Alpacas 101 Continuing Education
More Alpaca Facts On
Alpaca Birthing
I have been breeding alpacas for four years. I bought my first three females alpacas in the early summer of 2000 and now have just over thirty. I am self taught and have my personal experiences, reading and clinics which I am glad to share with you on the birthing process. I am not a vet so please do not take me as an expert. If at any time you are unsure of what is happening in the birthing process please call your vet. The vet would preferred you called instead of having him or her having a much tougher job later because you didn't call.
Although 90% of birthing is straight forward and the mom takes care of everything with no need of your intervention you should be prepared to help if necessary. We have had fifteen births on our farm and out of those we have had to help in only four births if we hadn't I am sure we would have lost the crias and perhaps the moms as well. I strongly suggest you take any birthing clinic you can. If there are not any near by why not host one your selves or take an on-line course. Let other breeders know you are having one, it's a good way to meet people and start net working with others in the industry.
Birthing Kit to have on hand and ready to grab, in it you should have
- vets phone number.
- towels for drying cria.
- blow dryer.
- cria coat.
- clean shoe lace.
- 7%Iodine in 35 mm film canister.
- sterol latex gloves .
- vet wrap.
- cria nipples & bottle to fit nipple.
- red tube with catheter tip (60cc syringe) in case you need to tube the cria.
- Ky jelly for lubricating.
- digital thermometer.
- kept in fridge Oxytocin use only if told to by vet.
- kept in freezer colostrum alpaca or llama is the best but goat is alright.
- pen and paper for taking notes.
- information, diagrams on improper cria presentation and what to do.
Sighs of pre-labor can be
- the Mammary glands enlarge (called bagging up) up to three to four weeks before delivery but with first time moms may not happen at all.
- wax on the ends of the teats.
- the belly takes on a different shape seems to drop.
- Vagina may look larger, pink,elongated and open.
- their hip bones seem to stick out more.
- they seem irritable with lots of humming.
- they are lying down and appearing uncomfortable.
- the length of last pregnancy can be good indicator but not all ways.
- they lose their cervical plug 2-3 weeks prior or hours before delivery.
A wise experienced farmer once told me that unless you see something coming out the back end of the mother there isn't much you can do. One thing alpacas teach us is patience that is for sure. With gestation period of eleven and half months give or take a month it can be a long wait. The one thing you can do is make sure there is all ways some one around to keep an eye on them once they come into that time frame. I have heard the story to many times of surprise births and the cria might have made it if someone had been there to call for help or just help get a leg straighten out.
Active labor
One of the great things about alpacas is that they birth around lunch time give or take four hours. I think they developed this because they originate from the high Andes mountains, if a cria is born to early it will freeze and to late it will not be dry in time for night and would freeze. It is very uncommon for alpacas to birth in the evening or during the night but it does happen sometimes. We had a seasoned mom give birth at eleven at night last year. I was late in doing my evening check so I happened along just as her waters were braking which I heard as I could see in the dark. So we don't take any thing for granted, from then on we put the near delivery moms in the barn at night.
Stage one of labor are
- Amniotic fluid leaking from vulva.
- noticeable bulging and softening of the perineum (genital area).
- interest of the rest of the herd in her hindquarters.
- restlessness.
- lack of appetite.
- lack of cud chewing.
- frequent trips to the dung pile, sometimes without peeing or pooping.
- frequent trips to water trough.
- rolling.
- getting up and lying down frequently.
- increased humming.
- lying down with hind legs kicked out to one side.
- kicking at her belly with hind feet.
The period of Stage one labor can last between 1 to 6 hours, but 2 is more average.
Call the vet when
- you are sure labor has started and nothing is happening.
- you see a nose and nothing else.
- the female is pushing nothing is coming.
- feet pointed up.
- legs no head.
- she is rolling for a long period of time.
- stage one of labor lasting more than two hours.
Stage two labor
Stage 2 labor is the actual birthing process which is pretty fast about 30 to 60 minutes.
