Breeding & Crias
A YEAR IN THE MAKING
Imagine waiting 350 days to meet your new baby! It is always one of the most exciting days on the farm! These long-legged newborn alpacas are called crias.
In the alpaca world the gestation time is about 350 days. Breeding alpacas can be tricky at best. After the male breeds with the female, it can be challenging to confirm the pregnancy. Alpaca farmers put in much time and effort to have a productive breeding season.
In Northern Michigan, due to our hot summers and frigid winters, we breed two main times of the year: June/July to produce June crias and September/October to produce late August and September crias. We pick these delivery times so that the crias can get a good start prior to the weather becoming too hot or too cold.
The pregnant females usually deliver their babies standing up and even walking around as the baby is being born. The delivery usually takes from 10-30 minutes. However, the mom is in labor for a while before the cria makes its debut. The baby is up walking in about 30 minutes and nursing within the first two hours.
All of the other female alpacas are very interested during the delivery process and keep checking in on the mom to be sure her delivery is progressing. They can’t wait to meet their new addition. They all flock around to check out the new baby as soon as it is born. Female alpacas are great aunties! Like they say. . . it takes a village to raise a little one!
We delivered our first crias in June of 2021. We had one boy and one girl. Lucy is a beautiful fawn girl and Maverick is an amazing white boy. Enjoy the photos of these two little cuties!
We are hoping for several more this coming June and September. Check back to meet our 2022 crias!
