Made By Alpaca People For Alpaca People
How many of you have guard llamas?
Do you think they are good at keeping predators away? We have three that we got this summer. One male with our younger male alpacas, and one male with our older/breeding males. They are not two yet. One has alerted us to a pheasant thus far :-0 lol. The other is doing a great job of keeping peace with the older males. I think they are a bit young to really be able to 'guard', but I'm not sure. We just bought an experience working female llama for our moms and babies-she is big and very intimidating. I know llamas aren't guard dogs, but I do feel better knowing they are out there, keeping an eye on things. I do see that they are very alert and watchful, much moreso than the alpacas. So far, though, I see our alpacas sounding alarms more than the llamas! I do really like the llamas though-they have a lot of personality.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Chris Arnold ~Good Shepherd Farm on -
We have one female guard llama in with our female alpacas. When we started we had two but the female we had was too much to handle. She was a great guard, but a bear when it came time to handle her.
This is Chick
The other one is now at her new home.
To see good guarding characteristics, check out this movie
http://www.wchstv.com/traveling/2006/twv060928.shtml
For more information and free videos about guard llamas and predator control check out
http://www.gsfalpacas.com/pob-predator-control.html
be sure to watch the video Coyote - Ultimate Survivor?: Controlling the Population
Chris
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Permalink Reply by Heidi Ellefson - Pheasant Ridge Alpacas on -
Chris,
The videos were great! Thanks! Your llama is very pretty :-)
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Permalink Reply by Marsha and Wayne Oliver on -
When we first started out we had a guard llama, who was guaranteed to have had experience with cria.
Well, when our very first cria was born, she hounded him roughly and relentlessly so we seperated them.
After a number of days they seemed to have reached a settlement, so we put them back together. After all we wanted the llama to protect young from predators - guess she was more interested in protecting the Dam from her cria. She stomped and broke is leg @ 10 days of age. We went to Cornell to have the leg set in a series of casts (as he grew) and it was never right. It was recently amputated ( @ 5 yrs. of age).
Needless to say, the llama was sent back to it's previous owner! We couldn't take any chances with other cria. I'm sure there are really sweet llamas, but we are turned off for good. Our house dogs patrol and mark the outskirts of the farm and we have good fencing (on ground as well as vertical). So far so good..
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Permalink Reply by Heidi Ellefson - Pheasant Ridge Alpacas on
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Wow, that's awful. I had heard of a female who wanted the crias for herself and would not let the moms near them, so I didn't want a female, but that one had had crias of her own. Ours was never bred-tipped ears-so we decided to give her a try. She has experience with babies. I would have gotten a couple of guard dogs, but we're just not ready quite yet. How is your alpaca getting along without his leg?
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Permalink Reply by Marsha and Wayne Oliver on
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For Phantom, having 3 legs is perfectly normal. He probably doesn't remember having four legs ever, since he was only 10 days old. He is fast running and very strong on lead too!
I hoped he'd be able to breed once the leg was gone, since it jutted out at an angle and he couldn't cush comfortably. But after 5 yrs. of waiting, he's so excited that he just jumps around and doesn't cush on the female. His toenail on his remaining back foot scratched her up a lot too. so we've given up for the time being.:-0
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Permalink Reply by Sheila Temple on -
We have a gelded male guard llama that lives with our boys. His main job is to break up any fights that may occur. He makes it very clear to any dog that sniffs at the fence that it is NOT allowed in with HIS alpacas. He is a rather small llama so he is easy to handle for herd health. He is also a bit of a clown and insists on kisses from all female farm visitors. He loves to chase chickens and watch them fly up, but he never hurts his chickens.
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Permalink Reply by Heidi Ellefson - Pheasant Ridge Alpacas on
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Sheila,
He sounds great! Sounds like he is doing his job perfectly. Our three are all from our vet, who raises llamas for show/etc. All have been used for 4H and some for show so they are all very easy to handle as well. The new female gives kisses, but the boys, no way. We have one breeding alpaca male who used to start fights, to the point we kept him separated for a time. The vet told us about llamas keeping the peace, and she was right. We don't have 'fights' anymore and all are so much happier. The llama doesn't even do much when something looks like it's starting. He just walks up non-chalantly, he's very laid back, and puts his ears back at the instigator, and voila! It's over! It's great to know when I'm not around, I can count on him to keep everyone in check! I've also found the llamas to have great personalities-they are just fun to have around :-)
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Permalink Reply by Lori on -
We tried a llama, the neighbor's bottle-fed, hand-raised pet llama who has such a great outgoing personality. But by the 3rd day, he began attacking us. I don't know if he was homesick or what, but it was too much for us. On that last day, I had separated him from the girls because he ate all the grain and wouldn't give them a chance to get any, so maybe he was upset about being in the next-over pasture. Regardless, it wasn't working for us, so we sent him home and got the world's greatest puppies, who already do a fine job of alerting us to anything in, near or flying above "their" pastures!
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Permalink Reply by Donna Jaruzel on -
We purchased a six month old male llama back in March. I put him in with the girls since he was to small to go in with our boys. But, a couple months ago I had to put him in with my boys as he was starting to get fresh with my open females. But he was a pal to my first cria born this spring. Then my second one came along in July and it was a male. Captain (the llama) would take his front legs and lay them across this cria's neck and not let him up. I dont know if he was doing this because this cria was a male or what as he never did it with the other cria that is a female. Sooooooooooo I had to move him in with my boys. By that time he was as tall as the boys but didn't have their substance. That was about six weeks ago. My males can be rough at times, but they have never taken it that far with Captain. In fact I've caught him chasing a couple of the boys. Now at about 11 months he is taller then the alpacas, but still doesn't have their substance. It's really weird how much the alpacas respect this male. It's like they know he is going to be much bigger they they are in a few more months. Whether he ever becomes a guard llama is yet to be seen, but he is fairly friendly to us, about the same as the alpacas are. Of course we got him so young that he no doubt sees himself as an alpaca rather then a llama. I recently took a photo of him and I'll get it posted to my pictures. He is a wooly llama. We named him Captain because a guard animal has to have an important name! :o)
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Permalink Reply by Joyce Simpson on -
We have 2 llamas, one we bought for a companion animal to put with our female until the rest of the herd arrived and one that we rescued who was very poorly cared for over the past 2 years. Both are now working with our males as we have both Proven, Senion Herdsires and Unproven, Junior Herdsires in the same pasture. We have found that as long as mating is not being done, everyone gets along pretty well. Our original male, Tidbit, will step in to stop a fight or the beginning of one just with his presence. The other is still adjusting to a herd of camelids as he was kept with mini-donkeys before. (When we start mating again, it is best to let the males stay away from the others for at least a half hour or more to let the testosterone and/or odors he's eminentating to slow down some. Put back with the other males right after mating is a sure fire way to start a show down fight.)
We had one experience early on with Tidbit, when our young Caucasian Mountain Dog puppy, who was about the size of a coyote slipped under the fence and he tried to stomp her to death. I was pleased with his composure, but much more weary about where my little dog went after that. As I have talked to many Llama owners, not all make great quality guard llamas. The sellers should be upfront with you when you buy them, especially if they are 2 or 3 years old. They should be gelded and they should let you approach them and have hands on. Most of us who have good, working llamas, have llamas that are very personable and are easy to catch and work. Visit more than one Llama farm if possible to find the right llama for you.
Joyce Simpson
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