You should see a bulge from the vagina which is the membranes or sack you may see feet pointed down and or a noise with lots of fluid around it. You can see the contractions and sometimes the mother may groan and be humming with them. If everything is progressing normally there is not much for you to do but wait. Once the hips are pasted the umbilical cord brakes and out should slid your bran new cria.
The mother may have the cria standing or cushed and perhaps she might get up and down while in the middle of delivering. She may stop and eat grass not to worry all is normal. If you see she is stressed by the interest of the rests of the herd you may want to separate her with few of her friends to keep company in a smaller clean pen. Remember that alpacas are herd animals and get their sense of security from being part of the herd.
Call the vet if you feel anything is not normal or if it is taking to long.
Educate your self on how to birth a cria so you can help if need be. Don't wait for the vet if your alpaca is in trouble you have to go in and help her out. I am not going to go into how as I am not a vet but you can get some books, take a clinic, do an on-line course and perhaps set up a support network with other breeders in your area. Most alpaca folks are friendly and helpful if you need help call on them.
Stage three labor
After the baby is delivered, the placenta will be expelled. Normally this should happen within the first to six hours after delivery. The mom may appear uncomfortable and may not allow the baby to nurse until it is expelled. While the mom is having a well deserved rest we dry off the cria, dip the cord and make sure the cria is in the sun to dry off, if there is no sun and it is cold we will blow dry. We leave them for a bit to rest and get to know each other. Her friends are put out with the rest of the herd and mom and cria have the pen to them selves.
It is very important that the cria be up and nursing as soon as possible. The nursing will stimulate the passing of the placenta and the cria will get the antibodies from moms colostrum. Once the cria is trying to get up and nurse we come back and wash moms teats and make sure the wax is off the nipples, called clearing the dame. We get the cria sucking and give her a baby suppository to help it pass the black tarry substance which can be very hard to pass and then leave them alone for some bonding time. By this time the placenta is usually passed we examine it to make sure there are no missing sections which could still be inside the mom and cause problems later.
That is about it until the next day when we weight and give shots for both mom and cria. We weight the cria daily for about a month and then once a week for the first three months and then monthly after that.
shearing
Fiber sorting & Grading
This past June 2004 I completed a course at Olds College Alberta Canada and received my certificate in fiber sorting. I found the course well worth while as I learned in depth about how alpaca fiber grows and why it grows the way it does. Mostly it is genetics and it is important to understand fiber growth to help you make good breeding choices for each fiber type. In Australia they are making leaps and bounds in recovering from their disastrous sheep breeding programs. The alpaca world should keep a close eye on their industry and learn from their mistakes and successes. Just last week the news of an ultra fine merino fleece braking the barrier of twelve micros was broken with a micron count of 11.9 really big news for the natural fiber industry!
There are many things to consider besides low micron counts. The structure of the fiber and the scaling on the out side of the fiber are just as important as the aspects of fiber stats.
Blue Eyes Alpacas
Alpacas come in all kinds of eye colors from black to light blue just like in humans. To say that all blued alpacas carry the deafness gene is purely silly. Some blue eyed whites have been found in a very few cases to be deaf. At one time people were fighting over blued white alpacas and paying top dollar for them. Why because they had the finest fiber. And that is true today but there is an unreasonable paranoia over any alpaca with the smallest bit of blue in it's eye which I believe is harming the alpaca industry. To be an animal which carries the deafness gene there must be an absence of pigment which can be found anywhere on the body in the ear cannel or the toe nails or white patches on a dark alpaca but it is not the eye color that relates to the deafness gene. There just hasn't been enough research into this topic to draw any educate deductions certainly no one can quote facts with out a scientific foundation.
Below are some exerts from on the deafness gene which I believe to be intelligent and
thought full.
Quotes from Dr. Anderson.
We have found that the fact that they have blue eyes actually has little to do with deafness other than the fact that it increases the likelihood that they are deaf IF they have a white hair coat.
We have dispelled many myths:
1. blued eyed alpacas are always deaf - NOT true. We have tested many
blue eyed but not white or only partially white animals that can hear.
