Welcome to the herd Sophie

At last she has a name - Sophie. As a child my mum always wanted to name one of our pets Sophie and she was always over ruled. However, I did promise her jokingly that if Camilla had a white girl, we would call it Sophie for her. Seeing as mum was here on the morning of the birth we decided that we would honour her wish. When we thought she was a boy we had considered calling her Jenson after the racing driving which seemed adpted with our motor racing backgrounds. However, Jenson is now Sophie, but I am not sure anyone had told her as she is currently racing around the paddock - and I am sure she keeps trying to improve her lap time.

The vet did have to come out to Camilla the day after the birth. He did an internal inspection and found the placenta had come away, so we can only imagine that the buzzards, jackdaws or crows took the afer birth. That is not usual, but it would not surprise me as we are surrounded by wildlife. The vet also said that Camilla was not overly full of milk and that the baby felt light so we should supplement her feed with some bottle milk. So after a quick dash to Mole Valley Farmers to get some ewe replacement milk, we gave Sophie a top up drink. She was not overly thisrtsy and we did not give too much as we wanted her to stay hungry enough to keep sucking on mum and encourage milk.

Four days on Sophie is putting on weight nicely and is far more interested in her mum's milk that any bottle I have and seems to be be feeding fine now. The purple spray marks are fading to pink and her umbical cord has dried up and fallen off. She is so cute.

Stu, mum and myself have created a second paddock for the girls and now they are enjoying their new grazing patch. Last night we had loads of rain, but still want more for the grass please.

Next thing to sort is a mini pen for the shearer who is coming on Monday evening.

NO it is definately a white (and purple) GIRL cria!!!!

Yesterday morning about 8am saw the birth of our first cria. A white girl - yet to be named. Nobody had guessed white, in my fun sweepstake.

Early that morning my mum asked have you checked on the girls yet? Having checked on Camilla every 45 mins the day before I didn't expect much to have happened over night. I stepped out on to the new balcony to have a quick check before going downstairs and had to have a double take. There sat in the sunshine were 4 alpacas - Suzy, Alice, Camilla and a white baby!!!! The baby and mum were both just sat there next to each other - they looked like a pair of swans with their long white necks. I screamed to mum who was now downstairs - I THINK SHE HAS HAD THE BABY! - We both quickly dashed up to the alpaca paddock to see the new arrival. This would have gone smoothly - but mum forgot in her excitement that the patio door was not open and bumped her head. Having clean windows is dangerous in our house. I did the same thing last week - what a silly girl. We stopped to check mum was okay and then proceeded up the top to meet the new arrival.

The cria was covered in membrane still, but up on her feet bumberling around. She kept trying hard to feed, but Camilla (mum) was having none of it. We decided to give the girls their daily supplement feed in the hope she would be distracted and baby would latch on - but no. Instead we took the opportunity to check the baby over - carefully avoiding touching the tail and head area. We lifted the baby up, sprayed the umbilcial cord with a special purple spray, had a quick look and thought - it is a girl. We let baby go and realised that we were now both cover in purple and the cria looked like someone had been doing a bit of graffiti spraying on her.

We checked around for any after birth / placenta and could not find any so decided to leave them to settle in together and watch from a distance with some binoculars. As we watched it soon became apparent that Camilla despite being an experienced mum was not letting baby feed. Every time she tried to latch on mum would stamp her foot and move off. All the books, vets and breeders I spoke to said that until the mum has passed the afterbirth she is reluctant to feed and the milk doesn't really kick in. In desperation the baby was going up to the other two and trying to feed. They naturally head for dark areas and have a go. We had been wondering if perhaps a buzzard had gone off with the after birth without us seeing, but this now seemed unlikely.

While observing the baby she rolled around on the floor playfully, and I thought I think it's a boy - I must have got it wrong - how silly am I. Not wanting to keep touching the baby - I waiting for Stu to come home and had a closer inspection and no it is definitely a girl. Good old Bingo (Dad) produced another girl cria. We also weighed her and she was 12.5lbs.

Knowing we needed to get some colostrum into the baby within the first 24 hours and that the weather was stinking hot we decided to put Camilla and her cria in a pen in one part of the paddock so she could see the others, but not keep escaping. Several hours on and still no sign of the afterbirth. We to spoke several of my breeder friends who were extremely helpful and then to the vet who gave us some Reprocine to inject to help bring on her placenta and some Betamox an antibiotic. Straightaway we could see the milk kick in on her teats, and Stu helpped me encourage the baby to feed which she would from the front teats but left the back full so we had to strip the milk out of these using a homemade plunger device.

By now it was about 9pm - still no placenta so another trip to the vets to get some more Reprocine and another injection given. The idea is this would help Camilla to contract slowly in waves to help try and prevent a prolapsed uterus. It was now pitch black and by torch light we encouraged baby to feed again - keeping mum still using a bit of Tellington Touch massage techniques we learnt from a Camelidynamics course. By midnight still no placenta.

We decided to call it a night and I set the alarm for 4am. At 1.30am it started to pour with rain - yes the long awaited rain had come, but it was still stinking hot. A few hours later the alarm went off and I staggered up the garden with a lantern in my dressing gown to check on the girls. Still no placenta and mum seemed a bit uncomfy - hopefully the after birth is on it's way.

When upset they can make such a screamy noise, and then start to try and spit - but touch wood so far the spits have just been friendly air spits to let us know she is not happy. I managed to encourage baby to feed using a one handed massage on mum to calm her down and guide baby with the other hand. It is amazing how quickly the massage seemed to work this time. Camilla was really leaning into me and relaxing -( as much as an alpaca with contractions can relax.) It was still pouring with rain and now I am soaked and covered in wet alpaca smell and I didn't think Stu would appreciate me hopping back into bed in this state and so I decided to update my BLOG then go and get changed. If there is no afterbirth in a few hours - I think another trip to the vets will be necessary. It was a long, hot day yesterday, but it is one I won't forget. The Cria is so gorgeous all we need to do now is think of a name.

Official Balcony Opening

Friday 25th June 2010 saw the grand opening of the Bali-Hai Balcony. The builders worked through the blazing sun and finally got it finished. Now all we need is a hot tub!

All quiet on the alpaca front. Hurry up Camilla!

Shearing Chez Nous

Have been given a time and date for the shearing of our girl alpacas. The shearer is planning to come Monday 5th and will shear Suzy, Alice and Camilla as long as she is not in the middle of giving birth.Watch this space for the patter of tiny alpaca feet....not long now...I hope!

Alice is having a bad hair day so has gone all camera shy.