7/23/2008
Rain, Rain, Rain!
7/20/2008
Currumbong Edrom's First Cria!
7/19/2008
Wildwood Roberto's first cria drops
2/19/2008
Another cria on ground
2/2/2008
Two new cria's!
12/3/2007
Yes, it's another GIRL...
11/28/2007
What a time we've had!
7/22/2007
Restless Night's Sleep
7/16/2007
Waiting..... waiting.... waiting....
6/21/2007
First Castration
Welcome to Rustic Lodge Alpacas Blog
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Date: 7/23/2008
Title: Rain, Rain, Rain!
As everyone who lives on a farm and depends on the rain for water knows; it's always a blessing.......
Except when you have new cria on ground. Our two little cria's are soaked. Even though they are rugged up in their cria coats, we had about 2 inches of rain overnight and it's still going. The ground is wet and due to the amount of rain, it's not soaking through the ground. If the rain continues, no doubt it will flood here - again.
We have shelters in our paddocks, but the Alpacas NEVER use them. We are considering locking both dams and their cria's up in the shelter if the rain persists.
We have decided to call Mini Mate's cria 'Prince Caspian'.
We have decided to call Jewels' cria 'Fleur de Bijou', which in English translates to "flower from jewel" which we think is sweet as she is a little petal and so much like her dam, except a Suri instead of Huacaya.
Date: 7/20/2008
Title: Currumbong Edrom's First Cria!
We are so pleased to announce the first cria of Currumbong Edrom, our Solid Black Suri stud.
Welcome Willowcroft Dark Jewel's third cria...... a solid brown Suri FEMALE!
born at 10.45am Monday.
This cria appears a little bit premature. Her teeth have fully erupted, but her ears are a little floppy. She was up and walking within an hour and looking for a drink.
She looks like a replica of Jewel, but a Suri of course.
Date: 7/19/2008
Title: Wildwood Roberto's first cria drops
Early this morning we saw the drop of Wildwood Roberto's first cria here in Qld. Mini Mate (BEW) female gave birth to a lovely Huacaya male. He is not the grey cria we had been hoping for. He is rather unusual in colour, with a black fleece and brown tummy/chest and white markings on his face.
We have more cria's from Roberto due very shortly so fingers crossed that a grey cria comes through.
We are also expecting the first cria's from Currumbong Edrom any day now.
Thanks for reading.
Date: 2/19/2008
Title: Another cria on ground
Dijon had been acting very odd all day. She had seperated herself from the herd and was constantly cushing from side to side. BUT this wouldn't be the first time a dam has tricked us into thinking a cria was on the way. I kept an eye on her all day, but she didn't really seem in distress or showing any other signs of labour. Midday past so I felt that was it, but figured she would have her cria the next day. At about 3.30pm I thought I'd best go and check for any enlargement as she was still acting odd.
Although a little swollen, she didn't look close to going so I came back up to the house. At around 4pm she started to look VERY uncomfortable, going to the poo pile with nothing happening, walking a few paces, then cushing again. She was in labour! I was dreading it. This was going to be two cria's born very late in the day within the past month and I prepared myself for the worst.
At about 4.30pm she started pushing. A little white nose still in the sac was slowly peeking out, then two feet. The cria was born about 4.50pm! A light fawn SURI male. We stayed with the cria until he was on his feet and had his first drink and until it was dark. The entire time is was showering. We put a coat on the cria on dusk and kept our fingers crossed that he would make it through the night.
This morning he was fine. He is strong and has very long legs. He knows his mummy and they have bonded well.
Thanks for reading.
Date: 2/2/2008
Title: Two new cria's!
What a week we've had.
Tory finally gave birth to her first cria. He is a little boy and not at all what we were expecting for a Tory x Jerry mating. He is possibly a rose grey, too early to tell as he is not typical in colour formation, but he has a white face, small black fleece on top of his head, white and fawn fleece inside his ears and two white back socks. He looks alike like Wishes, Tory's dam. He is a Huacaya and was slightly under-cooked and Tory really isn't sure about this whole mothering thing. We are persevering with her and only time will tell if she steps up and becomes a good mother. She has plenty of milk. Tory's was our first 'farm born' cria to carry are stud name, her cria is the first true 'farm bred' paca.
Easter Bunny (who had the same LMD as Tory) gave birth to a male cria two days after Tory. He is..... a solid black. Certainly not what we were expecting either from an Easter Bunny x Jerry mating. The same mating last year produced a light fawn Suri female, this year a solid black male Huacaya. I just love the 'lottery' of colours that Alpaca's can produce. We are have tried to so hard to get good quality black stud males now on farm and then wouldn't you know it?; Jerry produces a solid black - who knew.
Both cria's are coming along well *touch wood*, only time will tell how they're prematurely will effect their well being.
Fingers crossed.
We are now waiting on Dijon to have her second cria. Her LMD with Jerry was 4 days after Tory and Easter Bunny's.
Date: 12/3/2007
Title: Yes, it's another GIRL...
At the risk of completely jinxing us, Jamilla gave birth yesterday to yet another female. This time our very first black cria born here on farm.
The cria, whom we've named Paris is very large. She is the size of 12 day old Helena. Paris is a true blue black and has a very dense and lustrous fleece. We are so happy with her!
Both Jamilla and Paris are doing well.
