For years now, I have gotten the e-mails and phone calls from people that have bred llamas because they bought them cheap, thought they would make big money or thought it would be fun for their kids to watch the birthing process. I have also heard the people say it is their right to breed whatever and however they want. While this is true, people's situations change and their lives change. What if something happens to your spouse (health, accidents, job loss) or you decide you just don't want to do it anymore? What if you have a bunch of llamas you can no longer keep? Before creating a bunch of llamas you need to think about these things. Responsible people like myself and other llama lovers get tired of having to fix and clean up other people's mistakes. People like myself, take cria'ting more llamas seriously and factor in more than just the wool or a cute face. Each pairing should at the very least be selected based on conformation, personality, functionality, bloodlines and more! Many people that can't sell their llamas give them away re-bred or say they would make great breeders. If nobody wants them, why would someone want their offspring? Breeding is not wrong, but please just be responsible when you think you may want to breed some llamas as they live 15-25 years if bred right.
Please before you decide to be the big llama breeder, take time to learn more and educate yourself. The requests and stories listed below are all REAL and have been sent over and over to folks like myself! For more information about Rescue Llamas please contact myself or Llama Rescue Net
This unlucky guy and his friend were dumped at the auction and
had his halter left on for six months like this. The halter was so
tight he couldn't hardly open his mouth to eat. In the top right shot
you will notice the pus coming out from under his halter. A friend
and I got to help the folks that got these two boys, try to get them
cleaned up and healed. This is NOT fun!
We are in the process of selling our ranch, and need to find GOOD
homes for our remaining llamas as soon as possible. There are three
available: 2 females, and 1 gelding. Also, please feel free to pass
on this info if you know anyone interested in adopting a llama. We
prefer that these llamas go to experienced and responsible owners,
rather than to people who have never owned llamas.
Hi, I am looking to sell my llamas, and do not know how to approach
this. I need to do this as soon as possible, for I cannot care for
them. If you could give me any information, or lead me in any
direction, it would be very appreciated. So far I have just put a few
ads in the paper and online, but have not heard of anything so far.
Since several people have mentioned llamas and alpacas, I wanted to
mention the name of a friend who has 90+ !! llamas to sell/give away.
Due to some personal reversals, they needs to find homes for these
animals, but so far have only received offers from people who want
them for meat. They have raised and bred these animals for their
"wool" and would like them to be used for that. They also have wool,
roving and yarn. If anyone is interested.
Sorry to bother you . I just got a phone call from a friend who was
called by X Veterinary Hospital--An individual wants to find a home
for 7 llamas or they will send them to slaughter--free to a good
home. If anyone knows of a good place give them a call please.
Hello, I'm writing to you in desperate need of assistance. We own
nine llamas now and can no longer maintain a healthy environment for
them to live. We reside on a X acres lot of which the llamas share
about half. We have never been able to establish a descent pasture
since the beginning which began I guess about five years ago. We are
real animal lovers and always thought llamas where such beautiful
animals and wouldn't it be fun to own a few. ( bet you've heard this
before!) Well low and behold my spouse gets to talking to some llama
owners and finds they have some for sale. He/She finds a male that
happen to be born on (his/her) birthday and decides to buy it for
like $300. Well the people tell He/She that they can hold on to it
for as long as it takes us to put up fences and do some land
clearing. (a whole other story in itself) In the mean time my spouse
takes the occasion to visit with His/Her llama and talk to these
people some more and who convinced my spouse that He/She would really
need at least one more but they could make my spouse a good deal on
and a mother and son. Sooo.. you know how cute they are, He/She makes
the deal, now we have three. But these people also try to sell us an
old barren female whose about 11 years old. We say no and let it go
at that. It seems only a few months down the road and we are being
pestered to take these animals right away as these people are having
some personal problems of their own and need to get rid of them. So
one Saturday they show up with our three llamas plus the old one we
never wanted. We asked what the deal was and they told us it was good
to have four because of them being social creatures and such. He told
us to just keep her for awhile and if we decided to keep her we might
pay him something for her. Anyway, I really don't mean to bore you so
with drawn out details but that was the beginning of what turns out
to be a nightmare. I'm now living with a muddy swap pasture and nine
llamas. We now have 4 adult llamas, one male and three female, 5
young ones, the oldest one a male, who seems to have quite a bit of
alpaca in him as he is very small and woolly. He is I guess about 2.5
years. Of the other four three females (1-2years) and another male (8
months). Our males are now all gelded but it's a bit late now. We
have done our best to provide shelter,food,water and medical care
they need but it has become an overwhelming burden on our financial
means as well as the animals need for good pasture land. We have
tried on occasion selling them with no success and have been lately
considering offering to pay someone to take them. This I'm sure is
not the thing to do as I understand what this does to all llama
breeders. Please understand, we have done our best to keep these
llamas healthy and will continue to do so. They have plenty of water
and a very nice shelter (which they use as a toilet,that I'll never
understand) and I feed them about 3/4 of a bale of eastern or local
grass hay a day and supplement it with a mixture of pellets and cob.
