Newborn Care

Newborn care of your cria is best left to mom and other females in your herd. Your Alpacas should revive your new cria within a short period of time. This is done by gently nudging and licking the infant.

Your job is to watch. It will seem like a long time but soon you will see your new cria take his/her first breath. Your new baby will attempt to raise its head. This will be wobbly at first.

Your new cria will then move to a "kush" position. This is where he/she is upright with belly on the ground and legs tucked under. Your baby will sit like this while mom and other females lick him/her clean.

This is a good time to greet your new arrival. Mom will let you come in the pasture or pen and work with her cria. Do not attempt to remove the baby from her sight. This will make mom nervous and she will become aggressive.

Newborn care includes weighing your new arrival. Bring your scale with you. Your new cria should weigh between 10 and 20 pounds.

Document the weight, sex and color of your new cria. Examine him/her for problems with conformity and any cuts/injuries.

Within 1 hour your new cria should be attempting to stand and walk. They will be unsteady at first but will be moving quite well in a very short amount of time.

Your newborn should be attempting to nurse from mom within 2 hours of delivery. Other females will gently scoot her away if she attempts nursing on the wrong female. She will eventually find mom and learn her smell.

Newborn care also involves monitoring him/her carefully for the first 4 hours. You should see your newborn attempt to nurse frequently. He/she needs to do this often so moms' milk will come in.

Good monitoring of your cria is essential in the next 2 weeks. You need to monitor frequency of nursing. Also watch his/her gait for problems. Monitor activity.

Reweigh your cria if you suspect he/she is not nursing enough or getting enough nutrition. You need to be concerned if you new infant is not active or appears sluggish.

Artificial milk may be obtained from online sources. You may want to milk your female to see if there is milk there and it is plentiful. You can milk another female that has a cria to give the milk to this one if it is an emergency. Be careful you do not take too much milk so she has plenty for her own cria.

You may need to take mom and baby to your Veterinarian if you suspect a problem. Some Vets do make house calls. Be sure to take the placenta with you.

Once your cria is 4 months old he/she is considered "viable". This means that your newborn is out of that critical stage. Check with your Veterinarian regarding imminizations. Until this stage your infant has been protected through moms milk.

We register our Alpacas between 6 months and 1 year. Mom will naturally wean her infant from nursing between 4 and 6 months of age. We do not put our cria up for sale until they are at least 6 months old.

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