Alpaca Birthing

Alpaca Birth Delivery

On a sunny Sunday morning, whilst sitting on our deck outside drinking my much needed wake up coffee, I noticed that Esperance wasn't acting "normally". I had just given the Alpaca girls their breakfast and Esperance just wasn't interested. She preferred to stay down towards the back of the paddock.

For the past 2-3 nights at feed time, she had been "hanging back" a fair bit and the night before wasn't interested in the feed at all. I had also noticed a definite "drop" in her tummy and her underbelly mid-section was "sagging" down (if that makes sense).

Continuing to watch her, she would get up, move about a metre or so, then cush back down again. After about half an hour, she starting to adjust her cush from one hip to the other. Obviously uncomfortable, but she was rather large. She was also gently "rocking" from side to side.

I kept a close eye on her. I was certain she was in labour (but this wasn't the first time that I've thought a girl was in labour). Allan, my Husband kept trying to tell me that she wasn't and it was just wishful thinking on my behalf. I just kept saying "Well, she is, I just know she is". She was also "larger" than normal under her tail.

After about an hour, she moved up under our very shady wattle trees. I thought this was a little strange as 3 of the other girls were also under the trees and I thought they were suppose to "isolate" themselves from the herd when in labour.

So, I grabbed my all faithful paddock watching chair, camera and a drink and headed off into the paddock to sit with the girls. Allan and the kids were giggling at me; yet again as Mummy goes to do some more time wasting in the paddock ;)

There was no way if she was in labour I was going to miss another cria being born! Previously I had spent all day with the girls only to have the cria born the next morning before I awoke or at any time that I left them alone.

Esperance continued to get up, move about 50cm and then plonk herself back down again. She was uncomfortable and starting to humm. At this point, being the worry-wort that I am I started to get a little nervous as I felt that if this wasn't labour, then something was going wrong with her.

About 11.40am, I could see that she was starting to push. Her tail was raised and I could see a build up of pressure around her vagina and anus.

Very exciting! I called out to Allan that she was pushing - he dismissed me (he also didn't want to get his hopes up). Allan and our daughters were putting up a gate on one of our new far paddocks and they all thought that this was just a case of Mummy and her high hopes LOL.

Esperance didn't seem to mind at all that everyone was hanging around, including me and just went about doing what she had to do. She remained cushed whilst she started pushing. Obviously a lot of straining going on and some "left-overs" from the last visit to the poo pile were expelled. I just kept my distance and tried to take photos - lots of photos.

She did get up and move around a bit between contractions, but remained under the shade of the trees. As you can see from the pics, everyone else was around, but not too particularly interested in what was going on.

By this stage, I decided that I definately needed to get closer. It was getting a tad difficult trying to remember to take photos in all of the excitement.

The cria's face emerged first. No feet. The membrane was still intact and I could see this little mouth opening and closing. Of course also by this stage, Esperance decided that where she was, was a good enough spot and as she was cushed in dirt, the cria's face was in the dirt.

The membrane broke and the cria started to breath - that is breathe in mouthfuls of dirt. It was time to get "hands on" and I quickly wiped the dirt away from the baby's face and held my hand under her mouth to keep her out of the dirt. I had also yelled across the paddock to Allan to go and get a cloth or towel to put under the cria's face.

Time for a shift to get a little more comfortable. Now we have a leg out.

This is difficult to watch as the cria is trying to breathe (whilst it's lungs are still compressed in the birth canal). I was very suprised at how much the cria particpates in it's own birth. Wriggling and rumbling trying to get out.

I now knew we may be in for trouble as the other leg wasn't out. The cria's left leg was bent and as you can imagine, a little pointy and difficult to get through the birth canal.

Esperance now was continually standing up and sitting down, each time landing the cria's face in the dirt, so I was following her tail around and placing a shirt on the ground in an attempt to keep the cria's airways free of dirt, leaves, ants and what ever else was on the ground.

Now I don't have any more photos between this one and delivery as I held the cria's left foot and gently pulled as each contraction came until both legs were out.

Once the cria's legs were out, it was fairly straight forward and quick. The whole process from when Esperance started to push until the cria was born was 40 minutes. Cria born at 12.20pm Sunday 13th October, 2005.

Esperance may or may not have delivered the cria safely if I hadn't have been there. As this is the first birth I've seen, I'm sure complications may come up that Mother Nature just steps in and helps with. The dirt in the cria's face I feel would have been the biggest complication.

One of the amazing things that I didn't know about Alpacas and the amniotic sac is that the sac is actually attached to the cria's toenails at the ends. I suppose the best way to describe it would be that the cria is vacuum packed in the sac not so tightly obviously, but there also isn't a lot of fluid. Their toe nails are very soft and pliable when born and the sac just breaks away from their nails. Quite clever really as Alpaca's do have sharp nails and they would break the sac whilst in uterine otherwise.

It did take both mum and baby a while to recover and I was a bit concerned as Esperance was very swollen and the cria didn't stand on her own. After over an hour, Allan helped her up to her feet.
cria first standing

Esperance delivered the placenta intact not long after she gave birth. She stood and the placenta broke, but I had inspected it to make sure it was all ok. It took a while for her to give the last little push to drop the placenta fully. Oh and she cushed on the poo pile to deliver the placenta.

Back to her favorite place where it all started.

Our newest addition - Rustic Lodge Lady Ophelia. A little white female. She has a small grey spot on her left side and one on top of her head (like her Mummy). She also has two small dark brown spots on her head, one above her right eye and one under her mouth on the left.