• Females can usually be bred at 14 months of age
• Males usually start to breed at 2 years old
• Breeding males make a unique "orgling" sound
• Pregnancy usually lasts 11 to 12 months. The gestation is generally about 342 days, but can range from 320 - 380 days.
• Alpacas produce 1 cria per year, very rarely twins
• Birth usually occurs between 8 am and 4 pm so baby will dry off by dark
• Newborn alpaca babies (crias) weigh 9-23 lbs;
• Crias are usually standing within an hour and nursing within 4 hours
• Females can usually be rebred about 12-21 days after giving birth *
• Babies are usually weaned at 6 months of age

* The ovarian cycle is on a 10-14 day cycle with the majority of alpacas on a 12 day cycle. Thus, the first peak receptivity will be on day 12 post partum with another peak on day 24 post partum.
You can breed alpacas on other dates in the cycle and they can get pregnant at other ties - just not as reliably.



Other web pages about breeding:

Mount Lehman's "When should I re-breed my females?" page

Commonly used pregnancy test is the "Spit Test". Well, it's not that if they'll spit at you, but if the female is pregnant, she will not breed again, and will let the male know by spitting at him.
The male is lead into the females' pasture. Notice the grey female in the back is trying to escape as far as she can. She has no interest in the male what so ever. Notice their tails up, and male's testicles are sucked up for protection .	We have two female coming upto this male, checking him out. The light female had a cria 21 days ago, so we want to know if she is ready. This grey female is very pregnant,. Although she came close, she was violantly spitting the male in the face. Should I translate it as "Don't even think about it!" or "I'm not in the mood today!"
Our light female stayed close with her cria at side. The male by this time starting to make his "orgling".	She is really interested in our male. She is not running away, neither spitting at him. A few seconds after the male started his orgling, she cushes. We know she's ready to be rebred.

To contact us regarding investments in Alpacas, click here and we will be glad to assist you.