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The Cria is Born: What Do I Do Now?

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Appropriate Alpaca Behavior

Alpacas should act like alpacas. Owners need to be careful about the new born cria bonding with themselves instead of their mother.

DEALING WITH THE PREMATURE CRIA

There are several easy steps that you can take if your cria is born premature.

Equipment for Bottle Feeding

Be sure to heat the milk until it is warm, not hot. A microwave works well or you can set the bottle of milk in hot water until warm. Keep any hand reared cria with other alpacas.

Essential When Hand Rearing

Body Weight Monitoring is Essential When Hand Rearing

Hand Rearing Cria

The situations where hand rearing of a cria may be necessary include the death of a mother or the unlikely event of the dam having no milk.

MONITORING PROGRESS AND RECOGNIZING DIFFERENCES

The best guides to your cria’s progress are its growth rate and activity level. The weight of the cria sometimes declines slightly (up to 10% of birth weight) over the first couple of days while the mother is establishing her milk supply, but thereafter it should increase.