A baby alpaca is called a cria.
This is pronounced cree-ah. Baby llamas are also known by this
term.
Young alpacas, like other prey animals, are vulnerable
to attack from predators, so they need to be able to run, and keep
up with the herd fairly quickly. A cria is normally standing and
attempting to nurse within an hour of birth, and we've found that
crias are already running about by night time, even if still a
little uncoordinated.
An alpaca birth is quite nerve
racking to watch, as the nose appears  first,
then nothing happens for quite a while, while you assume the cria
must be suffocating. Once the head and front legs appear, the cria
is often then left hanging about, for (what seems like) an eternity,
while the mum wanders about, sits down, stands up, and spins around
occasionally to see what's happening back there. It is very hard
to resist the urge to "help" though once you see a head
and two feet emerge, the cria should start to breath (splutter)
and thrash about. The cria will then usually be born within 30
minutes (often less) and the alpaca mum will do everything by herself.
That said, sometimes things do go wrong and if
you are considering having alpaca babies at your place, we would
suggest you read up on the possible problems. There are some good
books available, which cover alpaca birth and neonatal care. We've
found Llama and Alpaca Neonatal Care to be a very useful
resource. See our Alpaca Books page
for details about this book.
Here are some home movies
of baby Ellie's arrival on 4 January 2006.
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The average gestation for
an alpaca is around 342 days. The shortest gestation we've had
here at Intrepid, was 305 days.
 It
was 2001 and Johnny Come Early, arrived, we think, around
4pm. We were out, of course, and discovered him when we got home
at 6pm. He was a good size (7kg), but had signs of prematurity
and was obviously in trouble. He was weak, couldn't stand, or
even remain sternal, and his ears were flopped over rather than
upright. He was also bleeding steadily from his umbilical cord
(navel).
We were certain of the dates, and knowing that
crias rarely survive at such a short gestation, we got Johnny straight
to our wonderful vet. He administered plasma into a vein in Johnny's
neck. We were to and from the vet with Johnny for the next two
days. At home, we kept him on a heat pad in the house. He had to
be tube fed as he was too weak to nurse from a bottle. We also
had to give him a gentle prod every now and then as he would stop
breathing.
At 1.30am on his third day, I was on the night
shift watching Johnny. I was so tired, and Johnny was just lying
there, lifeless. I made the decision not to prompt him the next
time he forgot to breathe, he'd been through enough. I was thinking
about going to bed, when suddenly Johnny stood up, looked around,
peed all over a computer we had left on the floor, then proceeded
to try to nurse under the desk.
We rushed Johnny out to his mum, who had been
pacing about near the fence since he was born, wondering what we'd
done with her baby. We positioned him under her, and he nursed,
as though nothing had happened.
He never looked back. It was like an instant transformation
from being a totally lifeless little scrap of fur, to a perfectly
normal cria. Johnny had just arrived too early and needed those
three extra days before he was ready. He went on to grow into a
normal, healthy alpaca.
So, I guess the moral here is, don't give up on
them too soon.
 An
alpaca cria will continue to nurse until he's between five and
nine months of age. We usually wean our crias at around six months.
If left together, a mum will often decide to wean her cria by simply
walking away or kicking at the cria when he tries to nurse.
Although alpacas can breed all year round, we manage
our breeding program so the crias arrive in the warm months, between
January and April each year. We have a nice climate here, but it
can still get cold, wet and windy during Winter.
It is simply nicer to sit out and enjoy our crias
when the weather is warm.
Feel free to visit and meet our babies. There's
normally someone here, but give us a call first just to make sure,
our phone number is (03) 62 39 6020, or email
us.
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