My First Baby Alpaca Born Today!!!

My first ever cria was born today. My vet arrived to take strangles swabs from 11 horses to make sure none of them are carriers and asked me if I knew that my alpaca had just unpacked!!! I didn't know what he meant for a minute as I'd been rushing around getting all the horses in and hadn't noticed anything was happening! She had literally just been born at 11.20 this morning when he arrived.

I couldn't believe my luck that she's a girl and she's HUGE! Crystal was a complete star and let me fiddle about getting her milk going and plugging the baby on, all without moving a muscle.

Sam was being a complete pain and jumping on Crystal, even though he's castrated, so I led him with Leo following up to the field with the sheep in it. It was a longish walk and he led brilliantly. He laid down a couple of times to begin with so the next time he tried I kept his head up to keep him on his feet ad he just gave in immediately and led enthusiastically the rest of the way. It was lovely to see him and Leo careering around a big field for once.

I brought Crystal and the baby, who is called Daisy, in before we had yet another thunderstorm and Sapphire came in with them. Here are some photos of Daisy at just 4 hours old: