Baby Season in Full Swing

On Sunday I arrived home to a new dark brown female suri cria from Guinevere, we have been waiting forever for this baby!!  Very pleased with the outcome :)  Welcome Gardenia, only one pic because Guinevere is a very protective mother and this one pic cost me a big pasting of ikky green stuff!!  Dad is Panash.

Melody is a calmer, more trusting mother, her male cria was born this morning, pretty sure he's rose grey, but will wait a few weeks before registering him, his name is Iguana, but will be called Iggy at home :)   Dad is Kurralea Tutankahmen who is medium grey.

New Cria Today

Another new cria today, yipee its a girl.  A light fawn female for Maisy by Falstaff, a happy addition for our agistees, Zara Dain Alpacas :)  Farm volunteers Leona, Chrissy and Parker chose Minnie for her name and we're very happy Rob has decided to go with it!!  Little Minnie is a Maisy mini me!!

A Busy Morning

This morning the puppies raced around like mad things after breakfast and then fell in a heap!!  But not together, Yoyo curled up with Kiki and Coco went back to the crate for a nap.

Meanwhile out in the paddock Eugenie gave birth to a medium brown male cria and very shortly thereafter Narcissus dark brown male cria.  These are cria numbers 2 and 3 for Dad, Mandrake, and they are his second and third brown males!!

Birth of an Alpaca Cria

Today, Elvina gave birth to a multi coloured suri male cria.  He weighed 7.67kg and is her first baby - text book birth :)

Wintery Sunday with Scarlett and the Brat Pack at Home

The weather in Canberra yesterday was bleak, so Scarlett was well rugged up for a trip to Gold Creek, where we enjoyed lunch at Injoy Cafe.  She was Daddy's girl, and waited quite patiently for her 'kids meal' of bacon and egg with a chocolate milk shake.... which she had a great time with... until she finished... then she cleared the deck and sent all the food onto the floor for the sparrows to clean up!!

There are 11 crias in the home paddock, and they are quite the Brat Pack now... getting them into a yard is tricky!  They rush in one end and out the other like greased lightning.

Chiara is often the instigator of 'break outs'.  She is also always trying to sneak a feed from any unsuspecting mother she finds!

Jemima, after a rough start in life, she is now full of the joy of it, loves running and pig rooting and is always up for a game.

Jemima's partner in crime is Rosamund, they are as thick as thieves!

Ody is now so much bigger than all the other crias that he just trots along in order not to overtake everyone!

He is coming along very well at his halter training, though today's session will be cancelled because of the weather, cuddling wet llamas is no fun!!

I taped Petit Choux' flippy out ear for 9 days and it appears to have been successful.  Tape has been off for 5 days now and its holding its shape well.

Wolfgang is 6 days old today and has started to join in the running games, rather than being the one being chased.  The weather has turned very cold, very quicky and I have him rugged today... much to Wia's disapproval!!

Orchid has decided that I am so slow handing out the food, that she'll just help herself!

Museli?  What museli?  I'm not eating anything!!

Last Cria for the Season

Today we welcomed our last cria for the 2014/2015 season with the arrival of Wia's son Wolfgang.  He is dark grey, and is very unusual in that he has 2 blue eyes.  Have never heard of blue eyes on a non-white before, and will wait to see if he is deaf.  He is already very popular with the other members of the paddock, particularly Chiara who can't seem to leave him alone!!

Babies and Bust Ups

Yesterday, while I was having a perfectly lovely time, watching the arrival of Paris' daughter, things went awry in the next paddock.  Basil and Totem hate each other with a passion, and spend long periods of the day running the fence line squealing and screeching at each other.  To my horror, yesterday, as I waited for Paris to deliver the afterbirth Totem crawled through a roo hole in the bottom of the mesh fence and got in the same paddock as Basil.  All hell broke loose!!  They were at it hammer and tongs as I scrambled to get all the girls back into the yards, so I had a back up paddock and somewhere to put one of the combatants!!

Finally achieved the set up, grabbed the bike and tried to separate 2 very very cranky, very large boys!!  Didn't take long to work out this was not a job for one person.  Race up to the house phone a neighbour, no one home, phone the next neighbour, also not home, phone Gayle and Laurie down the road, yep, home and able to help - YAYYYY

Once all three of us are in the paddock it becomes plain that Totem is well beaten and wants to leave... he's trying to get out the same way he got in, but can't find the roo hole and is shoving his head through the barbed wire fence at random points in his efforts to escape.  We manage to get him separated and down the end where the gate leads back into his own paddock, I chase Basil away with the bike while Laurie lets Totem through!!  That was the last we saw of Totem for a while, he took off like he had a real bee in his bonnet!!  Managed to get a lead and halter on Basil and lead him up to the yards for treatment of his wounds, although he 'won', his wounds were much greater than Totem's.  Cleaned him up and put him in the drive way - out of harm's way!!  I could do with less excitement in my life!!

Fence repairs and paddock shuffles on the agenda this weekend!!

OK, back to the good bit... Paris gave birth to what looks to be a stunning female cria that we've named Petit Choux.  Coated her last night as it was forecast to be cold, sure enough it got down to 4.8  She has one ear flipped back but I hope this will right itself soon :)

New cria and Updates

Jemima had a rough start, but after 3 days she was able to stand, albeit shakily, and after 4 days of force feeding she finally developed a suck reflex and began walking and to try running!!  At 5 days old she discovered the milk bar and has been independent of us ever since!!  She is now thriving and we are thrilled to bits :)

Second time mum Joeley has been brilliant and endlessly patient (with me and my attempts to help Jemima latch on) throughout.

Late on Friday afternoon I helped Fresian deliver her first daughter, a gorgeous black girl with a white T-bar and chin, we've named her Fifi.  She's small but perfectly formed, and a little power house, she's already joined the evening running games!!

Cruising in Canberra

Yesterday I went for a cruise on Lake Burley Griffin with Freya, Scarlett and Dan.  It was a pleasant ride around the lake and our captain was determined to tell us EVERY fact about the buildings and their history!  Scarlett was as entertained by the other people on the boat as the scenery.... and undoubtedly the best part of the trip for her was sharing a little of her Dad's ice-cream!

Baby tasted pretty good as well... apparently

Afterwards there was time for a play on the foreshore:

When I got home I discovered that Pearl had given birth to a blue black female cria - result :)  Eddy had been able to spray the baby's cord with Betadine, but by the time I got home Pearl was in her more usual hyper-protective mode, and I was not allowed to get too close!  We've named the baby Portia.