Happy Birthday Cairo!

Cairo was born today at around noon. I could tell something was happening cause all the llamas were gathered around at the top of the hill. Llamas have expessive body language and as soon as I saw them I knew there was a baby. He must have been born just moments before, as you can see he was still wet when I found him with bits of embryonic sac still stuck to him. I had the priveldge of "imprinting" him in the first moments of his life which will hopefully make him a very easy animal to work with. Imprinting is done by handling the baby thoroughly, but with no communication, so the animal will be unafraid of handling but will not become overly bonded to the wrong species.

Rowan was a great helper. He is so good with animals and the ones that I have a hard time approaching (like Cairo's mom, Loretta in pic 3) trust Rowan easily, and will eat oats from his pail while I handle the baby. Cairo's dad, Everest, is white (off in the corner of pic 2) and his half brother, Sambuca, is brown (checking him out in pic 2).

Loretta was a great mother to Sambuca, her first, and Cairo has had no trouble nursing or bonding to mom. He was up and walking withing minutes after being born and the beautiful sunny day dried him off in good time. I had such a wonderful glowing feeling in my heart, sitting in the meadow watching the amazing new life that had just come into existence. All the animals were so peacefilled and calm. The beautiful aura of love and life they created reminded me of why I feel so passionately about birth and helping women to make it a wonderful, empowering experience.

Only 6 hrs later, Cairo was running around, sticking close to his mom, but willing to stand still to let me handle him, and Rowan easily walked up and petted his soft silky fur. I am so happy he is white. He has a bit of ligth brown on his back which makes me think he may turn a light caramel color. I would like to increase the light colors in my herd so that I can dye the fibre. That's why we kept Everest as our stud, even though his fibre quality could be improved upon, and we castrate all our other males. I'm hoping to buy a couple more white females in the near future and then maintain the herd to a small size of 10-12. Right now we have 7 llamas and Marley is due to deliver any day. She is fairly old and was bred by accident so I will be glad when her baby finally comes and I can stop worrying.

I'm supposed to be at a Studio Tour in High River on the weekend but with these babies happening, I think I may have to make it a day trip. Champagne and Lisa (dairy goats) are also due in the next 2 weeks. I think I may try to stagger the births a bit more for next year!