s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

I suspect this belongs on one of those “you know you’re a breeder when” sorts of lists, but I can tell you that the event this weekend that I found to be the most exciting, the most satisfying, that gave me that little thrill of happiness…. was when first Minty and then Galadriel sat down and let themselves be bred. Imagine me, clutching the top of the gate, eyes wide, avidly fixed on the subtle nuances of alpaca ear set and head position, repeating, “She’s gonna sit ! She’s gonna SIT !” with the relieved incredulity of, say, Ellen Ripley when Bishop brings the dropship up to the platform just in time to save them from the exploding reactor. (Why, yes, we *have* re-watched Aliens recently, why do you ask ?)

Why such relief ? Well, in theory, female alpacas should be ready to get pregnant again two or three weeks after giving birth. Galadriel, though, showed no interest in the stud at all. In fact, if poor Harry came anywhere near her, he’d get a face-full of green goo. After several weeks of trying various tricks, we tried getting her a shot of prostoglandin, which is meant to clear up any residual hormones leftover from pregnancy (on the theory that she was spitting him off because hormonally, she thought she was still pregnant). Only it didn’t seem to work, and even if it did, Harry had by this time gotten spat at so many times, that he no longer tried going after Galadriel at all (can’t blame him). It looked like Minty might be going the same way — three weeks after delivering Nazani, she was still giving Harry the I’m-not-interested spit. We were wondering if we needed to try switching males — maybe they just didn’t fancy Harry.

And then Saturday, we brought the girls down, put Harry in a pen with Cariboo, Minty, and Galadriel, and Minty actually sat down. Huzzah ! And Galadriel wandered over during the mating and looked distinctly interested. Sunday, Galadriel sat ! Maybe the prostoglandin just took a couple cycles to do its thing.

Now here’s hoping they both get pregnant on the first try, because trying to tell whether these two are spitting off “for real” is just way too fraught.