June's Six Pack

So you just never know with alpaca due dates, but this year we had 6 due in June and we actually ended up with a 6 pack of new cria in June.  Final count 4 boys and 2 girls.  We ranged in gestation days from 336 to 363 days, Deb was home for every birth, I actually got to see 3.  Overall, 2 of those seemed to be ones I needed to be here to give Deb an extra set of hands to assist.  The 3rd one was a perfect, text book delivery with one of our great proven dams, Moonshadow's Obsession.

Here is MO with her new cria Monique,
just hours old~

Monique is MO's 3rd cria in the "MO" line, she is
very exotic looking with those eyes~

Saturday, Moonshadow's October Sky, gave birth to her first cria.  Sometimes those first births can be difficult or have certain challenges.  Sky had trouble getting the cria out and needed our assistance.  Which often then is hard on the newborn and they start out a little slow.  Sometimes first time moms don't have any or little milk and are not too sure about the whole nursing routine.  Sky was being very attentive to her new cria the first day, but she wasn't letting him nurse, so we had to supplement.  First 24 hours for this guy were touch and go, by Saturday evening we thought he was crashing.  So we checked on him and tube fed him every few hours throughout the night.  By morning, we were not out of the woods, but a very positive sign was seeing him up and nursing!  As the morning progressed, he appeared to be moving around more and Sky was standing perfectly for him to nurse. 

Sky was being a great mom in all the protective and nurturing ways
we expect alpaca moms to be~

Sunday was a warm sunny day, great for newborns to soak up the vitamin D and gain strength.  This little guy was still pretty sedentary and got a little over heated so was not up and nursing as often as he should.  So by Sunday evening, it seemed our upswing of the morning had headed back down again.  So we went through another night of supplementing his feed to keep what strength he had up.  Starting his 3rd day now and things are looking good again.  He put a little weight back on that he had lost the day before and seems to be working at mom to nurse more often.  To assess the health and progress of a new cria, we will weigh them ever day to ensure they are gaining, if we have an at risk cria we will weigh twice a day.  A thriving cria is also easy to guage just through observation of their energy and strength in getting up, running and keeping it with mom.

This guy is so adorable and just has an amazing amount of
bright silky soft fleece~

The outcome for one of our youngest is looking promising.  As for the rest of June's cria, they are all thriving and tearing around the fields playing.  It is so much fun to have all the new cria together and watching them interact.  Now we have a little break before the next group of cria are due to arrive.  Next wave of cria watch begins the end of July.