HEALTH
WHY WON’T MY ALPACA GET PREGNANT?
Claire E Whitehead, recognised specialist vet in camelid health and production, outlines common reproductive problems and explains what you can do when your female isn’t getting pregnant.
> Figure 2: Claire E Whitehead performing a female reproductive evaluation in a camelid-specific chute at her clinic. Interestingly, owners often comment how well behaved they are when in the chute: once away from the home environment and they can see that they can’t escape, they are (mostly!) very calm
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eproductive efficiency is vital in any livestock breeding business. Any period of time during which a reproductively sound female alpaca is not pregnant translates to a wasted investment. In an ideal world, a female alpaca is bred back 21 days after she gives birth and is pregnant for an average of 343 days. This gives an ideal interval between successive parturitions of approximately 364 days, or about one year. It is important to keep as close to this ideal as possible in order to have females giving birth during the ideal birthing months (Spring and Summer) or they will gradually slip back such that you are left with having to decide whether
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to breed a female in the Autumn or leave her until the following Spring, which wastes even more time.
Obviously, not every female will conceive every time: overall conception rates in alpacas are around 55%, so you have to expect some females will not become pregnant the first or even second time they are presented to the male. However, if a female is consistently repeating the same behaviour and not conceiving, there will be a reason for this. A breeding soundness evaluation (BSE) by a specialist vet with camelid-specific reproduction experience is the quickest way to find out what is wrong and hopefully correct it. Your general practice vet is unlikely to have this expertise or the equipment
