5. Our experience has been that most of the time, the cria does not nurse until after the afterbirth is passed. If it is not nursing within 3 hours, try assisting it to locate the teats. nursing by the cria. Distress becomes more apparent during nursing, and crias commonly gasp as milk is inhaled. When the cria is alive time is more crucial. So, if he is not nursing the mother, a 20 lb cria would need 32 to 48oz of colostrum.. If the dam is not producing colostrum or milk, call your veterinarian. Colostrum Replacement.If the dam is not producing colostrum, for what ever reason, or if the cria is not nursing successfully, interven-tion is necessary. Surgical correction is not recommended. Keep your vet’s details handy in case there is a breech birth but usually the cria will appear forelegs and headfirst and be ready to stand within an hour or so and will soon be nursing. the nursing herd if at all possible, and not be raised like bottle fed pet lambs. You can wait as long as needed for the vet to arrive. If not the cria is dead and there is no hurry to get it out. Colostrum Replacement. 5. His own mother is sitting behind him. If you have a female alpaca who is currently nursing a cria and they develop an abscess on their udder, the cria should not feed on the udder until the abscess’ cause is diagnosed to ensure an infection is not transmitted. If the vet cannot get there in 30 to 45 minutes you may need to try to deliver the cria yourself. To do this safely you do need to understand the anatomy of both the dam and the cria. These little guys have virtually no body fat, and if they aren’t fast to get up and nurse, they quickly become cold. The mothers gradually wean the crias between 7 and 9 months giving the mom a little break before the next cria is due. This sometimes means the cria will require a plasma transfusion. We do see crias "stall", or fail to gain weight, for various periods of time for no apparent reason. Within the first 24 hours of birth, the cria needs to receive a minimum of 10-15% of body weight in colostrum. If some alpaca colostrum is available from a previous donor it should be bottle fed to the cria within two hours of birthing and completed by 12 hours after birthing. Unless it is very weak or premature, you can feed it 8oz at a time, if not … The female alpaca usually gives birth during the daylight, and the baby is usually up, moving around and nursing on its own within an hour-and-a-half. Photo: cria alpaca nursing. Make sure to watch it for nursing since this is how it will acquire its initial antibodies to fight disease. If some alpaca colostrum is They do not usually need help delivering their babies, which are called cria. He/ she may decide to administer a milk letdown drug such as oxytocin. In Figure 4 the smaller cria has discovered that if he waits for a female to get settled with nursing, he can steal a drink from between her legs. plugged or not functional, the cria is not nursing properly, or the cria is unhealthy. If the dam is not producing colostrum, for what ever reason, or if the cria is not nursing successfully, intervention is necessary. A cold, weak cria is a dead cria unless someone intervenes. Sometimes, the cria is small and weak. Accordingly, the primary clinical presentation is a variable degree of respiratory distress in the neonate. Once the cria is up and taking steps, he'll nuzzle around Mom trying to nurse. The cria should be nursing within 2 hours of birth. 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