Wednesday, 7 June 2017

Bess's cria

Like a lot of animals, Bess hasn't read her instruction manual. Alpacas are supposed to give birth in the morning. Bess spent all morning and most of the afternoon bleating and fidgeting, and went into active labour at 4 pm, which progressed very rapidly.


After two failed matings, a lost pregnancy during winter, and a 376-day gestation, Bess has given birth to a daughter, called Patience, weighing 13 1/2 pounds. Congratulations to her father, 'Jessamine Redlands'.

The rest of the day was spent making sure the cria had worked out how to suck properly, and barricading mother and daughter into the field shelter as it is expected to rain tonight. The field is full of clover at the moment and I managed to kneel on a bee while checking on Bess. This became more painful as the day went on and it is now difficult to straighten my leg. I don't have footage of the cria being born unfortunately, as the placenta started coming at the same time and one leg was out more than the other, so I had to help the cria to come out.

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7 comments:

  1. Aimee10 June 2017 at 00:53

    Welcome to the world Patience! ...sounds like a very fitting name for her. Hope your leg is feeling better.

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  2. Aimee10 June 2017 at 01:10

    It is so beautiful to get to witness a bit of Bess birthing Patience and her new cria sounds and getting her legs under her and beginning to suckle... appreciative of all you share on your blog, Manda.

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    1. MJR10 June 2017 at 07:26

      Thanks, glad you enjoyed! If you search for Olivia on the blog, there's a video of her son Trebuchet being born last year, where I managed to capture the cria coming out from the head/feet stage -- she needed a bit of help too, but just as he started coming to burst the amnion so the cria could start breathing.

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  3. Aimee10 June 2017 at 17:04

    ...not so tech savvy. Is there a simpler way to search 'Olivia' than going through all the dropdown years and months?

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    1. MJR10 June 2017 at 17:37

      Here you go! :-) http://blog.brock-o-dale.co.uk/2016/07/olivias-cria.html

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  4. Aimee10 June 2017 at 21:55

    Thanks for the link (; Wow! So amazing. There is something so tender about the sound of a new baby cria. Love the blow drying and Trebuchet on the bed! I am so glad he is well and strong ...and I wish for him the most wonderful loving home! p.s. How did you come up with the name 'Trebuchet'?

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    1. MJR10 June 2017 at 22:29

      I called the first one that was born Trident because his father's name is 'Green Park Neptune' and he was born on the day the government here voted to renew the nuclear deterrent. When the second one was born, I chose 'Trebuchet' as a name as it sort of fits with Trident as they're both weapons and start with 'tr'. Also trebuchets are usually brown. A bit of a flippant way to pick names, but it could well end up as a theme with the boy cria called after weapons now lol

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