At 11:20 am this morning Lacey became a first-time mama...and we watched the entire event! I'll make the slightly graphic first few photos small in case you're squeamish, but they're really amazing, so feel free to click on them to see them larger.
I've never seen anything born before, so it was truly incredible to watch the little creature's nose and face emerge, then its legs, and then in a quick swoosh, it slithered to the barn floor! (Yes, llamas remain standing for delivery.)
The whole birth lasted less than half an hour. Miraculous.
And she had a 21-lb. baby girl! My mom dried her off a bit with a towel, and within a half hour she could hold her head up on that long stalk of a neck, and was "kushing" in a kneeling position just like a grown-up llama.
Before long she was getting to her feet...
By 12:30, she was outside with her mama, figuring out where the snack dispenser was located on a mamma-llama.
Soon the pair (along with Switzer, Lacey's mother and therefore the new grandma-llama) were heading farther out to pasture.
Several hours later, the little white cria was completely dry, with a fluffy white coat that is a soft as a rabbit's fur. She has just a few spots of black on and around her tail.
Now she needs a name. Her grandmother's name is Switzer, and her mother's name is Swiss Lace de Queso Cabeza...with a Miss Swiss Frieda and Princess Swiss Miss also in the maternal line.
Also, our farm is called Distelfink Farm. from the Pennsylvania Dutch for Thistle-Finch or Goldfinch, so she'll probably be named Distelfink something. Let me know your creative thoughts!
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22 comments:
Swiss Mistletoe Distelfink
Because its like Inglebert Humperdink.
You could call her
Misty
Missy
Letoe (like leeto)
I forgot....
She's so awesomely cute!!!!!!
stephieface is TOO creative... those names rock, as do the nicknames. and thank you for sharing these... i've NEVER seen anything so cool... and "grandma llama" cracked me up! congratulations!
Awwww...so cute. A little baby llama! Congrats! Oh, so cute...
Thistles that go to seed have a white fluff about them - perhaps there is the genesis of a name. It's ironic: I grew up in Iowa, where there was a Weed Comission that could and did fine people if they let that wonderful farm land go to weeds! I never saw a field full of thistles until DH went to grad school at MSU! And now, Distlefink Farm! Your pastures look pretty good, though.
I wonder if your new little one will darken as she ages. For instance, Siamese cats are born white, like little Polar Bears!
Nice white cria for sure but I must say I prefer my alpacas and I even have one called trian or "the third" which i so close to my real name tianne
How can anyone compete with Stephie Face's naming? What a cute little Llama! Thanks for sharing the pics!
i love the name Mistletoe! i like Leeto for short, or even Missle, cuz she's rocketing around the pasture already today! heehee
ok, also cuz it's like Englebert Humperdink, too funny!
hey, MandK, i didn't know you had alpacas! how cool!!
Ooh, she's a little fluffy thing! I want one.
how cute! I can't compete with the names already given either.. what an adorable cria!
(ps. in bloglines all of the pictures are full size if you scroll down to read your post there.. just FYI for next time. I found it fascinating.. but then again, I post pictures of bugs on my blog.)
Joannie K (in NY) Artie's wife, gave me this link. I am such an animal lover and envy your "family" and space in MI. I had never read a Blog before. Your new llama is precious. I will visit again to learn the name of Miss Llama. Janis
What a cute little girl Miss Llama is. Welcome to the family.
What amazing pictures, I'm so glad you shared them. I have always wanted to see something born, I got to watch a claf born once, and it was born dead. Very sad.
Anyway, thanks!
I've been over at Stigmata trying to pet the llama baby through the computer screen. Fuzzy-wuzzy!
Is little Miss Mistletoe (oh you know you're using that name!) going to stay white?
i never saw a freshly born anything!! wow!!! It's so gross... but then it turns out to be the cutest thing i've ever seen :-)
So cute! I mean, after she got up and was running around. Reminds me of the baby album a former coworker gave me to look at once - crowning and all. It freaked me out no end, let me tell you.
Cute names!
It was so scary when she first plopped out onto the hay, looking far more like a dead thing than like a live thing at all! lol
What a busy 2 days we've had here...my oh my. Thx for all the well-wishes and name suggestions!
Yes, she will probably stay pretty much the colors she is now, I think llamas usually do...I should post a pic of her daddy, she doesn't look like him at all either, but they say you can't breed llamas for color, so...suprise!
Thank you very much for showing these pictures they are really wonderful and of course I made them big. When he came out he looked like a little skeleton and not even an hour later already like a finished mini Llama ! Amazing. Humans need sometimes their whole life to get grown up (if ever) By the way Diestelfink is NOT dutch but german and really means Golfinch. In dutch it's different (have to ask, in Belgium they speak dutch too)
Difficult to find a nice name fitting with a bird !
My family is from Pennsylvania "Dutch" country which is where many German immigrants settled in the 1800s. When they said they were Deutsch of course people who didn't speak German thought they were saying they were Dutch!
It's interesting, many people in that area of southern Pennsylvania still speak a German dialect called (what else!) Pennsylvania Dutch. My great-grandparents spoke it; their children (my grandparents) understood it but weren't taught to speak it and now (apart from a few words here and there [food words, of course!] most of the Pa. Dutch vocabulary was lost in my family.
We did think of giving her a name of a German or Pa. Dutch recipe, maybe something sweet; I like
Pfeffernuesse, but everyone thinks it's too hard to spell! (because of the peppery spots at her tail)
Other ideas included powdered sugary things like Sugar Cookie, Sugar Cakes, Funnel Cakes, and Fasnacht (Pa. Dutch for doughnut)...I'm still stuck on Mistletoe Humperdink! (oh, i mean Mistletoe Distelfink...lol)
Baby Bonbel Swiss was another...oh, I'm too tired to remember the rest...
must....sleep! *yawn* *blink blink*
My vote goes for Baby Bonbel Swiss. After she is grown up you can drop the Baby and call her Bonbel...Cute.
OH! Congratulations O.K! Big Big Congratulations!!!!! She does look like Powdered Sugar ;o) such a sweet little thing! (and LONG long legs!)
She is so cute!! Heh, "Snowball 3" after the Simpsons....
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