aggressive male

[snooky]

at a loss for how to handle one of our llamas…
since the day we got him, he has had an issue with me, and only me. i am a small, 5’1” female. he is a large male. on several different occasions, he has spit on me, chased me through our field, bit me, and kicked me.
tonight, i was with him in our barn, and just sat down- pretty far away from him. he literally stopped eating, ran over with his ears pinned back, and went to bite me in the face. he does this unprovoked and without warning. the rest of my family and friends have never had an issue with him. it seems to be me he truly despises, and i don’t know why. has anyone else had an issue like this? he scares me and i don’t enjoy being anywhere near him. as long as he can see me, he is aggressive towards me. i’ve never experienced anything like this with an animal before. (we adopted him as a gelded male at age 15, who was used in weddings and other events with farm animals.)

 

[Alaskan]

I have zero lama experience... but something similar happened between one of our horses and kid #2.

Buzz was great with everyone else.

But if THAT kid came anywhere near, buzz would spin around and kick him.

What we did solved the issue 100%.

We did NOTHING with the horse, zero.

I only worked with my son. We did that whole deep breathing thing... where you breathe deeply and rhythmically, and then go through your entire body from top to bottom focusing on one muscle group at a time... tense it fully, then relax it fully.

After all of that... stand up straight (all of that preliminary stuff is usually easier lying down) and imagine a string at the top center of your head pulling you up, even taller and straighter.

Practice all of that, then go out to the pasture... before entering ... run through it all again, but in short form, and without laying down. Really focus on relaxing your body... you want CALM AND RELAXED, and super focus on the string at the top of your head gently pulling you up and taller.

If you get it right... you will enter the pasture and it will all be good.

At least.... it worked for us.

 

[Ridgetop]

Personally, I would just sell or rehome him. I wouldn't keep an animal that was that aggressive towards me. Particularly llamas who also use their clawed feet to strike out at you. My husband's cousin raised exotics on his Kansas farm and had a male llama he had raised and trained from a cria. This llama was fine with him until one day he put him in the hospital with serious injuries. Took him 2 weeks in hospital and a month in rehab.

Since this was a llama you adopted, it is possible that someone who looked like you, same size, build, hair, voice, even wearing glasses if you do, at one time mistreated him and he is associating it with you.

Whatever the reason, he is dangerous towards you. Don't take a chance, just get rid of him.

 

[Bruce]

He does sound dangerous.

@Ridgetop's comment "it is possible that someone who looked like you," made me think of something I heard on NPR related to crows. Apparently they will remember a face and the crows were part of an experiment. They were aggressive toward the people who had done the experimenting but when they donned Dick Cheney masks (yes) the crows ignored them. MAYBE you could find something at a costume store, just as a test, that would make you look like ANYONE but yourself???

Yeah I know, it seems whacko. But if this 300 pound animal with teeth, sharp hooves and kicking speed that any champion boxer would be envious of doesn't change get rid of him in any way necessary.

I'm really sorry for your troubles. I have 2 gelded alpacas, given to us by people who moved to Florida. They aren't friendly at all but at least they aren't mean.

 

[Spokeless Wheel]

at a loss for how to handle one of our llamas…
since the day we got him, he has had an issue with me, and only me. i am a small, 5’1” female. he is a large male. on several different occasions, he has spit on me, chased me through our field, bit me, and kicked me.
tonight, i was with him in our barn, and just sat down- pretty far away from him. he literally stopped eating, ran over with his ears pinned back, and went to bite me in the face. he does this unprovoked and without warning. the rest of my family and friends have never had an issue with him. it seems to be me he truly despises, and i don’t know why. has anyone else had an issue like this? he scares me and i don’t enjoy being anywhere near him. as long as he can see me, he is aggressive towards me. i’ve never experienced anything like this with an animal before. (we adopted him as a gelded male at age 15, who was used in weddings and other events with farm animals

He needs to go. He's got teeth, sharp hooves and has made it very very clear he's out to get you! He's dangerous for you to be anywhere near for whatever reason he decided he dislikes you! Before he gets you when you least expect it get rid of him! Not all animals are friendly and good with all people. They can have quirks too!

 

[River Buffaloes]

Even though I don't have any experience with llamas, but your experience is not uncommon. Some buffaloes are known to display strong dislike for certain individuals or group of individuals. Two of my buffaloes are only friendly with five people my wife, my grandmother, my father, my farmhand and myself. No one else can approach them. One of my neighbors buffaloes hates him, but not his wife or children or anyone else for that matter and the buffalo was born and raised at his farm there are many more examples.

The long and short answer to your problem is that you cannot do much about it, if they hate you then they hate you.

 

[Ridgetop]

The long and short answer to your problem is that you cannot do much about it, if they hate you then they hate you.

Since he hates you, get him off your property pronto.

 

[Baymule]

I had a horse for several years that was a sweetheart on the ground. If I tried to ride him, he was a total nut case. One day I wore a sheepskin coat out to feed the horses. He calmly walked up to me, turned around and landed a back hoof right above my knee. I was stunned. (and it HURT)
I went back over that event in my mind and the only thing I could come up with was that coat. So a few days later I wore it again. Sure enough, he laid his ears back and came at me. It was the coat. We had bought 4 horses from a widow and they all were a little wacky. I figured her husband had mistreated the horses and must have worn a coat like that. Wound up selling that horse to a couple of cowboys with full disclosure. They scoffed at me, a female, like I was stupid. Haha, they soon wished they had never laid eyes on that horse!

Get rid of the llama. Take him to auction and sell him.

 

[Bruce]

He calmly walked up to me, turned around and landed a back hoof right above my knee. I was stunned. (and it HURT)

Really, getting kicked by a horse hurts?
Probably lucky he didn't break your leg!!

 

[Ridgetop]

Got kicked by our pony on the shin once. I think I accidently poked his heel with the manure fork while cleaning the stall. I was shocked and my shin was numb for about 30 seconds then !!!
I hobbled out of the stall but the pony didn't even look up from his hay feeder! LOL I don't think he realized it was me.