We Have a Cria!

Yesterday morning at 6:00 Adam did his usual check on our past due, pregnant, alpaca. She looked fine so he came back to bed and checked again at 9:00 only to come straight back to the house to announce that we had a baby out there! Not exactly how we had pictured the whole thing happening.

I got my boots on and went outside to see the little thing for myself. After a couple checks we decided that it was indeed a little girl - just what we were hoping for! She was still wet and shivering and she was trying out her lanky new legs with much stumbling.
Adam put a call in to our experienced alpaca friends and we were on our way - so we thought. Our new little cria was not finding her mommy to feed and we knew it was imperative for this to happen. At first we thought maybe the milk wasn't in yet so we tried some things and still the baby would not nurse. Another call to our friend led to a visit from their farm manager. He informed us that the cria would need to be bottle fed every hour for 24 until she decided to nurse from her mom. He thinks it may have been a difficult delivery and the cria possibly suffered from some brain swelling causing what is called "dummy cria" where the baby won't nurse. With some anti-inflammatories the swelling will go down and the cria will then begin to nurse. We also had the vet come out and check the mom and the baby - the mom had a hard time delivering the placenta and she now needs to be on anti-biotics to make sure there is no infection.

Like I said, not how we thought things would go but things look like they are going to clear up and both mom and cria will be fine. Enjoy the pictures! By the way, we named her Princess Dandelion.

Blow drying her to get her dry and to raise her temp.
She really enjoyed being pampered!


She is already practicing her Zoolander face for the show ring.
The boys watched from the side lines.


Enjoying the warm afternoon sun.

Trying out the hill with mom keeping a watchful eye in the background.