April 15, 2013
Last year we were having trouble with a highly aggressive male, Jericho, in our herd of boys. It reached a point where Cal (short for Calumus) jumped 2 high fences to escape rather than fight. Much shaken to find him loose and not that far from the road and traffic, I returned him to the boys field. A week later he repeated the performance. I decided to put him temporarily with the girls till I figured out what to do. After all Cal is a beautiful animal and I had intended to breed him with a couple of the girls anyway.
After gelding Jericho as he was over-the-top screeching and attacking the only boy in sight, we waiting for him to cool off which might take a month or so.
Weeks went by and Jericho was making everyone miserable. We moved Jericho to a friend’s place where his pasture mates were all donkeys. At shearing time, we watched Cal’s performance with the girls and were pretty sure that he wasn’t a much better lover than he had been a fighter. With Jericho gone, Cal returned to the boys’ field.
Skip forward to 2013. You guessed it! This Sunday I found a beautiful chocolate brown cria with white face markings in the field beside Chaska. Chaska was our first baby here at the farm and now she is a mom. Chaska’s mother was pure black while Chaska is completely fawn in colour. Cal is a little darker but still almost fawn.
Chaska was very nervous at first although she knew enough to stay with the cria even though it was feeding time in the barn. We brought the little guy into the barn but Chaska was very nervous and upset. At one point it looked like she had trampled on the cria and he lay very still with his neck stretched backwards. The arrival of the vet and our alpaca whisperer friends Jean and Aldo from Alpaca Central soon got everyone more comfortable. We were able to restrain Chaska until the baby was standing and latching on. At that point we left Chaska and baby with all the aunts attending for the night.
We still need a name but are thinking of Chocolate Sundae as he lookl like an ice cream sundae and he was born on Sunday afternoon.
Now the only question is whether Tikka, Koko and Yuraj will follow Chaska’s lead and present us with more Cal offspring!
edit.
Last year we were having trouble with a highly aggressive male, Jericho, in our herd of boys. It reached a point where Cal (short for Calumus) jumped 2 high fences to escape rather than fight. Much shaken to find him loose and not that far from the road and traffic, I returned him to the boys field. A week later he repeated the performance. I decided to put him temporarily with the girls till I figured out what to do. After all Cal is a beautiful animal and I had intended to breed him with a couple of the girls anyway.
After gelding Jericho as he was over-the-top screeching and attacking the only boy in sight, we waiting for him to cool off which might take a month or so.
Weeks went by and Jericho was making everyone miserable. We moved Jericho to a friend’s place where his pasture mates were all donkeys. At shearing time, we watched Cal’s performance with the girls and were pretty sure that he wasn’t a much better lover than he had been a fighter. With Jericho gone, Cal returned to the boys’ field.
Skip forward to 2013. You guessed it! This Sunday I found a beautiful chocolate brown cria with white face markings in the field beside Chaska. Chaska was our first baby here at the farm and now she is a mom. Chaska’s mother was pure black while Chaska is completely fawn in colour. Cal is a little darker but still almost fawn.
Chaska was very nervous at first although she knew enough to stay with the cria even though it was feeding time in the barn. We brought the little guy into the barn but Chaska was very nervous and upset. At one point it looked like she had trampled on the cria and he lay very still with his neck stretched backwards. The arrival of the vet and our alpaca whisperer friends Jean and Aldo from Alpaca Central soon got everyone more comfortable. We were able to restrain Chaska until the baby was standing and latching on. At that point we left Chaska and baby with all the aunts attending for the night.
We still need a name but are thinking of Chocolate Sundae as he lookl like an ice cream sundae and he was born on Sunday afternoon.
Now the only question is whether Tikka, Koko and Yuraj will follow Chaska’s lead and present us with more Cal offspring!
edit.
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