330 Days
September 13th 2007 07:33
Well, our “maybe” pregnant girl is 330 days tomorrow. This is the number of days into the gestation that all the books say that you should start watching closely for impending delivery.
She’s lying about like a beached whale and when she walks it’s heavily and very, very slowly, like an alpaca sumo wrestler. The others will wander off to another part of the paddock to graze. You can see the “do we have to?” look appear on her face as she heaves herself onto her feet and rumbles off across the paddock after them. Sometimes she doesn’t bother, she just sits there by herself and watches after them. They come back eventually.
The other girls aren’t due until December and later, so they’re not showing any signs of pregnancy yet. Alpaca foetuses stay very small until a rapid growth spurt in the last couple of months gestation. This is rather good of them considering the gestation is 11 ½ months!
I tell you though, if this girl isn’t pregnant, she’s definitely something. Alpacas try to hide anything that would make them stick out in the herd. It’s an instinct thing. Drawing attention to themselves makes them a target for predators looking for dinner. Anyone old, sick, weak, injured, or very young, is naturally going to be picked off first and a heavily pregnant alpaca would be super easy to bring down.
A casual visitor probably wouldn’t notice, but you get to know your alpacas’ normal behaviour and this one’s definitely not being normal at the moment. Her previous record indicates she could go around 338 days. She’s due to have a girl this year too, so we’ll see how we go.
She’s lying about like a beached whale and when she walks it’s heavily and very, very slowly, like an alpaca sumo wrestler. The others will wander off to another part of the paddock to graze. You can see the “do we have to?” look appear on her face as she heaves herself onto her feet and rumbles off across the paddock after them. Sometimes she doesn’t bother, she just sits there by herself and watches after them. They come back eventually.
Here she is with one of her previous crias. Hope this year's baby is as cute as this little guy.
The other girls aren’t due until December and later, so they’re not showing any signs of pregnancy yet. Alpaca foetuses stay very small until a rapid growth spurt in the last couple of months gestation. This is rather good of them considering the gestation is 11 ½ months!
I tell you though, if this girl isn’t pregnant, she’s definitely something. Alpacas try to hide anything that would make them stick out in the herd. It’s an instinct thing. Drawing attention to themselves makes them a target for predators looking for dinner. Anyone old, sick, weak, injured, or very young, is naturally going to be picked off first and a heavily pregnant alpaca would be super easy to bring down.
A casual visitor probably wouldn’t notice, but you get to know your alpacas’ normal behaviour and this one’s definitely not being normal at the moment. Her previous record indicates she could go around 338 days. She’s due to have a girl this year too, so we’ll see how we go.
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Comment by katyzzz
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katyzzz
Comment by Rosemary
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Comment by Lilla
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Ditto to Katyzzz, Aboslutely delightful... sheer joy.
That little fella looks like royalty to me lost for words here at the cutness of it all...
Lilla ...
Comment by Rosemary
Alpaca Notes - Tasmania
That little guy is Samson, and he now lives with two other pacas from here, Roger and Nicholas.
People must think I'm crazy but yes, they all have names, every one of them.
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