llamas

LLAMAS

Lama glama are native to South America where they were used for packing, meat and fiber. In America they are used as pack animals, pets, guard animals, show animals and for fiber production. They learn very quickly and in our experience are one of the easiest animals to break to lead. The amount of wool grown differs among individual animals with some llamas having wool on their faces, down their legs and heavy wool on their bodies, while others have very little to no wool on their legs or faces and light wool on their bodies. Colors range from solid to appaloosa to large areas and markings of different colors. They have become increasingly popular as guardians for sheep or other small animals. It has been our observation that they are successful at this due to their curiosity. Rather than running from a dog, coyote or other potential predator they will approach it, thereby frightening it. One gentleman who purchased one of our llamas to be used as a guardian for sheep told us that he awoke early one morning to the sound of dogs barking. When he looked out the window he saw several dogs standing next to the sheep pen and the llama was right up against the fence and wasn't backing down. He believes that if the llama hadn't been there these dogs probably would have gotten in with the sheep. Male llamas that are used as guardian animals need to be gelded or they will eventually attempt to breed these female animals. Llamas are extremely curious and when we go out to work in the pasture soon have an "audience" watching us. Llamas have been trained to pull carts and give rides to small children. After a gestation of about 350 days a female gives birth to a single cria (rarely twins). In our years of raising llamas we have had one set of twins which was a female cria followed by a male cria 5 days later. The International Llama Association maintains a registry for llamas.

The females