The Birth of Paisley's Pumpkin
Pumpkin at 2 months old
We hope everyone has been enjoying the summer. The alpacas are looking forward to a few cooler days, we have had a real warm summer.
Cria season is over, we have 7 males and 5 females. Our smallest cria is Sarasota's daughter who weighed in at 15 lbs, the largest cria is Cosmos who weighed in at 21.4 lbs. The average weight this year for our crias is about 18 lbs.
One of our favourite alpacas, Paisley had her first cria on August 1, weighing 18.3 lbs.
This video Pumpkin's Birth on You Tube is of Paisley having her first cria. It was a text book birth, quick, easy and no help needed. The biggest problem was keeping Paisley from rolling in the dirt bath once the cria's head was out.
About 9:15 Paisley started circling around, trying to reach under her tail, then she would lay down, then get back up, throughout this she was humming.
Once the shoulders have been pushed out it is usually very quick that the rest of the cria drops out. Always amazed that they don't break their necks when they hit the ground, she was born at 9:50 a.m.
The other alpacas come over to greet the latest cria and encourage her to get up and start walking right away. She was standing at 10:07 a.m.
Notice how Paisley starts to lick her cria's mouth, she is actually transferring saliva with the bacteria needed for the crias stomach to develop rumen so she will be able to start digesting hay in a few weeks. The other females in the group will also transfer saliva to the cria making sure she gets good health from everyone in the herd.
By the time the cria was 1 hour old she was walking, she had nursed, we checked her over, weighed her - she was a healthy 18.6 lb cria.
Her official name is KBAR'S Paisley's Pumpkin, but we will just call her Pumpkin. How did she get her name? For her mom Paisley, we couldn't come up with a name so we asked for suggestions; a wonderful lady named Paisley suggested Paisley, and that would tie in with the book Paisley's Pumpkin written by our friend Carolyn j Morris of www.Railfencebooks.com. We were so thrilled when Paisley's first cria was a girl so we could call her Pumpkin! Our human friend Paisley is a great supporter of our alpacas, her and a group of friends come every fall to visit Paisley and the other alpacas. I can't wait for them to meet Pumpkin.
This is Kameron The Grey's 15th cria.
If you would like to come visit Paisley, Pumpkin and the other alpacas please visit our page www.alpacatours.ca for all the details.
