Day Two for New Boy Crias

Our two little boys born yesterday, 6-16-07, are doing great. They are already running around the pasture playing with the two older crias, born 5-25-07 (Moonbeam) and 6-03-07 (Dusty Rose). Winona's little charcoal gray cria isn't quite as adventurous as Geni's little appaloosa boy but then Geni's little boy is 4 hours older. Here are some updated photos of the crias, taken early evening today, 6-17-07. Isn't the photo of Winona "kissing" her little boy cute?! Notice that Geni's little boy is already "grazing" with his momma.

I could sit for hours in the pasture with a camera, watching the crias play and the herd interact with each other, just waiting for the perfect shot. I hope you enjoy the photos I managed to get today!

I've posted an updated photo of Dusty Rose, too. She is two weeks old today.

Tune in again soon for updated photos of the babies.

Final Cria for Summer 2007 - Born 6-16-07

After taking the photos of the first cria born this morning and downloading them and posting them to this site, I went out to check on a second female who had looked like she might be in labor at the same time as the first female. When I got out to the pasture, there were two front legs and a head out. The baby got stuck at the hips so I helped to pull him and gently laid him down in the hay. Another beautiful charcoal gray cria sired by our Champion male, Tempis Fugit. These photos were taken a few hours after birth - both mom's and crias are resting - they have been shut into the small pasture right behind the house surrounded with no-climb mesh fencing for safety. Tomorrow we will turn the female herd and their crias out to the larger pasture. Watch for more photos to follow. Enjoy!

Another New Cria 6-16-07

Miss Congeniality, aka Geni, gave birth to a stunning male cria on June 16, 2007. This "little boy" weighed in at a whopping 30 pounds! Geni's first cria (born 20 months ago) weighed only 19 pounds. Average cria weight on the ranch is around 20 to 25 pounds. This boy was up within 15 minutes of his birth and the photos were taken within an hour of his birth. We think he is absolutely stunning. Another male to add to our show string next year! Enjoy!

Pronging

This is a clarification to a posting made earlier where we referred to "pronging". Pronging is where the animal "prongs" on all four legs rather than running. The motion looks like the animal is on springs - they spring up into the air and propel themselves forward at the same time. You have probably seen deer, antelope and gazelles prong. It is a way for prey animals to escape from predators without stretching out their legs, leaving tendons and ligaments vulnerable to the predator biting or clawing them to disable them.

New Crias (Baby Llamas)

Here are Midnight Moonbeam (white cria - center left) and Dusty Rose (creamy silver cria - center right) Moonbeam, aka The Beamer, was born on Friday May 25th. He is only 10 days older than Dusty Rose but look at the difference in size and posture. Once Dusty Rose completely "unfolds" she will look more like Moonbeam. She looks "dirty" but she is actually a very unusual creamy silver gray with peachy rose gray highlights.




Here is our newest addition to Split Rock Ranch. Dusty Rose was born Sunday, June 3, 2007. The above photo was taken when Dusty Rose was about 24 hours old. She is getting a llama kiss from her Aunt Jewell. The entire herd shares in caring for the crias - they will completely surround the cria when danger is sensed or perceived. Our older females will "prong" only when there are new babies - and then once they've taught the llama babies to prong, you generally will not see them prong again until there is another baby to teach.



We will post additional photos as these babies grow. We have two more crias due any day now so visit again to see more info.

Split Rock Ranch Stores

Here are the links to our on-line stores:

www.SplitRockRanch.etsy.com
www.stores.ebay.com/Split-Rock-Ranch
www.splitrockllamas.com

Welcome To Split Rock Ranch

Welcome to Split Rock Ranch! We are a small ranch located in the heart of the Rocky Mountains of beautiful colorful Colorado where we breed, raise, train and sell llamas and fiber, handspun yarns, handpainted yarns, handdyed fibers and handmade items from natural fibers.

I decided to start a blog to share our daily adventures with others. There is so much that goes on daily on a working ranch and I want to let others experience life on a working llama ranch. I will post photos of llamas, fibers, yarns, finished handmade items, etc.

We have a web site where you can see all of our beautiful llamas. The URL is www.splitrockllamas.com. We sell our fibers through our website (a constant work in progress), through our eBay store and through our etsy store.

Please feel free to ask questions about the llamas and about our fibers and products. I am a handspinner, a knitter and a crocheter. I am also learning to weave on a triangle loom.

Check back often to catch up on the adventures at Split Rock Ranch!