August 11th, 2007

   It’s been a hectic week here on the ranch!  We had a baby boy born on Wed August 1st weighing only 10 lbs.  He is lively and healthy, nursing within hours, just small.  He has gained 3 lbs already in just one week.  We have named him Kenai.

   Then today we had another boy weighing in at 16lbs.  His mom is Marge and he is an exact carbon copy of her.  His name is Holbrook, after a nearby town.

   We believe we have figured out the reason for the underweight crias born this season.   All of these moms came to us the first week in March from Saskatchewan Canada where the temperature was 30 degrees below zero.  We experienced a warm March so there was an extreme temperature change and they were all full fleeced.   Alpacas are known to shut down fetal growth when under stress and these girls were under temperature AND transportation stress.  We believe this is the reason for these low weight births.  All of the pregnant females already on our property have had normal weight births.

   Babies running around all over the place, now to start the breeding process!   Tuesday was the beginning with Ares and Shasta, and Chester with Robin.  Chester then had a date with two ladies yesterday, Shadow and Ruth. Ares wasn’t too happy about that and has been letting everyone know, especially Chester!!  We finally had to move Ares to another pen before the neighbors start complaining about the noise!

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