Bumper crop of cria.

We had a lovely surprise yesterday when for the first time at Abravo Alpacas we had two beautiful cria born on the same day. Carleigh went into labour first, which was no surprise as we were expecting it eventhough it was not her due date. Her teats had "bagged up" so we new the birth was going to be in the next few days. We had watched her over the garden gate all morning and noticed she was sitting away from the other alpacas and also sitting on her side. We then saw a little nose followed by two feet. At this stage Minstrel started to hum very loudly almost mooing and sitting down and looking very uncomfortable. By the time Carleigh had popped out Nira (Fawn Female) Minstrel was laying down mooing even more loudly. I stroked her head and neck and gave words of comfort. Andrew gently applied pressure and out came Tybalt a grey male with two white socks and a white spot on his neck. We think he is brilliant as all our crias thus far have been solid colours so its quite nice to have one looking a little different.

Both Tybalt and Nira where up on their feet within and hour and suckling. In fact one of our other Cria Timora was very cheeky and had a feed at the same time as Tybalt from his mum Minstrel. Which is very unusual; usually the mums chase away crias that are not their own.