Shearing alpaca crias is always a bit scary because of their small size, but is an important part of their care.  This year we sheared all our alpacas the weekend of May 7, so our spring crias missed the date.  We like to shear our crias when they are about 2 weeks old, and today, Milton’s shearing day arrived.

He was born with a lot of fleece like his sire Tennyson, and has gotten quite hot with our warm weather.  We set up in the shade of the front porch and brought Milton out to be shorn.  He handled the shearing wonderfully, and laid very still (with some helping hands) while David sheared him.  Milton stood up 5.5 ounces lighter.  It doesn’t sound like much, but it filled a small bag and he is much cooler.

After the shearing, everyone came to check out his new haircut while Milton ran to mom for a bit of comfort.  He was back to running around the pasture soon after.  Last I looked he was relaxing under his favorite tree.

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