September 08
If you read the first episode of this Criary Diary, you’ll know that we were still waiting for more cria to be born, and rapidly running out of time in our holiday at home. Luckily, the last two arrived in mid-August, and we now have five lovely baby Alpacas running around the fields and up and down the mound we built specially for them. One of the problems of so many births is finding names for them all, so we have taken to using the same initial letter for all the cria born in one year. This year it was aitch. Anyone who listened to Radio 4’s ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue’ will know why chose the name ‘Humph’ for our first cria. We also called another ‘Hamish’ after the character in the same programme (we already have a Doogle). The rest are Hebe, Hosta (both girls) and Hendrix.
Hosta is a particularly stunning cria. Her fleece is so tight it feels like knots (a good sign), and she has incredibly long legs, so straight that she seems to be wearing tiny white stilettos. Hamish on the other hand has a very soft and thick fleece in a lovely light fawn, but his front legs were hopelessly bent at the knees when he was born, and he had great trouble standing. He had been stuck in the womb like that, and though we hoped this would fix itself, after several days, he was getting no better, and was a pathetic sight when he tried to run. We decided to call in an animal physiotherapist for the first time, and after only two sessions of very gently manipulating the joints, the tendons were freed up. Within two weeks, he was standing perfectly again, and to see him running around now you’d never believe there was ever anything wrong. Well done Iain.
The last one to be born is a lovely dark brown boy, Hendrix, with another tight curly fleece, and though he is much smaller than all the others, he more than makes up for it in curiosity, confidence and mischievousness. Though Humph and Hamish are nearly twice his size, he gives as good as he gets in their play-fighting, and he runs faster than a rabbit already. Seeing the five cria tearing around the fields at full pelt is a sight to behold, and the contrasting colours of white, fawn, light brown and dark brown make it easy to spot who’s getting up to mischief.
As I have mentioned, mums are ready and willing to be mated again two weeks after giving birth, so we’ve had a succession of eligible males coming to pay their respects. After the initial ‘spitting-off’ tests to check they have conceived, the mums will be left at least 60 days before the foetus will be big enough to be visible on a portable ultrasound scanner. That will give us an idea who needs particular care over the Winter.
The main task is to get the new cria fit and healthy for the cold weather, and once they had all arrived, we thought we’d give the mums a treat. We had been keeping an acre field specially to let them into once everyone had landed and we were confident they were OK. The field had been topped regularly (very regularly with this Summer weather) to keep it fairly short, the way Alpacas like it. Within a few days of letting them onto it however two of the cria developed scouring, and that is not at all what you want in a growing baby. A bit of treatment cleared that up, but we had to persuade the mums to vacate the lush new field, not that there is any shortage of grass this year on their present fields. The cria are all putting on weight rapidly now (1-2 Kg per week), so we’ll probably try them again on at least part of the new field again soon and see what happens (or what doesn’t happen, we hope). Once the cria are clearly growing well we register them with the British Alpaca Society (BAS). This involves each cria having its own unique microchip inserted under the skin, which is even the vet finds particularly challenging with their very tight but tough skin!
By the time you read this, we will have had the Alpaca Open Day in Hawkhurst on the farm of one of the biggest breeders in the area, and we may even have met some of you there. This is arranged by the South East Alpaca Group who get together several times a year to talk about Alpacas. There is a whole little world of Alpaca breeders and owners out there, and anybody even thinking of taking up ownership is always very welcome to approach the ‘old hands’ who’ve been doing it for a few years. They all have one thing in common – they all love talking about Alpacas, and there is probably nobody involved in Alpacas that does it just for the sake of a business – they are all thoroughly captivated by these amazing animals. Living in such a lovely area and with a herd of these amazing creatures as well, we are very lucky indeed.