Thursday, April 11, 2013

A new Cria

Vienna had her baby a few days ago.
It was expected but out of the blue if that makes sense!

We knew the due date was near, but since alpacas can give birth a month either side of the date, unless they show you some signs it's very difficult to tell!
Vienna had given no clues at all.
However when Lloyd went out to feed them, a little later than usual as we'd had a long lie, I heard him yelling. I ran out, and lo and behold, an absolutely perfect little Cria. She was still very wet so wan't all that old.
We named her Cupcake, as I was just making cupcakes when he shouted.

But as ever with cria births on our farm, nothing was a simple as it could have been.

Firstly she was trying really hard to drink, but nothing was coming out. A quick read of the internet and I found out that there is a waxy 'cap' on the nipples and obviously this little cria wasn't sucking hard enough to dislodge it.
In the mean time we bottle fed her about 50ml of colostrum stuff just to be sure that she got some into her as quickly as possible, then I had the rather awkward job of getting rid of the waxy cap. That was fun - not.
Luckily Vienna is the most biddable of alpacas and just stood there while I fiddled around under her. All terribly dignified.
Anyway, milk appeared and wee Cupcake got her first drink from mum. And all was well. Until evening.
I'd been out in the feeding pen for about an hour just watching and all of a sudden Cupcake seemed to get incredibly dopey, floppy and not at all interested in anything. When we stood her up she fell over.
Steve and Christine from Naturally Alpacas had come up and Christine said that this wasn't great. So the vet was called. Cupcakes heart beat was fine, and so was her temperature. Vet and Christine both thought that the birth may have been difficult and that perhaps she'd been starved of oxygen for a wee bit and maybe her brain was a little swollen.

She was injected with vitamin B1 and B12 and a steroid and antibiotic. We put her wee coat on and within about half an hour she was much perkier.

Then it was bed time.

In the morning we both woke up with rather hammering hearts. Lloyd put on his brave pants and went out to see what had happened in the night. Thankfully it was all good and little Cupcake was trotting around quite the thing!
And any day now, or in the next month we have to go through it all again with Coco who was mated at the same time as Vienna...

Anyway, introducing - Cupcake!
Here she is with her big brother, Herbie. Herbie is a wee monster, he's so in your face and completely funny but certainly has never been the gentlest of wee boys. However, he seems to totally adore Cupcake. He takes care of her, makes sure that Cupcake is in the middle of him and Vienna and is just so incredibly gentle with her - I'm amazed.

With her mum, the lovely patient, Vienna



 We have everything crossed for a smooth delivery from Coco. Then Cupcake will have a wee playmate!

 So, after the stress of all that I decided that we needed to eat a lot of home made biscuits!
Lloyd found this stunningly beautiful foody blog - the food dept. The photography is to die for and so it would seem are the recipes!
I made some of the peanut and cinnamon salt biscuits  - they are amazing.
The recipe is super simple
(I've taken this directly from them so all credit is theirs - and I hope this is ok)
 
  Recipe
Makes approximately 20 biscuits

125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 free range egg
1½ cups self-raising flour
1 cup roasted peanuts
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt flakes

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºF (360ºF). Combine the butter and sugar in a bowl, cream together using and electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well.
2. Add the flour and beat in on low until well combined. Using a wooden spoon mix through the peanuts.
3. Using heaped tablespoons full of mixture, shape into balls and place onto a lined baking tray.  Lightly flatten.
4. Combine the cinnamon and salt flakes in a small bowl. Sprinkle onto the biscuits and bake to 10-12 minutes or until golden.
5. Cool on the tray and store in an airtight container.

Suffice to say these were all gone on the same day - I had a meeting in the evening so took them along and we ate them all!!








35 comments:

  1. Aww - so glad everything turned out well in the end. She's adorable.

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    1. Us too Lilian, and she gets more adorable every day!

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  2. All I can say is "oooo" & "awwwww". What a cutie!

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    1. :) ooo awwww are pretty much what we've been saying as well!

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  3. Anonymous7:11 pm

    She looks absolutely adorable and oh so very cute. Louise

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    1. she's getting very gangly now - all leg!

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  4. Congratulations another lovely little life on the farm, she's absolutely gorgeous.

    I love that we all learn new things as we go along this wonderful challenge of keeping and rearing animals. You'll know all about 'waxy caps' now :-)

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    1. yeah! I do! who'd have thought! Certainly not me when I was living in the centre of Glasgow, that's for sure!

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  5. Love your baby Cupcake, and those bicuits make me hungry!

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    1. Sue, those biccys are SO lovely - you must make some - NOW!!

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    2. sure will give it a crack!!

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  6. What a sweetie Cup Cake is and it's nice that Herbie is loving towards her.

    Your biscuits look delicious!

    FlowerLady

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    1. we've actually been pretty amazed by herbie's behaviour - we really didn't expect it at all!

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  7. Cupcake is scrumptious and those biscuits look on a par with her :).

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  8. We have had two llama crias here... there is nothing prettier than a tiny newborn cria, is there? Yours is delightful!

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    1. I just love them, I wish it wasn't all so stressful though! argh!

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  9. Oh my gosh, what a cute little baby! Those photos are so adorable. I'm so glad Cupcake is doing well :)

    That food blog is awesome! I love the photos. Thanks for sharing the link!

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    1. I think that food blog was a real find!

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  10. Congratulations Vienna! How exciting, Cupcake is beautiful. And your right Herbie is a monster, boy did he grown up!

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    1. yep, he's a year old now and huge and incredibly fluffy!!

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  11. Wow Laura - how beautiful is Cupcake??? I've been out of the blogosphere for a while but Its great to catch up with what you guys are up to - blimey you've been busy!

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    1. jeez it feels like we never stop sometimes!
      Hows things with you?
      xx

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  12. Life is never dull for you! You deserve all the homemade comfort food you can get! Cupcake is just gorgeous though, and I love her name.

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    1. you're right - it never is - sometimes I wish it was a little bit more dull!
      xx

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  13. congrats! cupcake looks so cute! like a chocolate cupcake!

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  14. I'm so glad cup cake is OK. She is beautiful.

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    1. me too, it's ever so wet today though, thank goodness she has her wee coat on.

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  15. Yea congrats! I always love when you post these ;) They make my heart jolly :) Glad that all seems to be well now with lil Cupcake--too cute. Can't wait to see Coco's lil one upon arrival.

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    1. hope she doesnt have it today or tomorrow! It's absolutely pelting down and a howling gale@!

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  16. Well done Vienna & welcome little Cupcake ! such a relief when everything is ok. I love the little white forehead patches, do most Alpacas have these ? Is this your third Cria now ? Biscuits look really great, thanks for the recipe. xx

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    1. no, Ali, just this family! Vienna is older now - in fact I think we're going to let her retire - but she is such a good mum... and all her babies have some markings on their faces, even Herbie, but it's so similar to the white there already you don't really notice it now.

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  17. So glad its all turned out well. Such a sweet baby face there.

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  18. runningwhio7:44 pm

    Gorgeous cupcake! So glad you have alpaca experts nearby and both kept cool heads! She's a beaut, and so glad big brother is being sweet.

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I love it when you leave me comments, it lets me know there are folk out there reading my ramblings! Thank you, I appreciate them loads and loads
Laura x