Tia's Story

Fiber with Flair!

June 25, 2010 I am all packed and ready to head to the Sturgis Hands On Art Festival over in Sturgis SD for 3 days. I look out the window and check the herd one more time.... over there, by that poop pile... is that TWO new cria heads?!?! I grab my son, Kyle, and we head out to check out the new cria. Sure enough there is two of them laying there. The smaller one is all dried off and the bigger one is still soaking wet but trying to stand. I grab one and Kyle grabs the other and we head to the barn. Only one mama, Tia, follows! Yup, we have twins.... and they are girls too!! All dressed up and it is looking like we might not make it to the show in Sturgis after all. The older and smaller cria we decide to name Lia. The younger and bigger one we decide to name Mia. Lia looks tired and a little dehydrated. She is tiny. Her mama is a first time mommy and her milk is hardly in at all. We strip the plugs but still the milk is slow. Mia being bigger is more agressive at suckling and she looks good, but little Lia is not moving around much now so I head into the house to fill a bottle. We need to get her belly full and supplement Tia's milk until the twins have her making enough for both of them. When I get in the house I call my friend and neighbor, Fran. She heads right over to help because I may be able to head to the show afterall if Fran will help! We have some trouble getting the placenta to release, so we help it along a bit, dropping two cria's is enough we don't need retained placenta problems... it comes out clean. Fran and I have filled up little Lia's belly and Mia is nursing like a champ. Lia is slower and more fragile than her sister. We have decided Fran will babysit everyone for the weekend while I head to Sturgis..... I have never been so nervous for an entire weekend in my life! Fran did awesome, both crias were happy and nursing when I got back. Lia was still happy to see a person with a supplemental bottle once or twice a day, but Joe, my other son, figured out that she liked it so much she would come right over and grab the nipple, so you didn't need to struggle giving it to her at all! The three of them were put out to the pasture with the rest of the herd on day three. Over the next few weeks, we continued to supplement Lia with a bottle, but eventually she got to where she would just turn her head away after coming over to check and see what we had for her. Mia, being much bigger and more aggressive at eating than Lia tended to push her sister out of the way at first, but little Lia got very crafty at getting her milk. She would stand directly under her mother where Mia couldn't push her out of the way or Lia would get a bite freom between Tia's back legs, like the calves do! Lia also found a friend her size when another cria was born a week later. This cria's mama, Noel, would let both her new cria and Lia nurse. Lia took full advantage of having an extra mama! By the middle of July Lia would get a snack from us rarely. For us it was a treat, but we needed to understand that she was becoming a big 'paca now and she didn't need us! =) Tia's bag had grown to accomadate the two crias, and they were all three happy and healthy. Lia had a tendency during this time to fall asleep very hard during the afternoons. When she woke up the herd would be gone! She would come up to the first person she found for help locating the group with her mom and sister. We would either carry or lead her over to them and her mother, Tia would look at us like, "oh yeah, I have TWO babies!" We'd tell Tia to learn to count heads before walking off. Eventually Lia got thrifty enough that she kept track of her mom or one of her extra mom's. Today Mia is a big girl. Kyle has to work much harder to pick her up than he did the day in June that we carried them up to the barn. Everyone on the place is happy and healthy and we marvel each day at the miracle that Tia gave to us!

239 Thompson Creek Rd, PO Box 65, Clearmont, WY 82835

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