We have another 4 cria's due here on farm before Christmas. 2 girls are due on 18th December and then another one is due 22 December and the last just before New Year. I'm thinking it may be time for some boys to be born ;-)
Date: 11/28/2007
Title: What a time we've had!
Two days after shearing, one of our new girls, Onyx went into premmie labour. The cria, a solid black female, was still born. Very sad and disappointing.
One morning back in October, Ta didn't come up for feed, she just sat in the paddock. When we went over to her, she seemed to be trying to get up, yet couldn't. Her front feet and neck where moving, but not her back legs. Immediately, we though 'TICK'. So we went over her entire body, no tick to be found. We decided to get her in the car and take her to our vets, 40 minutes away.
Very sadly, she had actually broken her back! We did have a thunder storm the night before and when looking in the paddock we could certainly see a 'skid mark' on the ground near where she lay. Possibly she got a fright and slipped, though we still can't figure out how she broke it. There are no large trees in the paddock, nor any males. She was never going to walk again. Just one of those things I guess. At this time, she was 4 weeks away from delivering. We decided to ask the vet to do a cesarean before having her put to sleep. Unfortunately, the male cria did not survive more than 10 minutes, just too early. So Allan brought Ta and the cria back home to be buried on the farm together.
On the 22nd November, 19 days past her due date, Groovy Fire finally gave birth to her first cria. She's a gorgeous solid dark brown Suri female. We have named her Lady Helena. We're stoked. Although *touch wood* out of our last 10 crias, we have only had 3 males which go against the ratio that other breeders in Australia, especially NSW and Victoria seem to be having more males than females. At the risk of jinxing us, I'm so happy to have had the girls born that we have. We have lost our fair share of paca's this year.
We are now waiting on Jamilla to have her cria. She's not due until December 8th, but she is so large that I hope for her sake her pregnancy doesn't go on for too much longer.
Thanks for reading,
Rebecka
Date: 7/22/2007
Title: Restless Night's Sleep
All night I dreamt of cria's being born. It was one of those dreams when you awake and you're not quite sure which part was a dream and which part is reality.
Once fully awake I realised that the births were all dreams. I did though as I do every morning check the paddock from the back deck off our bedroom. I could see everyone except Maraposa. I was excited. Trying to keep some lid on my excitement, I boiled the kettle for my essential morning cuppa and then took my coffee outside. I could see that she had seperated herself from the herd and was cushed to the side. I kept my distance watching her behaviour, but felt this was not normal behaviour for her and I needed to go down to the paddock for a closer look.
Sure enough under her tail was swollen and slightly 'open' so then I got really excited. I decided that I should put out the girls feed and see if she ate - she did. This was kind of disappointing as I was fairly certain that she was in labour. She ate and screamed at everyone (as she does being the leader of the pack and all) but shortly afterwards cushed down on her side about a metre away from the others that were still eating. This gave me my excitement back. She was humming and switching from side to side. I was certain that she was in labour.
She walked away further into the paddock, tail raised and visiting every poo pile. I could see the bulge from the cria now and knew it was a certainty.
Within about 20 minutes I saw the nose of our new cria entering the World. Then two feet. It did take her a fair amount of pushing to get the shoulders out, but she's a great mum and the birth was complication free.
We now have another little girl! We believe that she is also a rose grey/roan like her mum. Actually she is the spitting image of her mum except that the cria has some lighter coloured fleece across her chest.
This cria Rustic Lodge Princess Buttercup is also from Mousehole Jeremiah. We are not sure at this stage whether she is Huacaya or Suri.
Date: 7/16/2007
Title: Waiting..... waiting.... waiting....
This is surely the most exciting time for Alpaca breeders, waiting for new cria's to arrive.
We have both Esperance and Marapossa due now. Esperance is further along than Marapossa.
We had a great time feeling the girls tummies yesterday, trying to distinguish which parts we could feel were legs, elbows and feet. I LOVE feeling the cria's moving inside their Mummy's tummy so exciting!
We have a running chalk board list on which everyone has chosen the cria's colours, sex and breed. Whomever guesses correctly will get to name the cria's. It's just a nice way to keep the family involved with the animals.
Jerry so far for us has thrown all either white or light fawn Suri cria's. We would love to have some coloured babies this time around.....
Thanks for reading.
Date: 6/21/2007
Title: First Castration
Today also marked the first time we have had to have one of our males castrated (wethered).
Young Burley was coming of age as he now over 2years old and was starting to attempt mating with some of our weanling girls.
Unfortunately, although he is a lovely, well grown out boy, he's white. As we are breeding for black and grey Alpacas, he just doesn't fit into our breeding program.
It was an interesting experience (expensive as well) and Burley seems to be recovering. Although he won't be getting any more paddock loving from the girls.
Burley is available for sale as a wether.
Best wishes,
Rebecka
Date: 6/21/2007
Title: Welcome to Rustic Lodge Alpacas Blog
We have recently moved our website over to the hosting provided by www.wahmshoppes.com
As I already use and recommend their hosting to all of my website clients, it seemed sensible to also host RLA with them.
By changing our sites hosting provider, I'm hoping that Allan will be able to help update/maintain this site as you don't need to know any HTML to host with wahmshoppes (once the initial design is installed).
Keeping a blog should also be easier as this blog feature comes built in with the hosting.
Thanks for reading.
Best wishes,
Rebecka
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