Having Baby Crias

We purchased two pregnant female huacaya alpacas, and one maiden our first year as an alpaca owner. Six months later, two females were born. Olina delivered a healthy little girl we named Chasca (the name of a Peruvian Goddess) and then came Legacy's baby, who we named Lucy (her bright red curly hair reminded us of Lucille Ball). We were thrilled to be able to see both our 'moms' deliver while agisted at the owner breeder's farm since we didn't have our own place set up at that time.

We moved to Northern Idaho that fall, and the next year, we waited anxiously for two more cria to come from these wonderful moms.

As members of our regional PNAA alpaca organization, we were involved with putting on the show here in Post Falls, Idaho, so got up early to feed and get to the show! It was the second day of the show, and while feeding I noticed that Legacy was acting VERY strange! She was up, she was down, she was around the dung pile, then down and she was humming! "Ron!!! We're having a baby!" I hollered excitedly. "You go to the show, I'll stay and deliver the baby" I instructed. And so off he went. I then hastily gathered all the things out of the barn I would need, called a 'cria kit', and 3 hours later, we had a beautiful light fawn baby boy nursing away happily. So I joined Ron at the show that afternoon.

With the girls both due within two weeks of each other, we were watching Olina carefully for any sign of her impending birth. When we couldn't 'see' anything in her behavior or body indicating she was about to deliver, we decided we had her due date mixed up. Boy were we surprised early one morning to look out the kitchen window to see a brown, wobbly legged little thing standing in the pen with mom! We changed from bathrobes to barn-clothes at a speed that would make one think we'd been caught in the back of a '55 Chevy one night! Racing to the pen to check out our new little arrival, I asked "Is it a boy or a girl?" "IT'S A GIRL!"

Well, not quite! A week later, having named our little girl "Beauty" Ron informed me that we had 'one less girl' in the pasture when I was out of town on a business trip. "WHAT?" thinking a coyote had gotten in or something else equally as awful!

"We have one less girl in the pasture" he calmly tells me.

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" I yelled as awful things raced thru my mind.

"Well," Ron says "Beauty isn't exactly a girl. It's a BOY! 'She' has plumbing that 'SHE' shouldn't have! IT's a BOY!"

What a relief. All I really have to do is figure out a new name.

© Judi Hoaglund
January 15, 2007
All Rights Reserved

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