2. Colored eyed alpacas can always hear. NOT true - we have tested
some animals that are deaf but have colored eyes. Many have some
flecks of blue or gray. Certainly most deaf animals have blue eyes,
but some colored eyed animals are deaf.
3. If the skin is black they can hear no matter what the color of the
eyes or hair. NOT true. Many of the deaf alpacas we have tested have
black or darkly pigmented skin.
What we do know is that recessive color genes do seem linked to
deafness - probably because the gene loci are close together on the
DNA. Thus, if the color gene does not get "turned on", the hearing
gene does not either. This is most closely tied to hair coat color,
but is amplified when eye color is recessive too. Recessive colors are
primarily grays with blue discoloration in eye. We have seen two gray
studs where upwards of 20% of offspring have been deaf. This year we
have 8 BEW females waiting to give birth. The first one born is white,
has blue streaks in eye but dark pigmentation in over 50% of the eye,
and is STONE COLD DEAF!.
At some point, someone needs to decide if deafness as a birth defect
is actually worth researching and fund it! I do not care who
researches it, but I do think that it needs to be done."
David E Anderson, DVM, MS, DACVS
Head and Associate Professor of Farm Animal Surgery
Director, International Camelid Initiative
Ohio State University
College of Veterinary Medicine
601 Vernon L Tharp Street
Columbus, Ohio 43210
Phone 614-292-6661
Fax: 614-292-3530
E-mail: [email protected]
From a group e-mail at the Alpaca Chat Line
The connection between blue eyes, white hair and deafness can be traced to
the development of the neural crest in the embryo. The neural crest
supplies cells, which develop into melanoblasts, which migrate ultimately to
the base of the hair follicles as melanocytes, producing melanin, which
lends color to the hair. If this migration is not complete, lack of pigment
in all or some areas of the skin (white or piebald) can occur. A similar
lack of pigment in the eye can lead to blue-eyedness; a similar lack of
nerve tissue supplied to the inner ear tissue or the degeneration of these
tissues (in the cochlea and saccule) can lead to deafness, bilateral or
unilateral, partial or total.
All of these tissues are supplied by the neural crest, but some of these
tissues are supplied by complex mechanisms in the embryo, so deafness, skin
and eye color may be completely or partially lacking. This is the simplest
explanation I can reconstruct, for those who are interested.
Dave Friedman
Understanding Fiber Histograms
Shearing
Alpaca Feeding
Alpaca are a ruminant, not a true ruminant because they have one stomach with three compartments but they chew their cud just like a cow. They need to have a low protein hay and pasture grass. Protein levels should be 8 to 10% for adult males, non pregnant and non lactating females. For pregnant females they need 12 to 14% protein for the first two trimesters and 12 to 14% for the last trimester and older weanlings (tues). Lactating females need 13 to 15% protein to produce adequate milk and not lose too much weight (see body scoring to access weight). They need to eat two% of their body weight each day to be healthy and be able to meet their reproductive needs. An average alpaca of 140 pounds would need to eat two pounds of hay per day. Because it is to hard to see what they are eating we feed free choice hay all the time. We use a dairy hay but test the hay for protein levels, nitrate and potassium levels to make sure it is suitable for our needs.
Besides hay and pasture alpacas need minerals which we give to them in a pellet made by our local feed mill which is designed by our vet and the feed company. It is designed for our soil conditions in our area and also contains grounded up grains mixed and compressed into pellets. We feed a cup a day per alpaca which seems not very much but if you over feed you might find your stock gets the runs from to much protein. More is not necessarily better in this case. In North American we tend to over feed if your alpacas have lose stools and you have checked for parasites have a look at your feeding program you might be over feeding. To ensure that every one gets a fair chance at getting their share of grain we have many little feeders all over the barn, it's like an easter egg hunt at feeding time everyone looking for the best place for grain but they settle down quickly and the grain is gone if five minutes.
