Pregnancy  Females can be considered to be of breeding age when they reach about 14 to 18 months of age and 95 to 100 pounds body weight (whichever occurs last).  A female will carry her baby for 11 to 11 1/2 months at the end of which she will give birth to a single baby called a cria.  (Twins are extremely rare in alpacas.)  The cria will be born almost exclusively between morning coffee and lunch!  We are working on teaching them to page us when they are ready to deliver ;-).  Fourteen to twenty-one days after the dam delivers her cria she is ready to be reloaded (re-bred).  An alpaca will actually tell you if she is pregnant!  An open (non-pregnant female) will kush (tuck her legs under her and lay down) when she is near an adult male alpaca.  A female who feels she is pregnant will run from the male and scream at him if he dares approach her!  Alpacas are induced ovulators; a female does not go into heat but releases her eggs in response to mating.  This means we can bred the male to the female at nearly any time we choose and the baby will be coming about 11 months later.

Guaranteed Live Birth  A.L. Paca’s Farms provides a live birth guarantee with all females sold as breeding stock.  This guarantee assures the buyer that the female can become pregnant, can carry a pregnancy to term, and will deliver a baby who will live for at least 1 month.  Occasionally a female will lose her pregnancy.  The risk of such a loss is minimal, but if it does occur, it will usually be within the first 90 days of pregnancy.  If the pregnancy does not hold or if a successful birth does not occur, then A.L. Paca’s Farms will re-breed the female to the stud of your choice without charge.  Moreover, a female which proves to be incapable of becoming pregnant within a reasonable time (two and one-half years) can be exchanged for another comparable animal, or be refunded.

Weaning  A cria is ready to be have its diet changed from mother’s milk to grain, grass, and hay when the alpaca is 5 to 6 months of age.  An alpaca no longer dependent on mother’s milk is known as a weanling.