<<<<Hi Janice,
Do I understand correctly, you have the momma and her little girl and
the stud all together?
Wow, I would separate them right away. Not only can you run the risk of
a uterine infection on momma if she is bred too early after birthing (or
too often), but the stud can continue to breed her right up through her
pregnancy and then you run the risk of possibly injuring the fetus,
causing premature labor, and a whole host of other troubles- including
permanent injury to the female.
And, it is very possible the male will try to breed the little girl if
the momma is adamant about refusing him and that could kill her.
Your male could be sweet as honey but he is still a male and driven to
reproduce, he won't hesitate to breed his daughter or think about her age.
I don't mean to scare you, and I know people do field breed- but they
remove the male after the female is confirmed pregnant.
Get a nice gelded llama who has been with girls and a gelding for your
boy and keep them apart. Just better all around I think.
Slainte~
Rachelle>>>>
Thanks for your reply Rachelle. And yes i have to say that all mine are
together.....I have so few left - only 2 females, one stud, and one
gelding that in order to separate them someone would have to be alone
and I don't think that would go over very big with the one left alone.
Plus, I only have hay in one place and water in the other place; and tho
I have 2 separated pastures (what a joke calling that space a "pasture"
is!) they are both small and my guys like to have room to roam
about....as I'm sure they all do. The woods (for shade) are in one area
and the hay/loafing shed is in the other. So not really a good set up
right now. Since I've not before had a female cria it has not been an
issue up to now.
And yes papa is already mating mama. I've only seen them mating once,
my dd saw them another time. But I know in my long ago readings it
apparently is common in those professionally breeding to breed the
female the day after birthing. That always made me shudder. I used to
keep my mom and babies separate from papa for a time and that male would
sit outside their gate and just moan day and night for his girlfriend.
I just didn't want any mating going on until mama had time to recuperate
from the birth. But then after I kept reading about birthing and
immediate mating i assumed it must be ok as the big guys were doing it.
So for the sake of companionship I stopped separating them.
Also what my understanding is is that once a female is pregnant, the
male no longer has any interest - something about the hormonal change
signaling that she is no longer open. My males (I've only had 2 not
gelded so I am far from knowledgeable) have never tried repeatedly to
mate. I see them chasing/mating for a few days and then see no more of
that activity for a very long time. If I see it again after a number of
months, I assume a fetus was lost and they are trying again. And I also
did not think a male would be interested in/attracted to a female who
was not "receptive"?
So that was my question, at what age would a young female start
producing the pheromones that signal the male that she is "ready"?
<<<<I have to agree. I meant to respond to this point. We NEVER haver
adult males in with females, except when we walk them from the boys'
pasture to the girls' pasture for hand breeding. Then we take the
sire back home again immediately after.
Your male pasture doesn't need to be huge, especially if it's just
for one or two males, but they do need to be separated from the
females. It's not even advisable to house geldings with females, as
they can breed open females and since she won't get pregnant, will
over breed and can cause serious uterine damage, infection, or worse.
Best of luck!
Heather>>>>
Well I could put the male and the gelding together in one pasture, but
they are mixing it up way too often for my likes, and confined to a
smaller area I fear it would get worse. My gelding, who had the
terrible slash wounds on his neck this summer, had a ripped up ear a few
weeks ago. I know that came for those 2 mixing it up. Funny, he is so
much bigger than the stud, but he always seems to be the one with the
injury. So that leaves me with leaving the stud all alone, which I have
been told a thousand times is extremely stressful to alpacas - to be
without their herd/buddies, *and* leaving the gelding in with the girls
which you also say not to do. But they have all been together for many
many years and I have never not once seen him do anything remotely
resembling mating behavior. Or leaving them all together. So far they
have done just fine all together, and I certainly have not had a glut of
crias! I usually seem to get one about every 2 yrs or so. I never see
any excessive mating or chasing going on, in fact see it rarely.
I will take what you both have said to heart, but right now there is not
really much that is acceptable that I can do to separate them. I have
planned and hoped to fence another connected area this spring....but
that was so I could rotate them off the only bit of green pasture they
have in the summer, and which is overgrazed and I am sure totally
infested. So that still won't solve the dilemma of needing to separate
them. Maybe when I have more that would be more feasible, but with only
4 (and 1/2) it is just lonely.
I have given some consideration to Rachael's suggestion of getting a
guard llama for protection, but if he/she is separated from part of the
herd, not much use as a guard. Can't really afford more to take care of
and feed right now anyway.
So the question remains....if the ideal cannot be done separating all
males and females, at what age would Merry become attractive to her papa?
any more input guys?
Thanks! Janice
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