Alpacas giving Birth during the Winter

Having made the decision to have a Winter birth or maybe it was made for you; you now have some very special considerations and plans to make to ensure you end up with a healthy Cria. Winter births offer their own special challenges and you need to be ready for them.

The time of year you choose for your Females to Unpack:
Spring and Autumn births are by far the best time of the year for your females to give birth.
Spring has the advantage of Spring Growth, the days are warmer and nature seems to favour most animals giving birth at this time of year. In many areas though, Spring can be very wet and sometimes a late cold snap can occur. Spring gestation is usually 2 weeks longer than the Autumn gestation for Alpacas.
Autumn seems to be the best time for the Alpacas themselves, they seem to be easier to mate, and conceive, and the Stud Males are far more aggressive in the Autumn compared to the Spring. The Autumn days are still warm and the weather is usually less wet.
Summer births have the advantage that it is usually dry, but has the disadvantages that it can get very hot and you can lose Cria due to heat stress very easily, the mothers just don’t stand up enough to ensure the Cria gets regular feeds. This is due to her being so hot, all she wants to do is sit there and try and keep cool. There is often a feed shortage in Summer as well.
Winter births in my opinion are ok, as long as you know the risks. There are often long fine periods but it can be cold. The gestation period is similar to Autumn and the females conceive easily.

The need to keep a close eye on your Pregnant Females:
Because it is Winter, you do not want to arrive home from work (usually in the dark) and find a Cria laying in the mud and cold either dead or just about dead. You need to know if your female is going to have her Cria on any particular day. To do this you need to check on her every two hours from 8.00 am onwards until around 4.00 pm each day.
Another tip is to feel her udder each day to see if she is springing or if she has a full udder. This can occur overnight in some cases, but it gives you a better idea of how close she is from giving birth.

Also lift the Dams tail and see if the Vulva is swollen, it can remain slightly swollen for a couple of days before unpacking, but you will notice any changes if you are checking on a daily basis.

Look for any differences in behaviour, a female sitting on her own when the others are feeding, this is not normal, she may be going into labour. If anything looks out of the ordinary or is “just not normal” then walk over and have a look at her up close. You may spend time doing this, but you won’t miss her going into labour if you do this.

Care for the Pregnant Dam
If you are short of grass, then make sure you have plenty of good quality food you can feed as supplements. Remember to start feeding these supplements slowly at first so the bacteria in her stomach can adjust to the new feed.

We use Pea Vine Hay as our Winter feed, along with good quality meadow hay that we let the girls eat straight from the hay racks. We keep these hay racks full at all times throughout the winter period. The Pea Vine Hay is higher in protein and the animals just love this feed. We also feed NRM Sweet-feed mixed with Lucerne Chaff for any girls that are a bit thin or need building up.

Your Heavily Pregnant Females need a good quality high protein feed source before giving birth because simply put, they look fat, and they look fat because there is a big 6-10 kilo Cria inside them. As this Cria takes up a certain space, this reduces the space available for the stomach to hold the normal amount of food and so if you feed a better quality feed then the Dam gets all the nutrition she needs and so does the Cria.

It is also a good idea to get your winter birthing females used to spending time in your barn or shed so that if you do have a Cria born into very wet and cold weather, they won’t stress out too much if they have to be put into the barn over night.

What conditions warrant Coats and Cover
Remember it is Winter and the Cria just born comes out from inside Mum where it nice and warm at 37 degrees Celsius, and could hit the ground anywhere from 2 degrees to 12 degrees not allowing for the wind and rain chill factor. This is why you have to be ready for any winter births in advance.

Now if the Cria is born on any sort of sunny day and it is not raining, we just leave nature to do its thing, as long as everything is normal. If baby is not up and feeding within 2 hours, We give it a feed of cows Colostrum with some Staminol mixed in. Because it is winter, we will put a Cria Cover on the baby just as it is getting dark, but still leave the cria outside unless we know that a storm is coming and then we will put Mum and Baby along with a mate for mum, in the shed for the night.
We take the Cria Cover off of the baby in the morning and put them all back into the paddock, unless that storm has arrived. We usually put the Cria Coat back on baby for a couple more nights, but making sure we take it off each morning. This is so the Cria gets the benefit of the coat, when it needs it when it is the coldest part of the day, ie at night. Too many breeders leave the Cria Coats on their Cria for weeks at a time, and then wonder why that Cria get colds or even worse pneumonia.

