinda cute. Once we had one whose ears touched in the middle and made a heart. We named him “Curly”. I loved his ears so much, they made me smile. After a week or so I realized that when he grew up and was 170 lbs. – it would NOT look cute anymore. So we taped them and fixed them.

If you have a cria with ears that are turned inside out like these, turn them back the right way (as I have done in the top picture) several times a day. Often this alone will correct the ears. If that doesn’t work, manipulate the ears into the proper position and tape them up for a week or so using vet wrap or bandaging tape. Looks like I may have to tape this little one’s. Check back in a couple of weeks for the “AFTER” picture.