Alpaca Birth

Last Friday around 9:30 in the morning I went out to check on our pregnant alpaca. I found her in the barn, standing by the water bucket, humming and humming. I went out again around 10:30 and she was still humming but now she was standing up and sitting down over and over and walking in circles. I had never seen an alpaca birth before but I was positive that she was starting labor! I was thrilled to actually get to witness the whole thing!

This is Oly as she was circling in the barn.

When she laid down again this is what I saw. You can see that she is definitely in labor and the cria's head is starting to crown.

After laying here for a while Oly got up and went out to the field at her favorite spot. Here she rolled to get the cria into a better position. Then she stood up and started to push a bit.
You can see the nose of the cria sticking out under Oly's tail as she is pushing.

The water sack isn't broken at this point, but the head is fully out.

She lies down again to get a short break you can see the front legs and the head of the cria. When she went down the water sack broke and you could see the cria breathing! Our other female is very interested in what is going on!

She stood up to walk around again and then went back to pushing. You can see Adam and Josiah in the background. Jojo was so excited to get to watch the baby be born. Here you can see that both front legs and shoulders are out.

Oly walked around again between pushes and to get away from the other females.

At this point Adam steps in to help with the final delivery. Sometimes a female will sit back down crushing the cria. Oly is very attentive!

Just born.

Sun drying.

Learning to walk.

Our new little guy still needs a name!