s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

On Sunday we brought the girls down for another round of matings. Breeding alpacas is all on a 7-day cycle. You mate on day 0, then on day +7 you put the male and female back together. If the female “spits off” the male, she has ovulated, otherwise she sits down and they mate again. At day +14 you put them together again, if the female spits she thinks she is pregnant, otherwise she sits and they mate. Any given mating has about a 50-50 chance of getting the female pregnant. You continue periodic “spit-off” tests throughout the pregnancy, as a certain fraction will spontaneously abort- at which point they become receptive again and will sit for the male.

So, this Sunday we had to do the +14 for Concetta, and the +7 for Joy. Joy spat off Heir-y. Concetta sat, so she did not get pregnant on the first go. The matings are done in a pen area just beside a larger enclosure where all the other females are waiting. Cindy, who lost her cria in a bad birth the weekend before, came over to the fence and sat down, very clearly receptive (asking “can I have some sex too?”).

So what happpens? Victoria comes over, mounts Cindy, and does her best to orgle! She is our big gay ‘paca! We only hope that she is in fact still pregnant, and that this behavior is not showing up because she has lost her cria at some point. I don’t know enough about how the hormones could be affecting her behavior to make a guess either way.

When Heir-y is done mating he hopes up and walks away, looking for another female. When Vicotria is done she settles down for a snuggle. I will let the readers draw their own conclusions.