Male Mounting Dominance?

[AdoptAPitBull]

Right now I'm watching an intact male mount and hump another intact male. The humpee is a very old Suri who cannot defend himself worth a darn. The humper is generally very flighty and doesn't get much to eat when I bring out the feed because he doesn't want to get spit at. Since neither is the "top alpaca" so to speak, is this type of behavior normal? The poor Suri is so old and thin that I'm afraid he's going to get hurt. I did separate them, but the humper just went right back at it. The Suri doesn't fight it or try to get up; he just lets it happen.

Is this something that happens often? If so, is there anything I should do to discourage it?

 

[purplequeenvt]

It happens quite frequently. It can be a dominance thing, but sometimes it's.....I don't. I have 6 llamas and 2 of them, a gelded son and his mother, "breed" all the time. Usually only when we have company of course.

My advice is to keep an eye on things. If you are concerned about the safety of the suri, then separate them. You might want to set up a separate pen to feed the suri and maybe even this other guy in.

Good luck!

 

[ksalvagno]

It is probably dominance. I would keep an eye on it though if the old suri can't handle it. Like above suggestion, I would separate at feeding time so everyone gets to eat.

 

[AdoptAPitBull]

I feed Gremlin separately so that he gets some. Everyone else eats together, he's just the odd man out.

 

[Citylife]

Sixteen years ago I had 19 llama's and was a bit taken a back when my two boys were out in the front pasture "practicing". I had heard of this but had not seen it first hand. I never heard it was a dominance thing at the time but it easily could be. The part that confuses me now is that they would trade places. I was once at a large llama operation when I first got into llama's and there were 7 boys all lined up doing there thing. Yes, 7 in a row. The breeder smiled at me and said, "they are practicing" its a llama thing.
So, when it happened at my house I wasnt really shocked but I was. I also found out that day, that they will penatrate each other. I guess when the females are pregnant almost all year........ they need to do something. It never hurt anyone so we did nothing.
I think the main thing is you dont want them to hurt each other. They are animals. It was never anything I really worried about as long as noone got hurt.