Junuary 2012

Cria coats ~ each cria has a specific coat which has their scent
 on it.  Sometimes the moms don't really appreciate these things we
put on their cria and if it doesn't smell right it can't be good~

June wraps up how it began, grey, cloudy, wet and windy.  Felt as much like January as it did June, but regardless of the weather June always seems to be a month full of activity. Our first cria are born, everyone had to have their own coat to wear this month.  Shearing is done, breedings have begun and we've had lots of visitors this month.  Today, in between rain squals, we had a farm visit to see what raising alpacas is all about and Principe had another one of his arranged dates with 2 girls coming by to see him! 

Staar's new cria sporting her purple rain coat~

Last weekend we had cria born on both Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday during winds that where swirling through our shelter and rain that came pouring down, Moonshadow's Evening Staar delivered our 3rd female cria of the year!  Big whopping 21 lb cria after 350 days gestation.  No wonder Staar couldn't wait for warmer weather to deliver her. 

Staar's friend MO must have been inspired and delivered her 2012 cria Sunday morning.  We didn't have quite the dramatic weather for the arrival of this little one, but with some needed assistance MO delivered a healthy 18.4 lb female!  Exciting to have girls back to back and now 4 in a row, but also, both these new girls happen to be 100% Moonshadow from home grown Moonshadow Sires and Dams.  Anyone following this blog may remember the MO-line from last year.  This is 3 girls in a row for MO and one of the first 2012 cria to get a name.  Let us introduce Moonshadow's Mohini.

MO grazing away with her new cria Mohini never far from her side~

It is always amazing how every alpaca on the ranch seems to know when there is a new arrival.  It is not at all unusual to see them lined up in any of the other fields trying to get a glimpse of the newest member of the herd.

Is Junuary the new start to summer month?  Let's hope not!  Hopefully our summer will begin in July, I'm sure there are many states east of us that would love and could use all this rain.

Happy Father's Day 2012

Annie with her 2012 Fury kid~

It really just didn't seem right to highlight our alpaca moms on Mother's Day and not mention the dads on Father's Day.  We do know they contribute 50% to the mix and we can't have good cria without good alpaca Sires.  We have worked hard to put the best combination of traits together in building our herd and have always taken pride in bringing in the best genetics, health, temperment and fleece qualities for our breeding program.  To start off 2012, we've now had our first 3 cria of the year from 3 wonderful alpaca dads.

Coming up with names doesn't seem to get much easier the more cria you have, so it's not unusual for new cria to just go by buddy, cutie or punkin for weeks.  If we need a name to actually keep track for any reason, they'll go by the dam's 2012 cria.  Our first cria was introduced last month and still has no name.  Here is Annie's 2012 cria, Sired by CCNF Andean Fury, who has been a wonderful dad for us and really out did himself with this stunning young male.



CCNF Andean Fury


 

We highlighted Fury in the 2012's 1st Arrival post.  He has definitely been a great Herdsire for us and has sired some of our best colored offspring.  Annie's little guy certainly has the potential to be his best yet!  We like this guy so well we are definitely considering repeating this combination.  Fury did what we were hoping, he brought in color and enhanced the fleece quality both these parents have.  Absolutely a WOW fleece on this little guy from the moment he was dry!



Snowmass Golden Victory

   

Next up this season was a repeat knock out combination of our Madonna and Snowmass Golden Victory.  On June 4th, Madonna delivered another female cria who appears to be just as nice as her multiple Blue Ribbon winning big sister, Moonshadow's Golden Mist.  Sometimes the names come a little easier, we have wanted all the Victory girls to have Golden in their name.  Getting another female out of this pair seems charmed from the start, so let us introduce Moonshadow's Golden Charm.  

 

Madonna looks white, but she really is a beige and  has been wonderful at
letting the color of the Sire come through in her cria~

 
Our 3rd cria of the season so far was born the first day of our shearing on June 9th.  This is also the 3rd time for this pairing and the dad is a home grown Herdsire of ours and another awesome, multiple show winning son of Madonna's, Moonshadow's Gunslinger.  Whisper and Gunslinger have now produced 3 beautiful females in a row.  Maybe we should call her Hat Trick or Triple Crown?  

