Mollie's Cria Finally Arrived!

The cria I have been waiting so impatiently for finally arrived last Thursday. 15.6 pounds of bouncing baby boy.

Day 1

Mollie delivered him like a champ and other than a bit of misunderstanding on nursing, things went smoothly. Oh, it was my misunderstanding. I am supposed to stand waaaaay back and observe. Not participate. Was worried when she would not let him nurse, so got more involved which made things more bungled. Left them alone in a small pen - and low and behold, nursing. Get close, stops nursing. Got it, she is shy:) Or, she doesn't want the silly humans meddling with her precious cria. She is the most nurturing of any alpaca mother I have seen, actually licking his face and nuzzling him.

Day 2 - 4

He lost weight - not a big surprise, most lose about 1/2 pound, but he lost a little over a pound. That is worrisome. The second day he lost weight too. Not as much, but I tried him on a bottle and he spit it out. He tongued it out. He protested quite vigorously. So, I got a 3 cc syringe (minus needle) and filled it with yummy whole milk. He would take about an ounce that way, then would dramatically choke and spit out the milk. He stayed the same weight , on the 3rd, and 4th day.

Day 5

Off to the vet we go. He is a vigorous drinker, says Dr Jackie. And sometimes those are the ones that are difficult to supplement because they want mom's milk. He drinks from all 4 teats and is stripping her dry. She stands patiently while he nurses. The two of them have it figured out, but still no weight gain, because Mollie is not producing as much milk as he needs. We are approaching this from a couple of angles. Baby is getting tubed with milk 3 xs/day with 4 ounces each time to make up the difference between maintaining weight and gaining. Herbs and medicine are on order to stimulate milk production.

The crazy thing is that Mollie will sometimes bring him to us when we come in the field to tube and sometimes not. At least she has decided I am not going to do unmentionable things to him. She accompanies him on each weigh in and we tube in the field with her.

Day 6

No weight gain. He doesn't like it when we get to the end of the third ounce. We are working on technique to make it more comfortable for us and him. He takes the tube well and stands still for the first 2 ounces just fine. He needs all 4 ounces though, so it is a conundrum.

Today, Day 7, we finally have a weight gain. A very modest 0.1 pound. However, he is more active and feisty now, so I think the supplement is doing its job.

Oh, by the way, that shyness she had, it is all gone. At the vet's office she stood and nursed while everyone was wandering around admiring the baby.

The take home message from this would be to weigh each cria for the first 10 days. See, I was listening Dr Scott.