Hiccup

A hitch in posting , means that the plasma won't now be here until Friday, but Berlioz seems to be doing well . I am trying to be careful about not getting too friendly - we don't want a 'berserk alpaca' in the future - but he is so sweet and so smart , he has already cottoned on to the fact that me + bottle = feed , and he comes over to me without too much hesitation . Riva helps , she seems to know that I am feeding him to keep him alive , and so she comes and stands nearby when I feed him and he always goes straight back to her when he has finished his bottle and has a quick suckle with mum . He is smarter than his sister Artemis who took several weeks to realise that I was on her side .

I think I have solved part of the riddle of why the girls are spitting and then sitting in a slightly random fashion , well Athena is anyway , today I have caught our gelding , Woden , trying to mate with Athena , who seems quite comfortable cushing and letting him get on with it . Tomorrow I will separate him off into a field with girls I believe to be pregnant and who will have none of this fuss . Woden is a slight oddity in that he goes mad if he is separated from Bijou ! I think it's because he is the only black gelding and the fawn ones all sit together and exclude him - have you noticed how they tend to sit in colour groups ? Anyway, Woden is much more comfortable with the black girls , but this simulated mating thing could be a problem , may even induce ovulation which will really muck up my mating schedule !