Moonshadow's Gunslinger

 

 

So Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!  Alpaca dads aren't ever involved with their offspring, but we never under value their contribution to their kids!

Whisper & Gunslinger's 3rd girl on the left snuggled next to Golden Charm~





2012's 1st Arrival...

Dreamboat Annie saying hi to her new cria moments
after he hits the ground~

It always seems like we wait the longest for the first one to arrive to kick off each new year of cria.  Seems like the Spring cria take the longest, maybe it is nature's way of protecting those Spring cria from the cold, wet weather we tend to have in the Pacific NW.  After 355 days of waiting, the first cria was born last week on May 24th.  This Spring we have had some nice stretches of warm, sunny weather that would have been wonderful for a new cria to get their start.  Though we did miss that stretch, we did have some moments of sunshine and break in the rain the day of his arrival.

CCNF Andean Fury

Moonshadow's Dreamboat Annie is a proven mom, this is her 3rd cria.  Annie is a 2nd generation production dam out of one of our original females purchased.  This has been a very dominant white line, but we took a little bit of a chance last year and decided to try to bring out some color and bred her to our dark brown Herdsire, CCNF Andean Fury.  Fury has been our most color dominant Herdsire, and has produced 100% colored offspring.  More impressive when you know he's mainly been bred to white or light colored females.   Adding color to an elite white fleece has not been part of our breeding plans for several years now, but we thought if the cria inherited the best both these parents have to offer in fleece quality we could potentially have a real knock out. 



A few hours old~

Can you always tell with a newborn cria whether you hit a home run or not?  No, not necessarily, lots of things can happen before that cria grows up and matures.  However, it's really hard to ignore those first impressions where you go "Wow!" or "oh hum, didn't expect that?".  By the time this little guy was dry enough to get a good feel and look at his fleece, we were both saying Wow, this is definitely what we were shooting for!  His fleece is super dense, crimpy and blindingly bright.  Beautiful coppery color, with kind of a smokey brown head.  Since this is the 3rd boy in a row Annie has produced for us, it is good to see he appears to have stud potential right from the start.  Annie's first guy, Moonshadow's Bootlegger, is now down in Oregon as a Herdsire for Alpaca Alley, LLC.  Her second son, Moonshadow's Victory's Triumph, will be going to Idaho to be a Herdsire at Eden Criations.  They were both show winners in very competitive white male classes.  We know this new guy comes from 2 show winning parents, both proven to produce show winners too.  He comes from an impressive pedigree with generations of winners on both sides of his family tree.



Day 3, never far from mom~

 We have a couple more moms who are imminent and I thought certainly they would be inspired by Annie's delivery, but no, so far they are keeping us hangin'!  Madonna is now at 352 days, Whisper 345 days.  Every time we have a little break in the rain we are watching and hoping to see nose and toes to get those cria out in the open with some sunshine to help warm them up and dry them off.  Like all babies, we know they come when they are ready.  Cria season 2012 has begun at Moonshadow.  Yesterday we had the vet out to do ultrasounds to confirm a few of the Fall breedings we did and the first Spring breedings and the cycle continues.  Birthings and breedings all bring great hope and anticipation for the future!

As the summer days come to an end

Okay, so it's been a few weeks since my last post.  Seems like the more there is going on the less time there is to sit down and write about it.  Since the last update we have had 4 more cria, taken down 7 trees around the front of our house, trying not to bury ourselves in tree debris in the process and made some major effort on getting the new hen house ready for winter.  We were already seeing the summer days wrapping up and looking around at all that needed to be done in preparation for winter so we've definitely been on a major push.

The exciting events, of course are always the birth of a new addition to the herd.  These last 4 that were born are the final 4 of the 2011 crop.  The start of this final push was this little guy...


Tough beginning, but he's not phased at all!

