Last Cria of 2011 Has Arrived And It's A......

GIRL!!!!! WooHoo! Way to go Delta Dawn!

Meet Dolly.

Dolly was born on November 19, 2011 at just 13.2 lbs. She was born without assistance (but definitely observed!) to Delta Dawn, a first time mom and Romeo, our awesome studmeister.

Dolly was born at 344 days gestation and although that is considered a full-term pregancy she was somewhat dysmature. Her suckling instinct kicked in right away, but her ears were floppy and the tendons in her legs were lax so she walked on her pasterns front and back. She stood and nursed within normal times.

We were concerned that she would not be strong enough to keep up with her momma or that she may get accidentally stomped by our other girls. Rain also came into play the first few days so at night and when the weather threatened we penned up Delta Dawn and Dolly in our trailer. Normally, I wouldn't worry about a cria getting wet or stomped too much but Dolly seemed so small and frail and it gets cold at night this time of year.

Dolly has now made it through her first week of life. She is up over 15 lbs., her legs are straight as arrows and her ears are almost perfectly upright. She's a beautiful girl, too! :) 

One last cria for the spring!

Jacinta finally had her cria. A very nice fawn male. Their owner is thrilled. That's all that really matters! Congratulations Terri!

Here's a cria, There's a cria, EVERYWHERE a cria!

Everywhere I look there's a cria running around! There is nothing as wonderful as healthy babies. This spring we had 6. One huacaya girl and one huacaya boy. The suris have all been boys.

Allow me to introduce them.
Alora is from Poppy(Papillion) and Eclipse(NightOut). She weighed in at 15.8 lbs and was nursing before she stood up. Poppy layed down beside her and she nudged her way under to nurse!
JackJack is out of Maddie and Abraham. He was a whopping 20.2 lbs and hit the ground running.
Maverick is from our girl Holly paired with Fanfare. WOW! This guy is gorgeous! His fleece looks like it might drip it's SO shiny.
Murphy. What can I say about Murphy? He looks so much like his momma it's like looking at a picture of her as a cria. This guy is out of our now retired Rodie and our (now sold) boy Storm. Couldn't ask for a better outcome (except maybe a girl would have been nice :) He was 17.4 lbs at birth.
Spencer is out of Vanity Fair and Solomon and weighed 19.2 lbs. He's a sweet and personable little guy who might just make it to the show ring.
Diez is our first cria out of Joy, the first cria born here. So Diez is technically our first grandcria born here. He weighed 18.6 lbs, very big for a maiden momma. His fleece is almost pink! Very pretty boy.

We are still waiting on Harmony and Jacinta to deliver. Harmony is due June 18th and Jacinta on July 19th. Harmony started looking "ready" early last month. Her milk came in and her belly is huge. When Joy delivered last week Harmony was going through the motions with her. Everytime Joy would roll or poop, Harmony was right there mirroring her. I thought we might have a two-fer cria day but it wasn't meant to be. I'd rather Harmony wait until her cria is "done". 
Jacinta has been sold but will stay here until after her cria is born. Congrats to Terri on her purchase along with Delta Dawn! I always regret selling my girls once their crias are born. This one will be no exception I'm sure. Jacinta is bred to a fawn full Accoyo boy. Can't wait to see it!

Our new male MFI Peruvian Caezar has a drive by breeding today so off I go to prepare for it. I'll give him a little pep talk and maybe a handfull of alfalfa for extra energy. :) GO CAEZAR!! Make girls!

Cria time again

Well, shearing is done for this year. Now it's cria time.
We have seven more girls due this spring. Pictured here is Holly(the grey) who should deliver today. She is 362 days pregnant and I've given her a shot of Estrumate to help her along. Right now it's raining but starting to clear. The girls are all cold and waiting for the sun to come out.

Waiting for Spring

Wow, this winter has been crazy! We've had more snow than this area has seen in many many years. It's bitter cold for a week, then 50 and sunny, then cold, then rainy. Sheesh. Enough already.
Yesterday was one of the nice 50 degree sunny days so I was out spending extra time with the alpacas.
I see them several times a day but when they are out enjoying the sunshine they seem to look different. Happy. Relaxed. Fat!
Those girls who are bred for spring crias seem to have suddenly gotten enormous. Vanity has 95 days until her "due date" but not only is she visibly pregnant but I've seen the cria kicking and rolling already.
Maddie is due next month. She's laying around alone and already elongating and relaxing "back there". I've seen crias bumping and rolling inside Holly, Rodie, Joy, Jacinta and Poppy so far.
Come on Spring!!! Bring me some girls!

A Little Recognition

The Royal Alpaca Challenge was a great time this year. We loaded up our alpacas Angelia, Juliet, Cristo, and Randy plus Blizzard from Stone's Throw Alpacas and Serafina owned by Helen Price. They were all very well-behaved and excited about the roadtrip.

Cristo

We arrived and checked in with only a couple of small microchip "glitches". Cristo's chip went missing and had to be replaced and Juliet's paperwork had the wrong number on it. Nothing we couldn't handle! Yeah!

As Magnolia Sponsors this year we were stalled on the end of the barn nearest the arena so we didn't have to walk far and also had good exposure of our stall display to visitors.

We swept out our stalls, lay out our stallmats, brought in the hay and water, then unloaded the alpacas from the trailer. They were quite happy to be out of the cramped trailer, but not too sure of their surroundings. They were just glad to be with (part of) their herd so they followed us without question into the appropriate stalls. It was dinner time for them so we removed their halters, fed them and left them alone while we unloaded and set up the stall display.

After that, it was off to the hotel for a little well-deserved rest. We could have stayed around the arena for the sponsor party but our son Brian was with us and he's not much for adult parties.


Angelia



Saturday morning dawned bright and early and we were all ready to go. The exhibitor's mandatory meeting proved to be very chilly and the metal roof over the arena dripped condensation on our heads as the sun heated it.  The judges were introduced, Canadian Kathy Merkley for the suris and from the UK Nick Harrington-Smith for the huacayas. I thought it was great to have some fresh faces (and opinions!) in the ring.

Basic instructions were given and we were dismissed to get ready for the show to start. Production classes were to show first so we had quite a bit of time to wait.

When all the animals were finally shown we ended up with some nice ribbons. Angelia placed 1st in her class, Juliet got 4th, Cristo was 1st, Randy placed 5th, Blizzard and Wendy brought home 6th, and Serafina won 1st. Angelia also won a blue ribbon in Performance with Brian leading her for his very first time in the ring. We're so proud of all of them (and us)! A good time was had by all.

Fall babies

Here they are. The last of our 2010 crias. All girls. All fabulous!

Destiny - Amber CeBonne X Our Peruvian Navigator

Dream a Little Dream - Dominique X Edmunton Prairie Royale



StarDust's cria - Lofty Pine Star Dust X Pumpernickel Fanfare