Can I buy a breeding pair?

Sure, but there are a few things to keep in mind.

Firstly, an adult male alpaca will generally want to mate with any female alpaca he has access to.

So, you'll need to make sure your female is old enough to breed, before putting your male with her. This is from about 12 months of age for a female.

Males are generally not capable of breeding until they are around 2-3 years, although there have been cases of younger males mating successfully.

If you run a male and a female alpaca together all the time, you won't know when (or if) your female is going to deliver her cria. You may see them mate and be expecting a cria around a particular date, but she may not have become pregnant with that mating, or she may have lost that pregnancy at some time since and remated with the male, without you knowing.

This may not be important to you, but if, like us, you'd like to be around for the birth so you can assist if something goes wrong, then you'll need to have a fair idea when the cria is due.

Some males will attempt to mate with a female while she is giving birth. This can be a disaster for the baby that you've waited nearly 12 months for. You also want to give your female at least a few weeks to rest after giving birth before re-breeding her.

These are just a couple of things to consider when thinking about buying a male and a female alpaca. They are very collectible animals though so chances are, once you have your breeding pair, it won't be long before you get the "alpaca bug" and want a few more.

Wethers (castrated male alpacas, sometimes also called geldings or caponas) are always good to have around. They are less expensive to buy than breeding animals and most can be kept with males or females with no problems.

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