Well what a day I have had today, so busy this is the first time I've actually sat down - still not stopped though.
I had to finish off my final bit of skirting for Kelso this morning as we were all gathering to weigh the fleeces today. Nick Harrington-Smith is flying up to, a hopefully sunny Scotland, on Friday so us weighing the fleeces will help speed things up slightly.
Kelso is a composite show so the fleeces get judged on the Friday with the animals getting judged for conformation on Saturday and the two marks combined to give the overall position. All very complicated but hopefully as numbers are low it will all be done in plenty of time this year.
I had been checking on Geena on a regular basis as she was looking likely to produce anytime soon and at 11am she was happy munching showing no signs what so ever. After making one phone call I took my fleeces out to my workroom and look out the window to see the cria all gathered round looking at something behind the hay manger - that can only mean one thing.
Back down the stairs, jumped the fence (don't tell Paul he complains if I don't use the gate) and in to the field to be greeted by a big white cria running round with Geena panicking in hot pursuit.
Geena is a real worrier so birthing time is always very stressful for her. She is humming constantly to him, yes it's another boy and he's white which we weren't really expecting. Although she has produced a white once before when mated to a white so it was possible.
Geena doens't get much milk so this year I have decided to try her with Oxytocin to see if it helps so I will keep you posted. I did give her baby a little extra colostrum from the bottle to to make sure he got enough - Geena was not at all impressed by this!
We also had a house viewing this evening so I had to try and find time to clean the house; thankfully we have plenty of cupboards!!
Whilst I was out checking the babies I took a few bedtime shots.
Ursula and Pearson
Imala and Wynfor
Chiquita and Minimus
Little Miss Irraquoy and Niveous
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8 comments:
Really lovely photos. Well done - good luck at Kelso!
Guessing the colour is part of the fun isn't it...although we seem to be getting a few white surprises this year! Lovely photos.
Phew! you must be exhuasted. Love the black & white - a lovely combination and surely a show stopper.
Congratulations....on your lovely new arrival..he looks super ! Good luck with your show team at Kelso !......Im hoping for some sunny weather for the weekend !!....Lovely photos....Jayne
I don't know how you get your alpacas to pose so well for you!
Lovely cria!
I'll be interested to know how you get on with the Oxytocin - we tried with Lina and it didn't make any difference whatsoever but the vet and I hd to guess at dosages so interested to know about your experiences.
We tried lactation herbs with our maiden. I don't know if she just plain had plenty of milk, or if the herbs helped, but we ended up with no problems. I'll be curious to hear how the oxytocin works. It's always good to know what to do if/when a problem comes up.
As for getting white, if the sire was white, there was a 50% chance he'd pass on his white gene and the cria would be white. If neither the sire or dam are white (which in this case I can see the dam is black), then it's a bit more tricky, but white can be the outcome. Either way, the cria has a black gene from the dam, so easily could have black offspring if bred to black (50% of the time white, 50% of the time black, if bred to black).
Beautiful cria!
Nice looking bunch Debbie.
We had a dark fawn from two blacks, a black from a fawn/black, a brown from two fawns..........who knows what will happen next year??!?!?!
It's lovely to see the mother-baby pairs at bed-time.
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