Finally!

A new addition to the herd. On Wednesday lunchtime Artemis gave birth to a female , chocolate brown suri cria. She is absolutely beautiful , but sadly her mum doesn't think so, hence the lack of blog ! i saw mum giving birth , and the labour was a little slow and obviously painful , so a gentle tug and everything was OK. Artemis looked genuinely shocked by the birth , and as a first time mum was completely stunned by her newborn . The cria - yet to be named - was fantastic , cushed in 5 mins , standing in 20 and nursing within 45 mins - perfect. Gradually , as the initial euphoria wore off , it became evident that Artemis was less than thrilled . She let the baby nurse for the first couple of hours and then began to reject her. I have tried everything - confinement in the barn for a day or 2 with a companion , check over by the vet , mild sedative, pain killers , even lavender oil on them both , but to no avail . Quite simply mum is not remotely interested , and whilst not aggressive , will not let her cria within feet of her . So , I have a bottle baby! Luckily she is easy to feed and doing really well, gaining weight , and out with the rest of the herd today now that the weather is better. My one big concern is that she identifies with the other alpaca, currently she is very happy to follow me and stick by me , I am keeping my distance and gradually one of my maiden females seems to be taking an interest , fingers crossed.