Thanks to everyone for the support over the little suri fellow. I got home from work today and went out to weigh him and couldn’t catch him, amazing how they come on in 24 hours. Mundevhu is delighted, he’s got a worthwhile mate now.

On about Wednesday of last week I never thought I’d see this little fellow walking on his own and following Pandora out of the barn. He has picked up nicely over the last couple of days, still weak on his back legs, one tends to drag a bit, but definitely looking hopeful. We are still topping him up but gradually he’s feeding himself more and more and fingers crossed we’ll be able to leave him to his own devices in the next few days.

Great excitement yesterday when the new pigs arrived. Two saddleback/tamworths males which we’ll fatten up nicely and they should be ready for the end of summer.

Not wishing to tempt fate but the cria seems a bit stronger today. He still cannot get to his feet himself but when helped up can hobble around for a while. He has even managed to suckle for about 3 nanoseconds before collapsing. This is about 3 nanoseconds longer than ever before. Tim hey has suggested we give him some Vitenium and selenium as he has seen this muscle weakness before and feels it mat be a selenium deficiency in the cria where some mums don’t pass it on properly. We have managed to get some of Teresa at Rosecraddoc Alpacas so hopefully that will help as well.

Pandora’s cria is still with us, he’s very weak and if we stand him up he collapses spreadeagled in the straw. He manages a bit better out on the grass where its not so slippery but of course the weather has changed so we’ve brought him back in again. At least he’s taking the bottle happily and Pandora is letting us milk her. On a happier note all the tests for Camouflage were clear so we have put him out with the boys. The usual chaos ensued as they all tried to beat him up in turn. We are now in a standoff position with Camouflage on one side of the field and the rest of the posse on the other.

Pandora delivered us with a male cria yesterday. It was a long labour and we managed to get the baby out just as the vet arrived. She had been in labour from at least 6.30am, the cria arrived about 10.30. He is very slow so we brought him in and have got the colostrum down him by milking mum as he is unable to stand yet. He appears very weak in his back legs and just collapses every time he tries to stand. We’ve got a long way to go on this one but we’ll keep the blog updated. Let’s just hope it’s not going to be one of those years.

What more could you ask for, a beautiful Sunday morning, so I was up at sparrow’s **** charging around like a loony. The alpacas wondered what of earth was happening when their food arrived so early. “What a wonderful day to have a cria” I said to Pandora but she wasn’t  listening.

Felicia went to the Monkey sanctuary near Looe with a crowd from the CCA leaving me on cria watch with jobs to do like poo picking and grass cutting. Can’t complain though, I could think of worse things to do on a sunny day. No cria though.

We weighed the new cria today and he has put on over a kg in less than a week which is great news, he’s really doing well and has a certain presence about him which shows in the photo’s. I would like to call him Mr Mundehvu ( shona for beard ( Zimbabwean)) but Felicia isn’t keen. I’ll see if I can make it stick.

Like most sunny days, its time to get the trusty Nikon out and here are some of the results.

Dancer delivered us a little male cria yesterday, a son of Jaquinto so we’ll watch him with interest. To be honest after the disaster of the first two of the year being premature it is a relief to have things back to normal full term etc as the book says. We are keeping a rug on him over night as there is still a bit of a frost about but I’ll remove it once it warms up.

I read  Mark Steeles (of The Mighty Patou Alpacas herd) blog about his day at the BAS AGM. Sounds a bit like the expected cat fight between the usual egos, probably just as well my vehicle was broken and I couldn’t go. It would have been a waste of a lovely Saturday from what he says. Makes some of our CCA meetings last year sound like a walk in the park. Hopefully, like the CCA, it will all work out in the end and the society will be stronger for it.

It’s that time of year again when all you seem to do is wait. Dancer and Pandora are both past 11 months now but won’t oblige. Today would be a great day, the sun is shining and we are both home but they are just not ready. We really are looking forward to these two as they are matings we bought in last years Futurity. Dancer is pregnant to Dovecote Jaquinto and Pandora to Bulleyman.

I was going to go up to the BAS AGM tody but with my car off the road it would have left Felicia without wheels. I’ll be interested to hear what goes on as I should think there’ll be a few fireworks.

Camouflage is settling in. The man from Animal Health visited yesterday and checked him over. He returns next week to take blood samples but we need to get our own vet out as he’s never taken blood from an alpaca before. Hopefully they’ll pay the bill as well.