Earlier this spring I got two new female llamas. The lady told me, as I was getting ready to load them on the truck, that they were both pregnant - that it had been an accident as her males had gotten out of the fence and gotten to the females. She said they were due in early April. That was really important to know so I'm glad she told me. I like to be on cria watch when my girls are due to give birth so that I can make sure everything goes ok and the babies aren't left out in the pasture at night with the coyotes around here.
Well, April came and went, so did May and June so I figured she was just wrong or that the boys didn't actually get to the girls.
I thus tried to breed both females with a male that I brought in last month. They wanted nothing to do with him and he had absolutely zero interest in either of them. (Whereas he about climbed the fence to get to all my other girls!) Male and female llamas know when they are pregnant. They won't breed if they are already pregnant. If they truly aren't pregnant then they think they are and that usually means the female has a retained CL (aren't you just loving learning about all this llama stuff?
) If you treat a female for a retained CL you cause her to abort any tissue retained from a previous pregnancy. I decided not to treat either of them as it seemed very odd that they both were acting the same way. I would much rather go another year without crias than to take the chance and end a pregnancy. And, knowing the lady that they came from I knew it wasn't impossible that they might actually be pregnant. Since a llamas gestation is 11 1/2 months they could deliver up to next January without my knowing they were bred!
Three days ago I looked out to the pasture to check on the llamas and saw a tight circle of llamas. That either means there's a predator around (I didn't see anything) or something really interesting is happening. I hustled out and found one of those two females giving birth!! I'm so excited. Everything went great and we have a new, absolutely adorable (they always are) little girl cria.
Thought I'd share my story and some pictures of our newest addition:
She's just a few minutes old here and meeting her Aunts and Uncle...
An hour old and figuring out how those long things attached to her body work...
One day old...
Well, April came and went, so did May and June so I figured she was just wrong or that the boys didn't actually get to the girls.
I thus tried to breed both females with a male that I brought in last month. They wanted nothing to do with him and he had absolutely zero interest in either of them. (Whereas he about climbed the fence to get to all my other girls!) Male and female llamas know when they are pregnant. They won't breed if they are already pregnant. If they truly aren't pregnant then they think they are and that usually means the female has a retained CL (aren't you just loving learning about all this llama stuff?
Three days ago I looked out to the pasture to check on the llamas and saw a tight circle of llamas. That either means there's a predator around (I didn't see anything) or something really interesting is happening. I hustled out and found one of those two females giving birth!! I'm so excited. Everything went great and we have a new, absolutely adorable (they always are) little girl cria.
Thought I'd share my story and some pictures of our newest addition:
She's just a few minutes old here and meeting her Aunts and Uncle...
An hour old and figuring out how those long things attached to her body work...
One day old...