Summer Getaway!

Here are May and Winny, excited to go to the summer pasture!Here Winny hides in the tall grass
May goes to Winny to make sure all is well
Here is May, Bella, and Winny's apple tree.

It provides shade, twigs, leaves, and delicious apples for them!

More Babies!

Here are the one week old angora bunnies that our doe, Rosie had on May 25. Their father is Ethan, pictured below.

Rosie:
Ethan:

Expansion!

Below are a few new editions to WML: Dea. Her name is Latin for "Goddess," Deus, Kibus, and Terre Madre.
She is a future breeding doe for spring meat rabbits. I will have a rabbit tractor ready to go in the May 2009 grazing season. She is a mixed breed Dutch coloration with blue eyes! We also have several other does that we purchased from Scenic View Farm to get some meat rabbit production under way.

Await pictures of the chicken tractor, chickens and grass-fed lambs to come!

Cria's 4th Day and Bunny Surprise

One of our first angora rabbits, Rosie, had a litter of bunnies a few days ago. Here she is (below).Here is the cria on its fourth day (below):
Below is a video of the new rabbit mama eating some wild greens.

Below is a video of the cria's fourth day. She is beginning to run up and down the hill. The llamas will be moved to their "wide open spaces" later on this week.

First Poop!

It is important that a few things happen in the first 12 to 24 hours of life in a cria (baby llama). The first priority is nursing, the second is defecation. When the fetus is in the womb a plug is made in orifices of the body because all actions take place through the umbilical cord. When the cria is born it needs to pass a plug before it can begin defecating. Its sometimes difficult to push out for a newborn baby. Our little cria passed that plug today about an hour ago, or 36 hours after birth. How do we know it was her first time? Let's take a look:

This is what her "plug" looked like. It is soft, striated, has almost no scent, and is has mucus in it. Her regular stool should look more like little llama pellets, or like rabbit pellets. If you don't know what llama or rabbit poop look like, then google it.

Llamas also all defecate in a few specified areas. This is similar to habits in wild camelid species, like the guanaco, from which the llama was domesticated. Here (below) the cria learns to defecate in the "poop pile."

When the cria is first born the bones and ligaments have not all set completely. She will look a little crooked for the first few weeks until she grows into her body. Here (below) is a picture from the front, to show her wobbly legs.

Another picture demonstrating how stretchy the newborn cria is:

While the cria is wobbly, her strength is astounding. She climbs up and down the hill all by herself within 24 hours:

Last, but certainly not least, here is a video of some "baby steps":

A new day!

Here she is at 24 hours! She is all dried off and vigorously nursing!

Below is May getting some extra breakfast (make that milk Mama!)

Below are May and daughter standing on the hill in the backyard.

Daughter nursing!

The cria is just as soft as she looks! No matter how many births I see, each one is a miracle. This birth was no different. May carried this little cria for 11 months and is not vigilantly caring for her. I hope that every person may have the chance to whitness a birth.

Thank you everyone for checking in with White Mountain Llamas! We appreciate your support!

Congradutlations May! Its a girl!

This morning between 8:00 and 10:00 White Mountain Queen of the May gave birth to a 35 pound female cria. The cria's sire is Fabyan (see the history entry of this blog). She was standing within minutes and nursing within hours. May is proving to be an excellent mother. Auntie Bella is very supportive and they both watch over the young one like hawks.

The three llovely llamas will be moved up to their summer pasture on the outskirts of Woodsville in a week or two. Please feel free to stop by and visit our new baby!

Below is May and her Cria after a couple attempts to nurse. Both rest after such a new experience. This pictures was taken at 11:00 AM.