August 22 this little charmer was born! We knew her mom was in labour the night before, and despite the fact that we hovered in and around the barn the next morning, Shauna-Marie found a brief moment alone to give birth so we missed it!
The cria didn't nurse on her own all day so we had to milk the mom and feed it to her via syringe. By Day 2 she was still not nursing, so we were bottle feeding her lamb-replacer along with the milk we nursed from the dam. No matter how hard we tried to teach her to nurse she refused. The mom was willing but the cria was stubborn!
We had to leave the farm for the weekend, and on Sunday night the "farm-sitter" called to say that the cria had started to nurse. After 4 days of bottle feeding she had decided to give mom a try.
We've called her "Nugget" because when we'd show up for her feeding we'd call out "come on little nugget, come get your bottle" and her ears would prick up. We decided she liked the name. It suits her - she was very little when she was born ( 13 lbs) and even at Day 11 she is only up to 18.4 lbs. She's a feisty one, though. She loves to run outside and chase her shadow. She's also not afraid of the other alpacas or the sheep, which is a huge relief.
The cria didn't nurse on her own all day so we had to milk the mom and feed it to her via syringe. By Day 2 she was still not nursing, so we were bottle feeding her lamb-replacer along with the milk we nursed from the dam. No matter how hard we tried to teach her to nurse she refused. The mom was willing but the cria was stubborn!
We had to leave the farm for the weekend, and on Sunday night the "farm-sitter" called to say that the cria had started to nurse. After 4 days of bottle feeding she had decided to give mom a try.
We've called her "Nugget" because when we'd show up for her feeding we'd call out "come on little nugget, come get your bottle" and her ears would prick up. We decided she liked the name. It suits her - she was very little when she was born ( 13 lbs) and even at Day 11 she is only up to 18.4 lbs. She's a feisty one, though. She loves to run outside and chase her shadow. She's also not afraid of the other alpacas or the sheep, which is a huge relief.
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