Alpaca males cannot be run with females or adjacent

as a longstanding breeder I guess if there is one question I am asked more than “whats the difference between an LLama and an Alpaca?” it has to be… why cant you just buy a male and a female Alpaca to live together?

the answer is complex and requires the explanation of not only herd animals but also of induced ovulation. Meaning the Alpaca will only ovulate (release an egg) stimulated by copulation (sex). This is penetrative through the cervix and therefore if you leave a male Alpaca with a female all the time he will simply keep remating her.

young timid females are unlikely to fend off a male who has no other women in his harem (Alpaca can mate over 30 females per day)  and whilst a stronger female may/may not fend him off, this will result in remating and therefore reabsorption of any pregnancy. The female is likely to become damaged and often will die from stress or infection or even retained matter from reabsorption amongst other things. she will also likely become depressed.

Moving on, the same applies if a male is allowed to “run” with a group of females. Even worse, if a male is allowed to run with a group of females with yearling females born the previous year… the male has no concept of age or genetic relationship and will mate both mother and daughter regardless.

As induced ovulation means that Alpaca can mate “all year round” this means that they should be kept well away from the females at all times. Here at Kensmyth ALL Alpaca categories and indeed differing species are separated by a minimum of 8ft lanes with 5t high fencing to prevent anything jumping over.

Even the stud males are separated from castrates as you can see…