Cria Update - They're Growing Like Weeds!

The crias are growing like weeds. Phoenix will be five months old on November 4th - that's only two weeks away! He has been showing interest in the females already and while he cannot get them pregnant, he is "practicing" on a regular basis and really irritating some of them. He can be weaned at five months so I will probably put him in with Spencer (who will be a year old on October 30th) until they have bonded and then I'll turn them out with the small group of younger/calmer males to see if I can integrate them safely into that group.

Here is a recent photo of Phoenix.

Rosie is growing fast, too. She is now four months old so I will be able to wean her in a month but her mother usually weans her babies on her own so I'm hoping Rosie can just stay in with the female herd and the transition will be a smooth one. I notice that her mother is allowing her to nurse less and less so she is probably already starting to dry up.

Here is a photo I took a couple of days ago. I just love Rosie's face! Look at those dark circles around her eyes. And her darker muzzle. And those fuzzy ears!

 

Autumn has grown a lot. She is four weeks old today and is looking awesome. Her fiber is very lustrous and silky and I hope it stays that way.

And look at her face! Is that not adorable?!

And then I got a really cute photo of Rosie and Autumn together. They were watching Courtney, one of our cats, on the other side of the fence.

And here is the newest little male who is eight days old today. I think we're going to call him Time Traveler because his grandsire is Tempis Fugit (latin for Time Flies) and his sire is Viajero (Spanish for Traveler).

 And we are still waiting for Dazzle to have her cria. And that should be the last one for this year. If Dazzle gets much bigger, she's going to explode!

Cria and Goat Update

Sorry its been awhile (again) since I posted but I've been super busy around the ranch and keeping up with the auction for my niece on Facebook.

I wanted to share some additional photos of the little Nigerian Dwarf goat kids I got recently. These little guys were both born in April so they are a little over three months old now.

This is Gladiator

And this is Darrel

They LOVE to climb and jump on things. I put this ramp up to the top of their house and they love to run up it and then jump off and run back to do it again and again and again.

Today when I went out to check on things, I found the two of them curled up sleeping in the shade on top of the chicken run. Darrel was asleep on the tarp at one end and Gladiator was curled up sleeping on board that I have sitting on top of the run to protect the opening into the chicken coop from rain. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me and as soon as they realized I was outside, they woke up and jumped off, running to me to say hello. They follow me everywhere like little puppies. They even wag their tails like a dog! They really are very cute. Sometimes annoying...but cute.

And here are some updated photos of Phoenix and Rosie. They are grazing while Rosie's momma, Minnie Pearl, is resting.

And here is Phoenix with his half sister Dazzle (they have the same dam) drinking out of a puddle after the rain.

And here is Rosie, posing for me. I finally managed to get several great photos of her standing still!! We are more and more impressed with Rosie every day. She has such incredible fiber and the color is awesome. Her personality is absolutely precious. We just love her!

We should have at least one more cria in late September/early October. Dazzle is bred to our silver ALSA Halter Champion, Tempis Fugit.

 

Sorry, she was very busy eating and drinking!

Happy Sunday!

I'm back from my little vacation. My friend and I had a great time sitting in the hot springs, talking, shopping, talking and walking, eating, talking... you get the idea - lots of catching up to do!

Now its time to get back to work. We have to do some llama transfers today - two big boys to move from the little boy llama pasture into the big boy llama pasture and two weanlings to move from the weanling pen into the little boy llama pasture. Should be fun - neither of the weanlings has had a halter on yet so halter training needs to be done before we can move them. And, we have to go pick up a load of hay today, too, so I'd better get off the computer and off to work.

Here's a photo of Clementine (our first llama - she's the one with her head in the hay box), her daughter Winona (the black/white llama on the left - her sire is Handel, our very first llama - see the post from two weeks ago with the jet black male llama), Winona's daughter Dazzle (the silver/white cria in the front) and Rhapsody (in the middle - another Clementine daughter) So that's three generations of llamas!

Have a wonderful Sunday!