Alpaca births and non births
After saving three preemies this year our next two planned for births did not materialize at all. In December Lurissa was due to give birth right around Christmas time, and she did - on December 23rd she delivered her cria, but it died before the birth sac was disturbed. We found the little one in the morning during chore time - already stiff and cold, and perfectly encased in its birth membrane. We’ll never know if this cria was stillborn, or died shortly after birth due to some trauma during its birthing process. It was a huge disappointment.
The next expected cria was to come the first weekend in February - the weekend we planned to be at the Florida Expo. I was so worried that Ripple would give birth and encounter some kind of problem while we were away that I called my son every few hours from Jacksonville to check on her. She did not give birth. All was well. February came and went. Ripple still had not given birth. Two weeks into March Ripple still had not produced the looked for cria. We finally confirmed what we had begun to suspect weeks earlier - she had re-absorbed that pregnancy months earlier, and was open. Another disappointment! Ripple bred quite readily (what were they waiting for? in her mind!) this weekend, so we’ll have to wait another year (!) for this one.
We have two more expected births to come in April of this year. Hopefully these two will go as smoothly as all of the births went last year. Nothing is ever predictable when working with live animals, and alpacas seem to be more unpredictable than most!