Wednesday, May 22, 2013

At Last!

The wee cria we've been waiting for arrived. As is our usual experience, we knew nothing about it till all of a sudden there it was! No signs from Coco the day before or anything. However she had been looking absolutely huge and was almost at 365 days!

He's a wee boy. And when I say wee, he is scrawny as anything, but very, very tall with long gangly legs. He's very quiet. And as ever with our cria births it wasn't all sweetness and light.
He seemed to be walking even more unsteadily than our other crias and one of his back legs just didn't look totally right. So I spent the morning worrying, then thought sod it! I'm phoning the vet. She duly arrived, took his temperature ( normal) listened to his heartbeat ( normal) but I wasn't being completely paranoid, as he has a relaxed ligament in his back leg - that's why it looked squiffy. Vet said this can happen when a baby has been in the womb and is a bit overdue - can happen in horses supposedly! Anyway, it will right itself over the next few days. However I am glad I called the vet - I was totally honest and told them that it wasn't an emergency, just paranoia! I don't think I smiled properly until they gave him the all clear!

So, sticking with the tea name theme, we're going to call him Leaf, as in tea leaf.

Here he is still all wet and soggy, about half an hour old. Check out those super spindly legs.

Here he is with his mum, Coco, and half of his sister, Stella.
It is so lovely how our family groups stick together. Last years babies went down to Naturally Alpacas to be weaned but as soon as they got home they went straight back to their mums. They never tried to suckle again, just wanted to be near mummy. Now both Vienna and Coco are part of a family of three and last years crias, Herbie and Stella are most protective of their new brother and sister. Usually making sure that the cria is inbetween them and mum, in a sandwich!


 Still a bit gunky here. I did clean it off later I just wanted him to bond with his mum first.

Almost! He actually suckled really well. He's the first one we've had that we didn't have to start off with a bottle.

Much that Coco did the right thing and gave birth on a lovely sunny morning, the weather very quickly turned to custard and this poor wee guy has had a lot of thunder, lightning and even some hail to contend with. Thankfully he's all rugged up in his wee coat.

I think I mentioned before that this is the last time we'll breed from our girls. We're not cut out for it at all. I find the whole thing terribly stressful, so we'll just stick with our four babies, two girls and two boys!

15 comments:

  1. Oh they are such beautiful little animals. We are waiting quite impatiently for her goat to have her babies. It's a lovely time on the farm isn't it!

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    1. it is lovely when it all goes ok! When are your baby goats due! xxx

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  2. Oh Coco what a beauty & welcome to the noisy world Leaf !!
    Your animals always look so healthy & well cared for but I can imagine it is very stressful at these times. You are lucky to have such a beautiful Alpaca family :)

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    1. I do feel lucky. He's still fine :) the first week is always critical with crias and the weather has been absolutely terrible - nicer today - well at least the rains off. He may be able to feel some sun at last!!

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  3. I always think "when in doubt, call the vet"..now you know all is ok and not to worry, but that that leg was not quite right and needed to be checked. They are just a reassuring presence in a time of stress..I did the same thingwhen we had our first lambs....

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    1. I totally agree. I think I just needed reassurance more than anything. I didn't feel relaxed at all until after the vet visit :)

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  4. Congrats COCO! He is all legs and fur. After being folded up for so long it's gotta be tough to straighten out.

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    1. I know! Seeing how big he is I can hardly believe he fitted! Even if he is super skinny! There's still a lot of alpaca. And coco didnt look that much different to the other girls!

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  5. Awww. What a wee blessing <3

    Blessings from Ohio/USA...Kim<><

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  6. What a cutie! And I think its good to try things and also good to know when one isn't cut out for them. So, it looks like you had a pretty good run on babies. Good work all around. And my oh my, being pregnant for a year. Wow. That boggles my mind a bit. Nature is amazing.

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    1. we did. and they are adorable. I know can you imagine!!!

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  7. He's gorgeous and well worth the wait.

    I think that's the part of pig breeding that I found the most stressful being there at the birth and the worry of it all. It was my Lovely Hubby's business the pig side of it (I'm the chicken and goose girl), and he missed every single birth, I had to assist at most of them and I HATED it. The piglets were so much nicer when they were over a week old and running around independently.

    Nice that your little family is complete and now you can relax (well as far as animals ever let you relax!!).

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    1. He really is gorgeous - I just feel so sorry for him, as it's raining again :( Yeah! We're semi relaxing - but it's always one thing after another round here :)

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Laura x