Christina with newly born Cuppajoe (2008)
Good news: Bolivian Christina, my medium rose gray (MRG) “pink” alpaca was confirmed pregnant by ultrasound today. Christina is bred to General Steel de Peru, a dark rose gray (DRG), full Peruvian herdsire at Alpacas of America. I’ve got my fingers crossed for another “pink” alpaca.
Christina was imported in 1994, so she is more than 14 years old. The best word to describe her is “matronly”. She still has her regal bearing, she has produced beautiful healthy cria including Cuppajoe last year, and she is mostly trouble-free. She doesn’t even seem to be as effected by parasites as other alpacas. Sometimes when I look at her face, I crack up because she looks like an old lady with too much powder on.
Today’s ultrasounds revealed that Sinsacate, who was also bred the same day (to a different herdsire, of course), may or may not actually be pregnant. The ultrasound was inconclusive for her. Unfortunately, she may be in the process of absorbing her pregnancy. I will confer with the veterinarian on how best to proceed.
As I am learning, sometimes alpacas don’t get pregnant on the first, or second breeding attempt. Getting pregnant is a process. If you time it right in their cycle, you may have better luck, but that is assuming that you have ready access to a herdsire. If you have access to a herdsire you can check the female’s behavior, to see if they go from cushing for the male before breeding to “spitting off” the male after they become pregnant. With no male to check their behavior with, you have to rely on either ultrasounds, or a progesterone check from a blood sample, which means that you either have to know how to draw blood from an alpaca and send the sample off for analysis, or have a vet come to the farm to draw blood or do the ultrasound. Behavior and progesterone tests are not infailable. It is possible that they could act pregnant and have a high progesterone level, but in reality they have a retained corpus luteum. There can be other reasons too. But the reality is that they don’t all get pregnant the first time, every time.
All of these things are additional challenges for the urban alpaca owner. When you care about your animals like I do, it is difficult to not be able to participate directly in the day-to-day tasks. And being a small beginning farm entrepreneur, there is so much riding on a sucessful breeding program. Working with a knowledgeable and experienced agisting farm is so invaluable, and makes me grateful to have mentors to help me learn all the nuances of becoming an alpaca breeder.
