Our fourth and final cria to be born is named Hollyhock’s Johnny B. As you may recall, this cria was born on a Sunday morning. Because of this timing, Darryl and I went to different churches so I could go later after drying the new cria. That Sunday was a celebration of John the Baptist. Both Darryl and I (separately) had the thought of giving this cria a name to pay tribute to John the Baptist as well as Darryl’s uncle John. But it took us a while to get to know the little cria and find a fitting variation of the name.
Johnny’s birthday was June 24 after a gestation of only 347 days. While we have had crias born at 330 days and less, this surprised me a bit as the first three births of the year were all 10 days longer than this. But he was strong and healthy. His parents are our Carley and Duke of Rum River Alpacas. Johnny and his half brother Stellar look so much alike that it will be difficult to tell them apart as the become closer to the same size. They look a lot like their sire, Duke.
He weighed 15 pounds on his birthday, then dropped a few ounces the following day. At one month old he is now over 25 pounds. It seems the heat of summer makes it harder for little ones to gain, as I’m sure it hard for Moms to produce milk. He makes up for his size by the amount of spirit he has.
Johnny got his first vaccination shot last night and is on track for his booster in about 3 weeks. He is already sporting his summer short hair cut. I think he will have the best fiber of the 4 crias.
Johnny is the friendliest little alpaca that I think we have ever had. He is extremely curious and loves to get out of the main pen at feeding time and explore the barn, sniff Molly (our kitty) and run outside.
That concludes the introductions of our little herd of 2012 crias. They are so much fun to watch run and play.