Rosie's New Cria
Life has been more hectic than usual on the farm. Our puppy Blue keeps us busy with her need for play and exercise as well as constant vigilance to work on her housetraining. She’s a smart girl but we do have to remember she is only 9 weeks old. The alpaca girls have also been keeping us busy as the crias continue to arrive.
Following Chai’s surprise cria the next dam to present us with a cria was Rosie. Rosie was due to have her cria at the end of May/early June but instead decided to hold on to that cria for a little longer and did not deliver until June 17. Once the cria was born we knew why she had waited those extra days, she needed time to make the extra bit to make that cria a boy! Yes, another boy and certainly this seems to be a boy year.
Rosie’s boy is out of our herdsire Treasure so we were not surprised that this little guy was white. With both Rosie and Treasure being white the chances of a white cria were high. Rosie’s cria has that same broad Treasure forehead that Queen’s cria has, and as Rosie herself has a broad forehead she probably contributed some in that department too. It did mean that Ric and I winced a little as Rosie pushed out her cria, delivering that head took an extra hard push – but Rosie had a normal and unassisted delivery, which was a good thing.
While we own Rosie and Treasure this particular cria does not belong to us as we had leased out Rosie to our friend’s Bob and Regina Dart of Llano Soleado Alpacas. Regina loves Rosie’s coverage and stylish head and knew I was not prepared to sell her and so we made an agreement that we would lease Rosie to the Darts meaning that her cria was theirs once it was born. Of course the cria will stay at our farm with Rosie until he is weaned, but it was a great arrangement where we could allow someone to access Rosie’s outstanding genetics without losing her from our herd.
Rosie’s cria is a handsome young man, with nice sturdy bone, a compact body and a stylish head, but what you can’t see from the picture is the crimpy, brilliant white shiny fleece that lies under those cria tips. Bob and Regina are going to have fun showing this little boy when he comes of age, even in the competitive white male alpaca classes.
Now all we need is a name for the little guy – but I know Regina is busy working on that!
A Taste of Life at Windrush Alpacas 