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!
2 comments:
Both babies of Winona and Geni are stunning!!!! They already look strong after a few hours after birth :) Plus, they share the same birthday with mine. What is the reason not to love them? :P
The variegated pattern (is that what you call?) on Geni and her boy is so neat. What is the likelihood of variegated parents giving broken color babies?
Seem like it has been a great season at the farm. So, how many crias (male/female) do you have in total this season? Please keep us updated as the crias grow! Good for them they have lots of friends of same ages to play with.
Hugs and kisses to them both!
-Sam
June 16th is a great day for a birthday! Happy Birthday Sam!
Geni's pattern is "paint" and her son's pattern is "appaloosa", just like horse patterns. The possibility for patterned parents producing patterned offspring varies. Some llamas have a very strong tendency to produce pattern in their offspring and others not as much. Geni's boy's sire's (High Five)dam has always produced patterned offspring and High Five's sire has a very high incidence of patterned offspring. We were hoping that High Five would give us appaloosa babies and this little boy of Geni's has exceeded even our highest hopes and expectations!
We have had one female and three male crias born on the ranch this year. That should be all the crias we expect this year.
We will absolutely keep everyone updated on the crias' progress over the next few weeks and months.
And yes, we purposely try to breed our females at the same time in hopes that they will deliver their babies in close proximity to one another, giving the crias playmates, which we believe is very healthy for them. This is the first time we have had two crias born not only on the same day but within 4 hours of each other. These boys should bond together and be "best buddies". They will be weaned together and move together through our age appropriate pastures together as they grow.
Post a Comment