Didn’t know it would happen again so soon, but on Friday,  November 20th we once again had two cria born in one day.

Of course, I was on my way out of town for most of the day, but Chuck did a fine job attending the births.

Fayette was the first one to have her cria – a little female by Snowmass Bright Horizon.  Then, Angelina decided it was her time and she gave us a little girl by Express’ Masterpiece Renoir.

Gillespie is the teenie little one on the left coming in at 10.9 pounds.  (She is now 13.9 pounds and growing very well).  Once you get into that little fluff on the outside little Espie is a medium fawn with tight little curls – and shine – boy is she shiny!

Brooks is the nice girl on the right, we think she is probably beige.  Her neck and legs do look white, but her body is definitely not.  She has dense, tight little curly crimp, too.  A fine looking duo. 

Five down and five or six to go.

This little guy was born on November 7th while we were in California at a friend’s sons wedding.  Our ranch sitter took super care of him – named him Caldwell – and he is doing great.

He is a Golden One son with Chinchero, Dom Lucilio and Royal Fawn in his lineage.  The brightness (shine) in this guy’s fleece is unbelievable!

Then one week later I went down to the pastures first thing in the morning to find this little critter on the ground already.Even though we missed this guys birth, we didn’t miss it by much.   We  were able to see him take his first steps and begin nursing.  As he – Harrison – began to get up Annie decided that she might as well have her baby so in the next 30 minutes we had another cria.  This time we had a little girl. 

This is sweet little Sabine.  She and Harrison are our first Express’ Masterpiece Renoir’s babies.  They both are grandkids of Accoyo Express and Peruvian Presidio.  Some pretty fantastic bloodlines!

When we got down to the pastures this morning Sari had already given birth to her cria.  SHE is a beautiful medium brown color, she’s healthy, robust, and very precious.  Makulu, you did a fantastic job, we are thrilled!

We name our cria after Texas counties and are running out of “girl” names.  That’s the good news -  means that we are having female crias!  So, this one’s name is Brazoria and we will be calling her Zori.  Kind of cute…

First good friend – Crosby nose to nose.

This is a beautiful little Stonewall Jaxon daughter…… Congratulations Mack and Martha!

Crosby is the cut-up of the pasture.  He is in with a bunch of moms and their crias, but he is the only male cria.  The only male in that pasture – and you know what that means!  He thinks he  pretty macho and he tries to breed everyone around.  Little girls, big girls – he doesn’t care.  He also doesn’t get very far with the big girls and he gets a lot of cria spits from the little girl crias.  It’s so funny!  One thing about him, he doesn’t give up real fast and many times comes out of it with a little green on his person.

For some reason he is also very friendly and will always come see you when you walk in the gate.  He can get himself into some pretty cute poses too – note the following pictures.

He had been lying on top of this pile of hay with his front legs stretched out straight as if to say “it’s mine, all mine”.

Don’t chew with your mouth open, Crosby.

Crosby at Christmas time. 

In this ’pose’ I caught him just as he was going down for a good roll in the grass and dirt!

His full name is Hill Country’s Crosby and he is the son of our studly Dundee’s Stonewall Jaxon.  Look for him in the show ring next fall.

Our little Altiplano Gold cria is doing very well.  She has gained around 10 pounds and runs with all the big kids.  She has very tight shiney little ringlet fleece and I think she is going to be a very nice little girl.  

The mix of an Oro granddaughter and Altiplano Gold has given us a beautiful little girl.  We are very pleased.  Look for Miss Cameron in the show ring next fall.

Don’t you just love all the dry earth?  Not!  We have not had significant rain for over a year.  Really need it bad…..

My goodness  ~  we just had a beautiful Sunday with temperatures in the 70’s and today we didn’t get much above 40 degrees.  This weather is crazy and it’s hard to know what to expect.   Atleast the crias are prepared for the Christmas-like weather with their fancy bows around their necks!

Crosby and La Salle (Sally) wish you a Merry Christmas!  If it had been possible, I think an alpaca would have been present for the birth of Jesus.  Can you just see a cria cuddling with the baby?  Atleast a member of the camelid family was there….eventually.

High magnification

Eimeria Macusaniensis is a protozoan parasite, known as a form of coccidian found in alpacas.

I found this one today in a fecal sample from a visiting cria who is here with her dam for breeding.  I’ll need to get on this right away to prevent other problems in this cria and with the rest of the animals.  The most effective way to control transmitting of e-mac is to remove all fecal material from common areas often – the more often, the better.

Lower magnification

The most effective treatment is ponazuril or Marquis, but I am not sure if I treat for just one oocyst found in a 1 gram sample.  It is an equine paste used to treat sarcocystis in horses.  Most of the time the animal is only treated one time and the dose ranges from 5 – 20 mg/kg.  The usual treatment for coccidia is albon or corid.

Just think that this Stonewall Jaxon son is pretty handsome.  Can’t wait to see how he does in the show ring.  His brother, Brigade, recently took Res. Color Champion at a show in Louisiana and at Alpacas in the Ozarks!  Way to go Brigade!

Already at his young age he is exhibiting presence.  When we walk in to his pasture, he struts up to us, sticks his head out and gives a big sniff.  He is quite bold and I think he is acting very macho.  His Dad, Stonewall, had superb show presence and knew he was on display in the show ring.  I hope that Crosby will be the same.

Little Miss Cameron who was born atleast 14 days early is doing very well.  We took her to the vet yesterday morning to get her blood drawn for an IgG test.  That part always gives me a little fright since the cria are so small.  But, she did great and today her results came back at greater than 1500 and that is good.  So evidently Angelina had an ample supply of colostrum on board even though she delivered a little early.

Cami is a little squirt, but plays and jumps with the best of them.  Here she is at three days old!

She’s still got the tongue hanging out thing going on…  she is saying hello to Jack!  Sorry about the poop shovel in the background.  It just seems that whenever I get a decent pose with the alpacas there is always something in the way.