If it is Wet and Cold and you find a Cria when you get home:
The first thing you need to do is warm the Cria up straight away, rub it quite vigorously to start with which helps the circulation and also removes any remaining membrane from the Cria. Use a dry towel for this job, then take the Cria and Mum up to the shed and warm the baby up using a hair dryer. This may take a while but this is the best way to do this. You want to raise the body temperature of the Cria slowly. Once the Cria is warmed up we use a Lambs Cover which only cost around $3 from any farming store covered with a Cria Cover. This ensures the Cria stays nice and warm during the night. You can also use a woollen work sock and cut the toes out and slide this over the Crias head and use it to keep the neck nice and warm. This works well.

Your Cria Covers need to fit correctly, there is little point in having one too small if half the back is exposed, we see this all the time and it is also bad to have a Cria coat that is too big for a Cria, as this will slide off and trip the Cria up when it tries to walk.
We use water proof dog coats that just have two big Velcro bands, one around the chest and the other around the tummy. You need sizes 30cm , 35cm , 40cm and 45cm as this range will cover a small to a big Cria. The size is measured by the length of the back from the base of the neck to the start of the tail.

If you have a Cria that is too weak to stand, then place it in a big cardboard or wooden box and place some poor quality Alpaca Fleece underneath the Cria and then cover it up with the rest of the fleece. This will keep it as warm as toast over night. The fleece has the ability to keep the new born Cria insulated and warm. If you can’t find a box big enough to comfortably hold the Cria, a couple of Hay Bales in the corner will do the trick.

Once the Cria is moving around and showing a sucking response, We give them a drink of Cows Colostrum with some Staminol added. You may need to give a Cria two feeds of the Colostrum, but after that it should be feeding from the mother. It is important that the Cria is actually sucking down the milk and not just swallowing it as this could run down into the lungs.

If you have a Cria that is not responding to being warmed up or is gasping for air and has a rattling breathing, then We give them some Plasma and of course a Vet is called to administer this. We usually give the Cria some penicillin as well just to cover all the bases. Again once the Cria is settled and showing a sucking response, We give it a feed of Colostrum.

The Barn:
Your barn needs to have a pen that is wind and draft proof. You need a power source so you can have lights and of course run the hair dryer. You also need good clean bedding, like straw along with some good quality feed to keep mum happy. Always have a companion animal or two alongside the new mum and Cria. Alpacas hate to be in sheds and especially in sheds on their own. You don’t want mum stressing out.
We leave a light on all night so that when the Cria is up and wanting a feed it can find mum and the milk bar. If your shed is too dark, the Cria goes to a corner and tries to feed from here which is of course not a good plan.
If you have hay or straw on the floor of your pens, then make sure you have some flat area so the Cria is able to stand and walk around. If they can’t walk to mum when they are after a drink, they may give up if they keep falling over due to uneven ground.

If the Cria had to be pulled out by a vet, make sure mum gets some antibiotics as well, just to cover any possible infection.

“The attached picture shows a couple of Mums and their Cria all set for a cold night in the barn. Notice that as long as there is some light, mum will continue to feed her Cria. These particular animals were caught in rain, just before being put away for the night.”

Peace and Quiet:
Nature is a wonderful thing, but too often the new Alpaca owner and breeder, spend too much time mucking around with mum and her new baby. I was bought up on a farm and have now had hundreds of Cria born and the best advice we can give you is this “ Leave them alone”. Let nature do its thing, let mum and baby bond and give them the space and quiet to do this. You only get involved if you need to warm the Cria up and feed it for a short time, once you have done this then again we stress “Leave them alone”.

