Zap's New Baby

May 20th we FINALLY got our special delivery... Zap had her baby on day 356 and he's a dark silver grey! Here's a few pics of the new cria running around. He's less than 24 hours in these pics.

This is the latest cria who doesn't have a name yet and he's being checked out by Amerikhan All Star.

Right side

The white-ish coloring you see on this cria is actually very light silver grey with tiny little black spots in it. His front lower legs are spotted with black spots and light silver grey fiber.

This is Zap (mom) on the left, the new cria in the front and in the back is Amerikhan All Star.

Now let me explain the story behind WHY this cria is important. Zap, the mother, is a BEW (Blue Eyed White) out of two tuxedo grey alpacas. From what I've read and gathered over the years this is a big deal because it's thought that there are no known BEWs out of two tux greys because of something called the lethal grey gene. Zap is the exception and possibly the only known BEW out of two tux greys. The short version of what this means is that she would be something called homozygous grey which up until now was as mythical as a unicorn. IF Zap really is a homozygous grey it would mean that no matter who she's bred to she will ALWAYS produce a grey offspring. She's 2 for 2 so far. It's going to be interesting to see what crias she gives us over the next few years and I'm still looking into how we can definitively prove she's really the mythical homozygous grey the genetic gurus in the alpaca world have always talked about.

I'd love to hear your comments on the cria or the genetics of the cria. In the meantime... baby needs a name. It has to be an "electric" name. His mother is Zap (she eats electrical cords) and his full brother is High Voltage. His father is Dynomite. So far we've come up with Dynomite's Short Circuit. If you've got any suggestions we'll take them.