Is she?

One of the challenges of breeding alpacas is the uncertainty of pregnancy.

Alpacas carry their cría (normally just one) for around eleven and a half months. They can provide only one cría per year. That makes the breeding process more costly than many other farmed animals..

If the females happen to not to be pregnant after all, this activity isn’t cost effective. If there is a little alpaca born after the long pregnancy, the first few hours are critical, as they determine the chances of survival, then the first few weeks determine the future health of the new alpaca.

Vaccines through the first months, then yearly, and food supplements in the daily feeding routine, are vital for the maintenance of growth in young alpacas, and the health of the herd.

So back to the start, at this point in the year, if your alpaca is showing no signs of giving birth, you become obsessed with finding out: is she pregnant? Alpacas don’t always show a belly, and often lose the pregnancy without trace.

After 60 days, scans are of no use and spitting off is not 100% reliable (there are alpacas that spit off and are not pregnant, there’s alpacas that being pregnant sit down for mating). Then it comes the method of observation, which is a kind of fun. This is how you do it: you take pictures of your alpaca, this time from behind. And your picture gallery becomes something like this:

And that, is not me being bad with the camera!

Bringing one alpaca up, successfully, is an achievement, so we celebrate pregnancy and birth with particular joy and pride.