Questions about adding female llamas to the "herd"

[TGreenhut]

Right now I have three female goats and two intact male llamas. The llamas are not aggressive at all (except to dogs and predators). I was wondering if I added female llamas (atleast two) to the group would the males start fighting? Also if I added females and started birthing and raising llamas, would the llamas still protect the goats?
Thanks

 

[ksalvagno]

I would not have intact males in with the goats. They may breed them and could hurt them. If you would decide to get females, then the males and females would have to be kept separately and the males probably would fight if they can smell an open female.

Females will not protect the goats if they have young. You also want to be sure they are actual guard llamas if that is what you are looking for. Not all llamas are guard llamas. Also if the males can smell the females, they will probably get stupid about guarding. The best guard llama is gelded males or non breeding females. Then they can concentrate on their job.

 

[TGreenhut]

Would you maybe suggest separating the males? I could geld one and keep him with the goats and move the intact male in with females in the other pasture??? (I don't have females yet but could that work)

 

[ksalvagno]

Most people don't keep males and females together. They are always kept separate. Many males keep breeding the females even after they are bred and that could cause abortion. Not to mention that camelids are one of the roughest breeders and can really damage a female. You could certainly try it and see if you have a nice male that doesn't breed when he can't smell an open female. However, if you leave a male in with females, he may kill the crias and he will rebreed the females back too soon after giving birth. A female really shouldn't be bred any sooner than 3 weeks after giving birth.

One of the biggest challenges for most camelid breeders is where to keep the intact males. Especially if you don't have a lot of different pastures.

One other thing to mention is that if these males have been together for a long time, they may get very upset to be separated and could even jump fences to be together. Most llamas don't do well on their own unless you get a true guard llama who is just happy to be guarding their charges.

 

[Chirpy]

I'm in agreement that you should not keep an intact male with females. A group of intact males together with NO females around is just fine - they will probably all get along fine. Having geldings with them is fine also. However... if you have two (or more) intact males and a female comes into sight... those two WILL fight each other.... and they can kill. It doesn't matter if they've been lifelong friends -- they will turn on each other.

I've also seen a male llama jump a 5 foot tall fence... from a standstill -- just to get to the female on the other side!

Never have an intact male llama in with females when they give birth... the male may kill the cria and, as mentioned, he will rebreed the female before she should be bred.

Also, as stated, just because it's a llama or someone says so --- it may not be a guard llama. Most llamas do not make good guard llamas. People who breed for guard llamas put them through testing to see if they really will truly guard their 'flock'. With my 13 llamas only two were truly guard llamas (and they were good) - the rest might give an alert but probably would do nothing but look if they saw a predator or something out of the ordinary. Geldings are great to use as guard llamas if they have that nature.

If you are thinking of raising llamas... what for? If you want to breed for fleece - you wouldn't want to use those as pack animals (that would ruin their wool). If you want to breed for packing - you would breed for light fleece so you wouldn't likely be able to sell the wool. If you are breeding for guard animals... it takes of lot of crias to find the few that will actually guard -- and you have to wait a couple of years before you will probably even know if it would make a good guard llama.

Finally, if you haven't already, you should get rid of the fighting teeth on both your boys. They don't need them and they can do serious damage or even kill with them.

 

[TGreenhut]

Okay thanks for the responses! I threw this idea out there just to consider because I love llamas and thought it would be fun to breed and raise a herd for fleece and for guards. You guys have given me I better perspective of how difficult it could be. I'm now thinking it isn't for me because I only have two large pastures and they are right next to eachother...
On the other hand I think atleast one of my llamas is a good guard because when my dog came to close for liking the llama ran up and kicked my dog. (My dog was fine but learned to stay away from the llamas)

 

[ksalvagno]

There are so many llamas in need of a good home, you could probably find some really nice llamas and not have to breed to add to your herd. A small herd of llamas is wonderful to look out at in a pasture. Geld those 2 boys and if you want to add a couple females after that, then it shouldn't be a problem. You need to wait at least 6 months after gelding to add females. We don't want to totally turn you off from having llamas as they are wonderful but we just wanted you to think about the breeding aspect and keeping intact males.

As I have mentioned before, CameliDynamics is a wonderful handling method and will make your llama experience even better.

Enjoy your llamas and their fiber!