Coral has finally given birth to a lovely baby boy. He is a beautiful deep brown and his fleece is very curly and soft. He has some white on his head which means that we will not use him as a stud male but he will be very easy to sell as pet and/or fleece bearing alpaca.
The main thing is that Coral had an easy birth and the cria was on his feet within half an hour and when I went out half an hour later to make sure that he was trying to feed I found him plugged in solidly and I have seen him feeding several time since, so we feel sure that he has had his mother' s colostrum which is vital for stimulating his immune system and gives him some protection straight away, although he will still need to be vaccinated when he is a little older.
Millie, our smoke collie just loves the cria and will lie by the fence for hours just adoring them. She knows she is not allowed too near and the alpaca mums do not seem stressed by her.
We are expecting another seven births this year - although we have two females who were scanned as not pregnant who keep spitting off (i.e. rejecting) the males, so the jury is out on them. If they give birth in August we will know they were pregnant from last year's mating, if not, they have been remated and will produce next Spring. Maybe alpacas can have phantom pregnancies like dogs. We will have to investigate. One of them, Moonstone, comes over to the fence if we are moving the males past her paddock, almost beckons them over and then spits in their faces. Is she pregnant or just a miserable b....?
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