 We've had around 90 cria born now and we had our first breech baby.  He was not only aimed with his rear headed out, but also had his legs positioned forward.  We have an amazing friend, Gina Martin of Mak-Ky Corral Alpacas, who prides herself in resolving challenging deliveries and was close by.  We knew we had a female in labor who wasn't progressing, but we couldn't tell exactly what the problem was.  We also had our friends J&J over who had never seen an alpaca delivery.  So with all this help, as well as Gina's son Kyler and his girlfriend, we managed to get the mom up over a bail of hay so Gina had the best angle and helping getting this cria out.  The biggest concern with a breech is getting that baby out quickly once the umbilical breaks so they don't suffocate.  I won't go into all the graphic details, but I know we were all feeling very sympathetic for the mom, Serenade, that the amount of stretching she was having to endure was beyond any expectation of motherhood!  Gina was definitely the hero of the day and we so appreciate everyone else that was there to help.  So after a majorly stressful start to life, the picture above is after almost 2 weeks.  He is doing great and getting stronger every day!

We've definitely had some of our firsts, and with all luck, our only experiences in some extreme birthing challenges this year.  So having those normal, no worries, typical alpaca births are always appreciated.  Monday we had a double header.  Deb hadn't gotten all the last due soons moved into the same field yet and got her work out with 2 moms, in 2 fields, go into labor back to back.  Fortunately, they timed it nicely so the first to hit the ground was thriving, sitting up and working at getting on her feet, while Deb ran to check on the mom in the next field.

This is Patience with her new girl.  She is just adorable and is certainly worth
the long wait it's been for her to finally arrive~

Beautiful medium rose grey, this guy is already quite macho!
Over 20 lbs @ birth and gaining over a lb a day~

Then to cap off the 2011 birthing season, the final cria was born Thursday.  No one was even home for this birth from one of our tried and true moms, Whitney.  She is the example of those proven moms who have their cria on their own and they are up and nursing before anyone knows they are here.  So far this last guy born is the only one with a name yet, for some reason Black Bart has been in my head if Whitney were to have a black boy....I know I should have been thinking girl names!  Though he is cute as a button and sweet as ever.



Moonshadow's Black Bart



We have the final 4 separated from the other cria just until they are ready to run and play with the big guys.  They are the friendliest little group we've had together, not minding saying hi and giving little cria kisses.  So this concludes the new additions and cria watch is officially over for 2011.  This year has definitely had some ups and downs, but we focus on those beautiful cria that we have with us and start looking ahead to next year's show season and the next crop of cria, while we watch these grow up and fill out with all that gorgeous baby alpaca fiber. 

This week's high...

Tuesday we had another new cria.  This was a rather exciting cria being 100% Moonshadow, from Moonshadow's Olivia and Moonshadow's Revolution's Patriot.  It is also the first cria born here for our good friends Janice and Jeremy.

Alpaca mom's are always so nurturing, nuzzling and encouraging their cria~

Not only are the moms always so loving and attentive with their cria, but it seems like the dads are just as interested.  We have noticed that if the Sire of a newborn is onsite, they seem to know the new addition is one of theirs.  Seems like the Herdsire of the newest born is always the one spending the most time trying to look across fence lines as if to check out what they've produced.

That dark guy behind the fence and tall grass is Patriot checking out
his newest offspring~

I have to say this new young cria is the spitting image of his dad, just in a luscious shade of brown instead of black.  He is strong, healthy and thriving from the moment he came out.  It is always great to have a proven mom deliver and take care of her cria with no worries or intervention from us.  Definitely a great way to pick up spirits from events of the previous week.  Looking ahead to each new cria is absolutely the high side of raising alpacas!



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.   

How Quickly They Grow up

Any of us who have raised kids or watched them grow up knows how fast they do grow up.  With alpaca cria it seems just exponentially quicker.  They are trying to stand and nurse almost immediately after they are born and are generally standing, walking, nursing and keeping up with mom within their first 45 minutes of life.


Within moments after they are born a newborn cria will
be sitting up right.

 Since shearing, the most exciting events on the ranch have definitely been the arrival of new cria.  Monday we had our 4th of the year, a beautiful female out of SHRA Zephyr and Snowmass Golden Victory.  After 3 boys in a row, we were definitely excited to have a girl!  Also, this has been a greatly anticipated cria since Zephyr was the last alpaca we purchased to infuse some new genetics into our breeding program.  Adding a female with her production record to our program and combining with Golden Victory was a very calculated move to produce something special.  We have waited almost 2 years to see the first results of that plan.  First step finally accomplished, cria on the ground.

