Cria season has arrived! This is always such an exciting time of year, it is also a very unpredictable time of year. The gestation time of an alpaca normally ranges between 340 days to 379 days, with the average being about 345 days. If an alpaca feels it isn't safe or the weather isn't right to give birth she can suspend the pregnancy, our longest here was just over a year, so that makes trying to plan anything just about impossible during cria season. Most of the females stay within about 5 - 10 days of the due date year after year, and others like Kit Kat go anywhere from 323 days to 353 days. We moved the 7 females who were due first into the Maternity Ward, as we can see all of that field from the house. The females are moved based on their average gestation, once they have all had their crias we rearrange the females and bring in the 7 females that are due next. So far we have 2 male crias and 2 female crias, we are expecting about 12 more crias between any minute and mid August. Milky Way had the first cria of the season May 23rd, a dark rose grey male named Cosmos. He was born with contracted tendons which was quickly fixed by putting a splint we made out of ABS pipe on his leg for a few days to help stretch out the tendons. Some times it will correct on its own with just walking but Cosmos' was very stiff and causing him to limp. By the time he was two weeks old we had to move him and mom out of the Maternity Ward as he wanted to play with the newborns but he was too rough with them. This is Zoltan's first cria . Next was DQ'S Special who had a dark silver grey daughter who is very inquisitive and doesn't stay still for too long. For some reason I don't have a photo of her but I do have her on video. Serenity and Jupiter produced the most beautiful medium silver grey male we have seen, he was also one of the biggest at 21.6 lbs. This was their second cria, the first was Buffalo who is brown. Sadly their grey cria passed away at 3 days old. When we went out to do evening chores we noticed him outside by himself, he seemed lethargic and "zoned out" for lack of a better term. He was very warm so we brought him into the barn to check him over. We took his temperature which was 107.2 F, normal for an alpaca is about 101F. Thinking it was heat stress we soaked his feet in cool water, laid him on his belly on top of a cool wet towel and gave him a cool water enema. Then he just stood in the same place for about 20 minutes, shaking a bit off and on, his temperature went down to 105. We continued trying to cool him down but his temperature rose again so we called the vet in. We put a coat on him as he was getting weaker and shaking much more. When the vet arrived she did everything she could, she re-hydrated him with a drip line, gave him a few different medications, she took a blood sample and went right to the clinic and ran the test herself at 2:00 am. everything was within normal limits. Sadly he passed away at 2:15 am. The cause of death is undetermined. It may have been sepsis, an infection that causes the body to turn on itself, which is very hard for a new born to fight. We're not sure though as all of his blood work came back normal. Serenity seemed to understand that her cria was very sick, she stood in the doorway and watched us the entire time but didn't come close. She grieved and two days later we removed her from the Maternity Ward. Serenity is doing all right now. Not all days on the farm are cute and fluffy, you do everything you can but sometimes it just isn't enough. Our beautiful chocolate brown mom, Kameyosek and medium grey herdsire Jupiter criated a lovely steel grey female with a patch around her right eye. We haven't named her yet but it will have something to do with her patch. She seems so small compared to the others, she weighed 16.8 lbs which is in the normal range but the last few years we seem to be having more close to 19 lbs. The most recent cria was born June 8th to Truly Cute and Jupiter, a dark steel grey male. He was another big one at 21.6 lbs. Truly Cute is a great mom and keeps a close eye on him. Even though he was the last to be born he is bigger than the other crias. Hopefully Kameo will have her first cria near her due date which is June 23rd. As cria season continues we begin breeding season which is a whole other blog post. If you would like to visit our crias and other members of our herd you can book your private tour at AlpacaTours.ca . We are open 7 days a week for tours. If you have a specific date in mind don't wait too long to book it especially if it is for a weekend as those tour days book up quickly. Wishing you all an enjoyable summer, Carolyn, Doug and all the alpacas.