Ambriel's Giada Nera

We finally came up with a name for the cria. Her name is Giada Nera which is Italian in origin and means black jade.

The cria is doing extremely well. I had separated mother and daughter for a few days so they could bond. I finally let them intermingle with the rest of the herd yesterday afternoon and everyone got along just fine. The cria made sure she stayed real close to mom.

Lucia says, "Don't worry kid, I'll protect ya!"

Santo Standing Guard

A New Addition

We have a new addition on the farm. Argento, our silver girl, gave birth this morning around 11:00 am. I had checked on the girls earlier and everything seemed fine. I went to the post office and when I came back I saw the cria nursing. I had Argento pegged for an October 20th delivery however, last year the cria came three weeks early. So, I was suspecting she might give birth early this year as well and lo and behold she did on gestation day 333. The cria is a true black female weighing in at 16 lbs. I don't have a name as of yet but I do have a few pictures.







She is a spitting image of her daddy Massimo who is pictured below:

We were hoping for silver as Massimo's sire was silver but it's a female and she's healthy. Plus, alpaca breeding is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!