submissive alpaca?

ca

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We bread one of our alpacas 7 days ago. Today we tested her. She went down right away but then she screamed! Not snorting or anything like that. She screamed a really shrill scream. I took her out because to the novice ear this sounded rather painful (I could be totally wrong but it was just hard to listen to). I thought maybe she is already pregnant but cushed because she is just very submissive. Is this screaming normal? What does it mean? Should I worry or not interfer? Maybe it's time for an ultrasound?
 

ksalvagno

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An alpaca cycle is 14 days. So if they go down at 7 days, either the first breeding wasn't really at the right time of their cycle or they are submissive. If she readily went down 7 days ago and didn't scream, then I would say she is being submissive. I would behavior test her again in 7 days so you are hitting the 14 day mark and see what she does then. Ultrasounds are done after they are 30 days pregnant. You can see fluid earlier like around the 21 day mark but you need a really good alpaca vet to tell pregnancy prior to 30 days.

There are some females that may scream when they breed but I have found that they do it EVERY time and they are few and far between. Usually when a female is at the right part of her cycle, she very readily goes down and there is no screaming involved. If this is a maiden, she may not know/understand that she doesn't have to go down every time the male approaches so she is more submissive.
 

ca

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ksalvagno said:
An alpaca cycle is 14 days. So if they go down at 7 days, either the first breeding wasn't really at the right time of their cycle or they are submissive. If she readily went down 7 days ago and didn't scream, then I would say she is being submissive. I would behavior test her again in 7 days so you are hitting the 14 day mark and see what she does then. Ultrasounds are done after they are 30 days pregnant. You can see fluid earlier like around the 21 day mark but you need a really good alpaca vet to tell pregnancy prior to 30 days.

There are some females that may scream when they breed but I have found that they do it EVERY time and they are few and far between. Usually when a female is at the right part of her cycle, she very readily goes down and there is no screaming involved. If this is a maiden, she may not know/understand that she doesn't have to go down every time the male approaches so she is more submissive.
Thanks, Karen. She is not a maiden and she did not scream last time at all. So screaming is really not something you want, right? I'll try again in 7 days and see what she does then. She is the easiest to handle and never snorts or spitts, that's another reason why I think she is a pretty mellow/submissive girl.
 

ksalvagno

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Screaming is something I would not want. It has been my experience that if a female is willing and able, there is no screaming involved. Sounds like she is a more submissive female.
 
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