Today was my first day back on the job and what a welcome I received!

This is Sonora and her little girl- the first of the season, less than an thirty minutes old.

The first shows the two bonding- there was lots of clicking and humming and licking.

She decided to give another cria some halter practice. Prosecco is the cute beige baby walking with Gwendolyn in the picture.

Here they are, getting used to each other… can you feel the love???

I was filling water buckets and hay bins when I hear Gigi calling, “Mommy! Mommy, I think someone is having a baby!”

Mistique is a first time mom. She had been experiencing some pain and heavy breathing earlier this month. Banamine had been given. The farm owner had been concerned of a possible torsion. She examined her last week. All seemed okay. The owners are out of town this week, so we were on our own. We had three pregnant dams that could go any day. Today was Mistique’s day.

Probably only ten minutes passed between the time Gigi hollered for me to when I shouted, “It’s a girl!”

The cria birth was actually really simple. Our neighbors came over to help. I had called, mainly because I was there alone with my tween and the tot. I thought a little back up might be helpful! =)

They say most alpaca births require two things. A rope and a chair. You sit in the chair and tie your hands with the rope. Or at least that was what they told me when I started in this business. I’ve since been told that about twenty percent of alpaca births require intervention.

Mistique birthed like a pro. I checked her cria for teeth (no teeth is a sign that the baby is premature.). I dipped her little ambilicas. I dried our beautiful newly birthed cria. I watched our tween keep our tot out I’d the way. I was amazed
I checked the dam for milk. We strip the teets which basically means you take a waxy plug out of them. It is not necessary, a nursling will do it when they nurse, but it allows us to check the mom for milk. Mistique had thick white milk already, a truly wonderful sign. Cria need to get that first milk, called colostrum, within the first hours of life to absorb the antibodies it contains. This is a make it or break it moment for alpacas. Thankfully, Mistique seems to be full of colostrum, and babe started suckling within the first one and a half hours.

Wow. What an experience! We did it alone! Henri learned a few new words… Including ‘birthing placenta’. When David came home he got an earful!

I’m working on a video of the birth as told by Henri.