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Nutrition Issues Associated with Pregnancy, Nursing and Breeding
Here are some brief relevant physiology, management and nutritional topics related to pregnancy, nursing and breeding. The alpaca weight gain during the first 2/3rds of pregnancy is only a few pounds. The majority of weight gain is in the last trimester.
Consider weight gain associated with a full term 16-20 lb cria and a 4-6 lb placenta as well as the 2-3 lb hypertrophy of the uterus (that you can't see) as well as the 1-2 lb engorgement of the mammary tissues (that you can see).
Thus, a weight gain at term can be about 24-32 lbs over a “normal” non-pregnant body weight. For a normal 150 lb alpaca, this is about 20% of the adult mass! Consider this investment in the offspring comparing it to a similar size human female who has a much smaller baby. Therefore, alpaca nutrition during pregnancy is a critical issue.
Monthly weight measurements are a good thing to do and will tell you where your animals are at nutritionally. The same should be done for body scoring which shows you where the weight is going. You can have substantial pregnancy weight gain, but the body score will go down (bad) in the last trimester when they are hungry all the time (protein catabolism). However, overfeeding a female at this time and getting her fat is also a BIG problem and will cause many birth problems.
You can look at a lumbering “tubby looking” dam (just before birth) and then look at her two - three weeks after birth and the difference is often night and day. A nursing cria “eats up” (actually drinks) a lot of the dam's energy and fat stores – many thousands of calories per day. The peak energy “draw” from the dam is at about 8-12 weeks of age when the cria is nursing several times an hour and needs a lot of energy. The cria has also almost doubled the birth weight at this time and therefore needs twice what the newborn cria needs. Thus, you need to balance out the dam's nutrition too. This metabolic drain from the lactating female can be four times that needed for a non-lactating female. Consider this as you feed your lactating dam.
Dams tend to be in the best reproductive physiology (get pregnant with one breeding) when they are in slightly positive nitrogen balance - i.e. gaining a few ounces a week. This takes some observational skill to put on the weight properly and not get into ketosis or other fatty liver physiological metabolic problems (some of this can be smelled on the alpaca's breath). Breeding is typically done 2-3 weeks after birth so it is often hard to keep a dam in positive nitrogen balance (gaining muscle mass and weight) at this time.
Our (and others) management/nutritional opinion is that the more complex carbohydrates are better than the highly energy and protein dense grains and that simple sugars (molasses in sweet feed) are not good for routine feeding - and are frankly bad. That said, in bitterly cold weather with wind (sub-zero wind chills), I will give some sweet feed, but it better be VERY nasty out there - and not a lot of sweet feed either (a small handful per animal) - well mixed in with hay in the feed bunker to prevent them from bolting it down.
There are people who feed cracked corn, horse feed and other simple grain mixtures, but we disagree with “graining” as a routine feed.
Fall births tend to be very tough on dams. In the last trimester, the late summer dormant pasture is often suffering from drought and or low fertilization. The resultant low protein forage is not what the dam needs. Now consider the effects of winter. Energy is needed to stay warm, the dams are lactating (producing milk) and they are on “artificial” (non pasture) diets. We often put a coat on them - even when it is not very cold and when they have not lost weight. We want to prevent weight loss. Knowing your dam's reproductive/nutritional history is also critical. Who does well and who needs extra help. Sometimes just a coat does the trick.
The winter dam is often re-bred and now she has “three strikes” against her: lactation, the cold winter weather and now another pregnancy. Is it any wonder that so many dams slip their pregnancies when bred in the fall?
What is the difference between pellets and grain? Many people mean pellets but say “grain”. They are very different in their energy density and makeup. Pellets are more complex and do not have the very high simple carbohydrate and protein contents. About the worst thing to feed is a high protein horse feed - but some people do as this is what “they were told”.
Alpacas can appear to do well on a variety of very bad diets, but eventually it catches up to the owners (unthriftyness, failure to conceive, abortions, bad fleece, low sperm counts, bone problems, etc). An excellent course on nutrition is in Dr. Norm Evans “Alpaca Field Manual”. Good quality grasses (the pasture is always best), hays and other good “rumen foods” are what the camelid physiology is built for. The major issue we see on farms is overfeeding and fat animals (and we struggle with it here too!).
Nutrition Overview
Nutrition Terms
Transfer Factor
Problems with Rye
Bermudagrass
Orchardgrass Choices
Alfalfa Forage
Nutrition Issues
Copper a Micronutrient