On Tuesday morning as we went down for our usual feeding and caring for the alpacas, we didn’t know it, but were in for a little surprise.

I was taking the feed bowls to the pregnant female pasture and placing them around as I usually do and as I turned around Shadow was there looking for her bowl.  As I moved toward her she backed up and turned and there hanging out of her back end was a head and two legs.  Shadow’s cria wasn’t due until November 17th, but as we all know, that doesn’t mean that’s when the actual cria will be born.

So, we were in for a birth….. and we were so glad that Shadow waited until we got back from the Mid America Alpaca Show in Kansas.  Within 30 minutes we had a nice little female alpaca on the ground.  This little girl only weighed 13.3 pounds, but boy was she full of energy and strength.  It took her about 20 minutes to stand on her own and walk.

This is Shadow’s 4th cria.  All of them have been multi colored.  We tried this breeding to ‘bleach’ out the markings by breeding her to a white male, but our plan didn’t seem to work.  I think we need a male with only white in his background – absolutely no hint of color anywhere.  Any ideas????

We have named this little one Palo Pinto.  We name our crias after counties in Texas and we thought the word Pinto in this name was perfect for her.  (Click the link on the word Palo Pinto and you can locate where that county is in Texas).  I know that Pinto means spotted or speckled and I am trying to figure out what Palo means.  If you know please let me know.