Feeding the Cria:
Using my background where I grew up on a farm and then spending 10 years as a laboratory technician for the dairy company, I know a little about milk, Colostrum and dairy products. I have mentioned before, that all Breeders should have cows Colostrum in the freezer all year around.
You need to make contact with a dairy farmer and ask him if you can purchase the Colostrum from a cow that has a dead calf. That is you want the Colostrum before the calf has had its first feed.
There are artificial Colostrums on the market and yes they have some benefits, but nothing is as good as good quality cows Colostrum. A cow has around 4 gallons from the first milking, you can freeze it for 12 months in small plastic bags and just thaw it out as you need it. If you never need to use it at all, that is good, but it is worth every penny knowing it is there if you need it.

The new born Cria only gets the antibodies from the Colostrum for the first 24 hours and this is why it is so important for new born animals to get Colostrum for their first few feeds. If you can’t get the Cria to feed from mum, then cows Colostrum is the next best thing. Giving the Cria Plasma will give it the antibodies it never received from its mother.
After 24 hours, the Crias stomach changes so it is able to start digesting milk, having said this, if your Cria is weak or premature, keep feeding the Colostrum because it has a lot more benefits than just the antibodies. It is an excellent food in itself and I keep feeding the Colostrum until the Cria is strong enough to feed from mum on its own. If you have to raise a Cria with out mum, then we switch to milk powder, but not before.

We use a Lambs teat to feed Cria with a big hole in the end, about as round as a match stick. The Cria only takes a very short period of time to feed, so when it stops sucking, stop until the next feed. Feed it as often as you can.

Don’t Feed the Cria Milk Powder for the first few days:
Because Breeders don’t have the Colostrum in their freezer, (because they think it won’t happen to them), they shoot out and purchase some Lamb Milk Replacer and think that this will do to feed the new born Cria. Please don’t do this as it will basically kill your Cria. The Crias stomach just can’t handle the powder and it ends up as a solid mass inside the first stomach and of course results in death. Some vets will tube the Cria for you, giving you the illusion that at least the Cria is getting a feed, it is not, but rather giving it a death sentence. We have seen what powder does to the stomach of new born Cria, and it is basically a solid block of damp milk powder, that is compressed in the stomach.
The Stomach should basically turn the reconstituted milk powder into curd so that it can pass through the stomachs and out the appropriate end. For some reason this does not always happen as can be seen in the picture of this three day old Cria’s first and second stomach.

“As you can see in the attached picture, the stomach is filled solid with damp powder that has no chance of passing through the Crias system. This Cria was tube fed by Vets and then the owner in an attempt to give her some nutrition. In this case it was fatal. You can see some lumps in the second stomach where some powder did pass into it.”

Removal of Wax Plugs:
In all the reading I have done it is recommended that we (The Breeder) remove the waxy plugs from the teats of the mother Alpaca so that it is easier for the Cria to drink when it has its first drink of Colostrum.
We do not do this because of the following reason …….. It is sometimes very hard to know if the Cria has had its first drink from mum, unless you actually see the Cria drinking, you can only hope it has had a drink. If you have removed the wax plugs yourself, you can’t tell by checking the udder to see if baby has had a drink. But if you leave the wax plugs along, and you then check the udder and the wax plugs are not there, then you know baby has had a drink and removed the plugs while taking his vital first drink of Colostrum. You can also see if baby has had a drink from all four quarters or just one, again gives you an idea of how much milk it has taken. So we leave nature to do its own thing.

In conclusion:

Watch your pregnant females closely.
Be prepared for Winter births and have all that you will require ready.
Put covers on the Cria at night for the first few nights.
Make sure your Cria Coats are warm and water proof.
If it is raining and blowing a very cold wind and then put them in a barn or shed for a night or two.
Take the covers off the Cria in the morning as long as it is fine.
Make sure the Cria is feeding.
Feed little and often, using cow Colostrum if not feeding from mum.
Have fresh Cows Colostrum in the freezer at all times.
Have fresh Plasma in the Freezer at all times.
Don’t feed new born Cria milk powder.
Call a vet if things are not normal.
Make sure your Barn or Shed is suitable for Alpaca accommodation.
The most important thing is to keep the Cria warm. Use a digital thermometer to check the temperature on a regular basis.
Give them their space, peace and quiet, they know what to do.