Pasture is just as important and you should make sure there are no toxic plants in the fields. If you are planting a new pasture you should get the soil tested to see what you need to add to it. Also you should have a good variety of different grasses so there is grass growing through out the growing season. Alpacas are ideal small acreage's and You can keep between five to ten per acre.
Water is the last thing on my list and probably the most important. It must be clean and the containers should be clean out once a week and the water changed every a day to keep it fresh. In the summer we have many large containers spread out in the fields to make sure no one is going with out water. In the winter we take hot water out to the barn to heat up their water because if the water is to cold they may not drink enough. you should see them crowd around when we bring it out in the morning you'd think it was hot coffee.
To summarize alpacas need
- clean water from a clean source.
- free choice hay, protein levels checked.
- minerals.
- grain or pellets.
- good pastures free of toxic Plants.
*Remember to introduce any changes to the diet gradually over a period of a couple of weeks. This way the microbes in the gut have time to adjust to any feed changes.
Alpacas Health
Alpaca Stomach
Alpaca has one stomach with three compartments see diagram:
As you can see alpacas are not really a true ruminant. In reality they
have one stomach with three areas dealing with digestion in a similar
manner as other ruminates but a true ruminate has separate stomachs.
It is very important to the digestion process that there is constant
movement in the stomach particularly in the C3 or the fore stomach were
it is critical for fermentation with out it you are in trouble and can
develop a colic. Put your ear to the rib cage you should hear lots of
gut sounds.
Something interesting to note about the alpaca stomach is that the
fore stomach has much more movement than other true ruminants.
You will have layering of food and the movement mixes the food with
stomach juices braking down the food and being absorbed and utilized.
There are many things important to this process , stomach bacteria are essential and ph levels which change in the different compartments as the food moves to the lower stomach.
Body Scoring
I think that one of the most important things we as breeders need to understand is
body weight, that loss of weight can be early warning signs of possible health issues.
In North America we have a tendency to over feed our animals because we care so much for them so I see more of a problem with over weight alpacas than underweight.
We need to have our alpacas at optimum weight for reproduction, breeding, fiber production and able to ward off illnesses. The easiest way to keep track of your alpacas condition is to record it's body score and don't be fooled by fleece coverage get your hands on the back bone at the withers put your thumb and index figure on either side of the bone and depending on how close or far apart your figures are is the score. Some people do a one to five score and others do a 1 to ten. One is thinnest and five is obese or using the one to ten scoring five being optimum. It is fast, easy and costs nothing.
Body Score Chart
Pastures
One of the most important thing about pastures is done in the planning stage.
Planning
If the planning and research are done well you will enjoy years of pleasure instead of constantly fixing this..., changing that... and adding to these.... We say this from experience and a limited pocket book (all the money went into our stock). So many times we say to our selves if only we had done this before.
Please think about how many different communities of alpacas you might have like:
- a main herd
- a weanling pen
- a tues or young males paddock
- an adult breeding males
- a birthing pen & pasture
- an Isolation or quarantine pen .
You will also like to be able to rotate the alpacas every three weeks, mow what they haven't eaten and irrigate if you have the water to spare. In a perfect world you wouldn't be back to that first pen for six weeks. You would do this for the the main herd for sure and if possible perhaps have two pastures for the tues, adult males and the mommy pen as the populations usually are as high. I hope you noted the isolation pen, this is a pen (doesn't need to be huge) that needs to be on it's own were you can put new alpacas or alpacas that have been away for breeding or shows from the rest of the herd. The alpacas should not be able to touch each other and usually a double fence is in place just in case they might pass something on to the rest of your herd. Our vet likes new alpacas to spend two weeks in that pen before going in which the rest of our herd.
Soil
What about your actual pastures? You need to know what kind of soil you have and what you need to do to it before planting which means you need to take a number of soil samples and have them annilized. We are lucky to have an excellent feed company who also deal in pasture designs which we have found very helpful. You can also contact your local Agricultural Service they are an invaluable source of information. Your agent will probably recommend doing soil testing twice a year to determine what soil amendments your particular pastures will require. Tests are inexpensive and it is wise to test each pasture individually as topography affects soil nutrition. Hilly areas experience rain runoff and thus nutrient leaching while low lying areas receive that runoff which means they require fewer amendments. Nearby alpaca or llama breeders can tell you the forage types their animals prefer.
