Baby Alpacas (Crias): Facts, Birth and the First Months

Baby alpaca facts at a glance

Figures: Merck Veterinary Manual and the Australian Alpaca Association. Individual crias vary; your vet is the authority for your animals.

What is a baby alpaca called?

A cria. The word comes from Spanish cría, which simply means a baby or young animal. The same word is used for baby llamas and vicuñas. A young guanaco has its own name, a chulengo.

Adults are less exotic: most breeders simply say male and female. You will also hear the Spanish macho and hembra. A breeding male is called a herdsire, a castrated male a gelding, and a cria's mother is its dam.

How long are alpacas pregnant?

About 11½ months. Veterinary references put normal alpaca and llama gestation at 332 to 352 days, so due dates are a window, not a day. Alpacas carry one cria at a time. Twins happen in roughly 1 in 1,000 pregnancies and are risky for both babies.

Alpacas are induced ovulators: the female releases an egg in response to mating rather than on a seasonal cycle. That means breeders can choose when crias arrive, and in a hot Southern climate many try to avoid due dates in the peak of summer. A female usually is not bred before she is two years old.

How crias are born

Alpacas are famous for daytime births. Most crias arrive in the morning or early afternoon. The usual explanation is that it gives a wet newborn the warm hours of the day to dry off before the cold Andean night. A birth late in the afternoon or evening can be a sign that something is wrong.

Labor has three stages. In the first, which lasts a few hours, the female seems restless, visits the dung pile often and may hum. The delivery itself is quick, usually under 30 minutes: front feet first, then the nose resting on them, often with the mother standing. The placenta follows, usually within an hour or so. Unlike cows or sheep, alpaca mothers do not lick their newborns dry; instead they hum to them and stand close.

The first 24 hours

A newborn cria is wet, wobbly and all legs. Within minutes it sits up in the cush position, the folded-leg pose alpacas rest in. It should try to stand within half an hour and be steady within an hour or two, then go looking for milk.

The single most important thing in a cria's life happens in the next day: colostrum, the first milk. Crias are born with almost no immunity and get their antibodies only from colostrum, ideally within 12 hours and no later than 24. That is why breeders watch the first nursing so closely. Most also dip the navel in an antiseptic and check that the cria passes its first droppings within about 18 hours.

Growth and weaning

Crias often lose a little weight in the first day or two, then start gaining steadily, about a quarter to half a pound a day for an alpaca. A healthy cria roughly doubles its birth weight by one month. Many breeders weigh crias daily for the first weeks, because a cria that stops gaining is the earliest sign of trouble, long before it looks sick.

Crias nibble hay and grass within a few weeks but keep nursing for months. Most alpaca farms wean at four to six months, often moving a group of weanlings together so no one is alone. Alpacas are herd animals at every age.

Baby alpacas vs baby llamas

A baby llama is also called a cria, and the first months look much the same. The difference is size. A llama cria can weigh about 20 to 33 pounds at birth, already more than many alpaca crias, and it grows about twice as fast. The tell-tale features show up early too: long banana-shaped ears and a longer face on the llama, short spear-shaped ears and a fluffy face on the alpaca. For the adults, see our llama vs alpaca guide.

Is "baby alpaca" wool made from baby alpacas?

No, and this confuses a lot of shoppers. On a sweater, scarf or skein of yarn, "baby alpaca" is a name for a fineness grade, roughly 20 to 23 microns, not fiber from crias. It can come from adult animals with fine fleece. The US Alpaca Owners Association avoids these trade names altogether and grades fiber by measured microns instead. Learn how to read those numbers in our guide to alpaca wool.

Can you buy a baby alpaca?

Not a newborn. A cria needs its mother's milk and its herd, so responsible breeders sell alpacas only after weaning, and always at least in pairs: a lone alpaca is a stressed alpaca. If you are thinking about starting with young animals, talk to a breeder near you. Our directory of alpaca farms in the Southeast is a good place to start, and our alpaca facts page covers what adults need.

Quick answers

Sources

• Merck Veterinary Manual: Herd health of llamas and alpacas (neonatal care)
• Merck Veterinary Manual: Reproductive parameters of female llamas and alpacas
• Australian Alpaca Association: Birthing and cria care (PDF)
• Cria
• Rutgers Cooperative Extension, Fact Sheet FS917: Llama and alpaca production
• Alpaca Owners Association: U.S. Alpaca Fiber Standard