About 15 minutes old

Zephyr's cria was born Monday morning, a rather cool and cloudy day.  It is always to a newborn's advantage to have a nice, sunny, moderately warm day to start life outside the womb, but clearly they don't get to choose.  We were both there to witness the entire labor and delivery....not so unusual for Deb, she stays close to home during cria watches, but seems like I miss most of the births anymore still having a job away from the ranch.  I love being there for those first steps, watching the moms be so encouraging and watching the newborn so quickly kick into survival mode of being mobile and finding nourishment.  After lots of towelling to dry her off and warm her up, she was fighting to get up on her feet and stand. 

 

Things start out a little wobbly on those long legs!

Alpaca moms are very protective and rarely will leave the side of their newborn cria.  They hum to them encouragingly and are very protective.  Zephyr was one of those extremely protective moms who really did not like us too close to her cria at all and worked very hard at letting us know she had everything handled!  If we weren't home a healthy thriving cria doesn't need our assistance.  Since we are there, it's hard to resist the urge to help a new cria get those long legs underneath them and stabilized to take those first steps.  Those first steps are usually aimed towards finding the milk wagon and re-nourish that spent energy it takes getting this far in life.  Watching how quickly this all transpires compared to other species, and even humans, is truly amazing.

Zephyr and her new little girl~

Everyone always wants to great the new little cria.  Zephyr doesn't necessarily
look happy about having to share her newborn, but it is the alpaca way~

After just 2 days Zephyr's cria is out and about with the rest of the group.  She has "fluffed" up and we can see and feel a little more what her fiber is like.  As far as looks wise, she is gorgeous!  She still stays very close to her mom, even though the other cria want her to join in their games.  She will be running and tearing around with them soon enough in the next day or two.

This is about as close as they are most of the time

Even when it's time for a nap, Zephyr grazes nearby
to keep watch.

And we're out~

New Arrivals

We've been waiting with great anticipation for the first cria of 2011 to arrive.  They're finally here!  At least the first few.  So if you've been following and read any of the Due Soonests or Who'll Go First blog posts you know a few of the moms we've been waiting on.  Knock Out  delivered first on Tuesday, June 14th and then apparently inspired one of our maidens, Moonshadow's Late Nite Out, to deliver also.

Knock Out's new cria, a very bright white handsome boy~

Late Nite Out's new cria, a cute fawn boy~

People are always asking us how we come up with names for all the new cria, we have had around 90 cria born since we started with our first 5 pregnant females.  Sometimes it is amazingly easy and a name just pops and suits them.  Sometimes it is more challenging, we have some themes we use, sometimes we like to incorporate the name of the Sire or Dam, some times it's just kind of random or from something significant that happened in the beginning of the cria's life.  So to explain Late Nite Out, which my son came up with, she was the first cria we ever had born after dark.  She is just under 3 years old, so at the time we had still had a lot of babies born within common parameters.  Statistically, close to 90% of cria will be born between 6 am and 2 pm, and for us this has pretty much held true.  Just felt the need to clarify she was not a party girl staying out late that earned her the name.  ;-)

To follow up the excitement of the two new cria on Tuesday, Moonshadow's Evening Staar went into labor on Wednesday and delivered her cria.  So going back to the 2 blog posts talking about our impending new cria I highlighted 4 of the 6 moms that were due this month.  I won't admit that was intended as a guess in who would deliver first, we know they stick to their own schedule.  A couple of the other moms we are waiting on are now over 350 days pregnant!

Here is Evening Staar with her new white, extremely dense fleeced little boy~

Evening Staar's boy and Knock Out's boy are half brothers from our Herdsire, Snowmass Golden Victory

We love seeing the babies begin to arrive after months of waiting to see what the pairing of Sire and Dam produces.  Color is often a surprise, but our primary focus is on high quality fiber regardless of the color.  Some ranches specialize in particular colors, we truly love them all and appreciate having a range of colored fleeces.  Have to admit we generally would prefer girls over boys, but producing boys with stud potential is always a top consideration in selecting breeding pairs.  In the end, we are always thrilled to have easy deliveries, good moms with plenty of milk and motherly instincts and strong healthy cria.  New cria arrivals is definitely one of the most exciting times of the year!

To see more photos of the new cria, check out our Flickr set on 2011 Cria.