31/01/2026
Alpacas are generally wonderful mums but just occasionally there is total confusion.
This morning when I went for my first check of the maturnity mob, not one or two, but four girls had dropped. It was easy to tell the order they dropped as they were in differing stages of drying. What was difficult to work out though was which cria belonged to whom.
Yaringa Jezabeel had the sense to deliver away from the others – she had everything under control and placenta on the way.
The other three cria were surrounded by about six females with all girls checking all cria so it was really difficult to work out what was happening. In this situation, its often best to just sit back and watch for a while. Bit by bit girls drifted away until there was Yaringa Maritza, Yaringa Tiger Lily and Yaringa Princess Indira left. From this, one could be fooled into thinking we have the three mothers but that wasn’t quite what unfolded.
After a bit I was pretty sure that the big roan female (Maritza usually has big cria) belonged to Maritza (making it a full sister to the fawn Yaringa Martha who was in our 2025 show team). I picked up this cria and Maritza responded by screaming in my ear and trying to neck wrestle me. I took the cria on my lap and headed for the shed with Maritza in pursuit. That’s one sorted.
When I returned, Princess Indira had taken the small black male (Indira usually has small cria) and walked away leaving a tiny fawn cria by herself and no sign of Tiger Lily. When I picked up the black male and headed for the shed, Princess Indira followed and went in easily.
So I head back to the paddock to find Yaringa Eliza Jane standing over Jezabeel’s cria – but there was no doubt that it was Jezabeel’s cria. Then it clicked – Eliza Jane was a completely different shape to what she was yesterday, a maiden, and at 365 days gestation, and when I looked under her tail, she had clearly delivered. The tiny cria must be hers. By now, Jezabeel has decided to eat hay and is ignoring her cria so I picked up both fawn girls and took them to the shed.
Back to the paddock I went and brought the mob up to the shed and then haltered Eliza Jane and Jezabeel and put them in the shed with their cria before returning the rest to the paddock.
I picked up three placents but the only girl I saw drop one was Jezabeel so I didn’t know which one was missing – but fortunately when I returned to the shed, Princess Indira had dropped one there so I cleaned up all four as leaving them in the paddock just encourages crows who see them as a food source.
Its quite cold here tonight so the four new cria have just been coated. All are penned individually with their mothers and seem well fed so fingers crossed. Meet Eliza Jane's cria.
