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Bonita, who is heavily pregnant and is one of our white girls is now massive. Her due date was Friday, 12 August. One of our other girls, Popcorn was mated on the same day to the same stud and gave birth over 3 weeks ago. Last year Bonita was a week late and gave birth at night which is very unusual for alpacas. She is overweight, although she eats the same as the rest of the girls but she is obviously processing her food better. Being overweight means we need to keep an eye on her even more than normal as the excess weight gives less room for the cria to move through the birth canal to be born. We keep looking to see if her milk is in and it looks like it is but, again, because she is overweight it is difficult to be certain.

Perhaps, tomorrow will be the day!

We had a nice surprise this afternoon as Popcorn who was not due until 12 August gave birth to a beautiful fawn boy who we have named Lancelot. He is a big, strong boy and he is feeding well. We thought Popcorn would be early as she has given a few signs and last night it looked as though her milk had come in, but it is still 3 weeks early although he is not showing any signs of prematurity. He has a cria coat on tonight so keep him warm although it has been a great day to be born, clever Popcorn she chose a sunny day.

At last a few new photos, including one of our new cria Sorrel with her Mum, Candy have been put onto the gallery part of the website. The photos now go onto a second page so please take a look.

Our vet, David Thurston from Green Hollow Vets called today to geld 2 of our suris. Generally we geld the boys at 18 months. By this time, we know if they are a pet male or potential stud. If there are a few boys kept together gelding them calms them down and reduces any fighting between them.

Two of our suris, Rufus our fawn boy and Jasper our white boy are 15 months old but we decided to geld a bit early because we know they are pet males and because one of our huacayas, Monty, a fawn cria from last year has been cut badly on his legs from fighting which happened in one afternoon when we were out. We watched the herd to see who was the likely suspect although we thought it was probably Jasper and indeed it was so we decided to geld him and as Rufus is the same age to geld him too. It is a quick procedure and they are fine afterwards although Jasper seemed a bit knocked out by the anaesthetic but a couple of hours later they are fine and we just keep an eye on their wounds.

It’s too soon yet for the testosterone to be out of their systems but hopefully this will stop Jasper picking fights!

Candy gave birth to Sorrel three weeks ago tomorrow and alpacas are normally mated again about two weeks after giving birth. We wanted to wait until the shearing had been done to give the best chance of the mating being successful. Barrabinda Flinders Star a stud from Toft Alpacas came to visit. He has been to us before as two of our other girls Bonita and Popcorn are due to give birth to cria sired by Flinders in August. He has a very fine fleece, is an unusual shade of fawn and has a nice temperament, which is very important to us. His offspring have also been doing very well at this years shows, so, we have everything crossed that the mating will result in Candy being pregnant.

Today the herd has been sheared. This is not our favourite day of the year because the alpacas do not enjoy being sheared. However, as long as your shearer is professional and quick the stress to the animals can be minimalised and of course, they feel much more comfortable after the shearing. The shearer checked their teeth and trims their toenails too so they are all now neat and tidy. Their fleece now feels like fuzzy felt and they look very sleek. Last years cria look very cute and so little as they were all carrying loads of fleece. Our shearer is Trevor Gellatly, from Australia who we have used before and he shears alpacas all year round in different countries so he is quick and knows what he is doing.

Today we attended the Kenilworth Show at Stoneleigh Park and were delighted when Merlin got 3rd place in a class of 9 alpacas. He has a lovely fine fleece with a soft handle but we did not think it was dense enough to win a prize so we were very pleased. Extra carrots for Merlin tonight!

Sorrell is putting on weight and keeping close to her Mum’s side. She has started to look interested in the grass and even tried to chew a single piece of hay. Candy is being very patient with her as she likes to run at her Mum and jump on her and it doesn’t matter if Candy is cushed or standing at the time. It is lovely watching her play especially at dusk.

Poor Candy has had quite a day as the birth started around midday and then she gave birth at 4.30pm, which is considered a late birth for alpacas. It has been dreadful weather as well which has not helped as it has been really windy and showery. However, Candy has produced a mid brown girl with white marks on her face and front 2 legs and she is very sweet and we have called her Sorrel. She took a little while to stand but when she did she quiickly got her colostrum which is especially important with a late birth because you start to run out of daylight to sort things out if you need to interveen. A picture of Sorrel will go into the gallery as soon as we get one with the sun shining too.

Candy is now very heavily pregant, she is enormous. Her due date is 27 May and she has gone past her number of days pregnant with her last cria, which if she had gone for the same term would have meant birthing Sun 22 May. So,watch this space!