Types of forage
You should consider the types of grasses that grow well in your area
and different grasses grow at different times of the growing season.
Never plant all one kind of grass as alpacas are use to a great variety
of forage try and get the variety in the pastures. I don't not recommend
clover it is much to invasive and chokes out the grasses. You will get
clover anyway so why pay for it. Do not plant Rye grass it can cause a
toxic reaction as it can carry an endophyte (bacteria) which can cause
staggers which is a condition that looks like it sounds. It affects the
central nervous system temporarily unless the rye is not removed in which
case it can become permanent or fatal. I know of a breed that had a very
sick alpaca which got the staggers from hay that had endophyte's in it.
The alpaca didn't die but is badly handicapped. endophyte are a nature
protect for the plant and many grasses carry it so make sure any seed you
buy is endophyte free. Seeing we are on the topic of endophyte's please don't
let your alpacas eat your lawn unless you are very sure it is from endophyte
free seed most lawn seed has is not.
You should plant grasses that grow from eight to ten inches tall anything over the alpacas will not eat, plant:
- a mix of several grasses
- a legume of slower growing varieties not clover
- Timothy grasses
- orchard grasses
- endophyte free short fescue's
A couple of serious notes. If possible, invite your local agricultural agent
to visit your farm and walk the pastures with you. This is a free service. Ask
them to take note of the weeds and any trees growing in your pasture. They can
point out those that are toxic to livestock and make recommendations for their
eradication. That beautiful cherry tree in the middle of your pasture is
aesthetically pleasing and provides shade for the alpacas (always desirable),
but the dried old leaves on the ground may be toxic. Likewise, rhododendron,
milkweed, most yews etc. are deadly. In general, a well fed lama will not browse
on toxic plants, trees or shrubs - but cria are always chewing on everything
they find. Eradicate such dangers or if a favorite plant, fence it off.
Toxic Plants List
| Arrow-grass |
Azalea |
| Baneberry |
Bittersweet |
| Boxwood |
Bracken Fern |
| Bleeding Heart |
Buttercup |
| Burning Bush |
Castor Bean |
| Cherry (Black Cherry or Wild Cherry) |
Choke Cherry |
| Christmas Cherry |
Christmas Rose |
| Crown-of-Thorns |
Daphne |
| Deadly Niteshade |
Death Camas |
| Delphinium (Larkspur) |
Devil's Ivy |
| Dumb-Cane |
Elderberry |
| Elephant Ears |
English Ivy |
| False Hellebore |
Foxglove |
| Golden Chain Tree (Laburnum) |
Greasewood |
| Groundsell (Ragwort) |
Holly |
| Horse Chestnut |
Horsetail |
| Hydrangea |
Jack-in-the-Pulpit |
| Jerusalem Cherry |
Jimson Weed |
| Laburnum |
Lantana |
| Larkspur |
Lily-of-the-Valley |
| Lobelia |
Locoweed |
| Lupine |
Marsh Marigold |
| Mayapple |
Mistletoe |
| Moonseed |
Monkshood |
| Morning-Glory |
Mountain Laurel |
| Nighshade |
Oak |
| Oleander |
Peach |
| Philodendron |
Poinsettia |
| Poison Hemlock |
Potato |
| Private |
Rosary Pea |
| Rhododendron |
Rhubarb |
| Scotch Broom |
Skunk Cabbage |
| Sneezeweed |
Sour Dock (Sorrel) |
| Spurge Laurel |
Sweet Pea |
| Spindletree |
Tansy |
| Tansy Ragwort |
Timber Milk-Vetch |
| Tomato |
Water Hemlock |
| White Baneberry |
Wisteria |
| Yew |
|
|