With nine llamas this comes to about $100 a week and I still don't
feel their eating enough. There is so much more to my story but I
think it better discussed over the phone or in person. Please advise
me of some solution to my dilemma. I will be forever grateful! Thanks
for your time!
I just returned from a farm who has a X year old intact male they
must find an appropriate home for in the next 10 days. He is dark
black with heavy wool. The owners are leaving the state and must be
out by the 24th. He is free to a home who can handle a male with an
attitude and who is difficult to halter. Once haltered, he's easy to
handle. The owners would rather have him put down than take a chance
on having him go to a home where he'll be mistreated because of his
poor manners.
Hello, I was referred to you by a friend in the llama owner's group
association. I have a few llamas which I would like to find a home
for. They told me that you could help me with this situation. There
are four of them, and two are adults male/female, one 1-year old
female, and one 3 month old baby male. Please tell me any information
you can, and any information you would need from me.
Please help me with my llama X. He is agressive and if somebody
doesn't take him by the end of the month I am going to have my vet
put him down. I really don't want to put X down, but I have no
choice. I just can't keep X any longer. Will you please help?
Hi, My daughter/son just got our first llama a few months back. We
have done the 4-H thing with all kinds of market animals and horses.
The point is we have no idea really what to do. Our goal is to get
the llama so that it can show at our fair which is the X Fair in
September. X is a 6 year old that was donated to the 4-H program
here. Evidently the llama came from a breeder in X I believe who was
liquidating their herd. The llama has had one offspring in 1999. It
is really not very friendly. It is halter broke. Not very easy to
catch and definitely does not want it's feet or legs handled. How do
we trim it for show? I guess any pointers and hints that you can give
us would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for contacting me. I have 3 llamas, 2 males 1 female. I do not
know the exact age of the older male, but the female is about 1 year
old, and the younger male is only around 3-4 months or so. He's still
rather small. Anyway, I fear that they are not getting the attention
they need and deserve, for my whole family works during the day.
Please let me know what you can.
Tonight I went over to evaluate four rescues for a man. The situation
(if ever there was) for rescuing is quite good. The man doesn't have
to move for up to three months and he is willing to pay for the care
and vet stuff to get them placeable. He had four llamas total to
place. The good news is that three are VERY placeable and easy to
deal with. The fourth is a problem child!
Well, I have to say I saw one of the most pathetic cases of llama
selling ever yesterday. I have been trying to get down to X to
evaluate these animals. Had I known it was as bad as it is, I would
have gone MUCH sooner.... The owner barely speaks English and is
concerned about how much they have put into these animals ($800.00,
male, female and her female cria). It was kind of hard to understand
this person and what their comments were, but I finally figured out a
few things....The male is a X son they bought from a bigger
breeder....The female is (was) his 13 year old mother. I say was as
she died sometime in the last six months, I assume from parasites as
they didn't know they need shots. The way I know she died in the last
six months is because their 6 month old son (should I say his brother
or son?) is out in the pasture. He is running with his two year old
sister who along with her older brother has had a halter on for the
whole time they have been there. Their toenails haven't been done
since they got them in 1999. The halter I fear has grown into her
face (I am not good with this kind of things). The male is in a small
12x12 area I would guess with broken glass everywhere.
A while back, I was called in on a local situation where the Humane
Society was notified that someone who had llamas was having a lot of
them die. I quit posting what was going on, as for a while I was
hopeful that I could help by educating the person & eventually
get him on a list or two. As it turned out, this was not to be the
case. The day of the WTC bombing, the owner told me they wanted me to
try to find homes for them, so my hopes were high. By the end of the
week, he/she had changed their mind. I continued to email suggestions
for basic care, and intended to get back to them in 3 weeks. They
called me after another female died... just 2 weeks later.
Okay, just wanted to let everyone have an update. This was a situation where the owner bought at auction, had been to my place several yrs. ago for 'Llama 101' when they bought their first llama...and did not follow the advice given. Instead, llamas were in w/ many species of other animals...all were drinking from the same pond, no vaccinations were given, food was 'chop'...a mix of whole oats & corn...plus grass hay (first come, first served...so some animals starved), wormer was something given on feed for goats, no mworm wormer given. A total lack of basic care...clean water, the right food in the right amount, herd management, and vaccinations.
I picked up a male & a female & they both spent the night at my place. I delivered the female to her new home the next day & still have the male at my place in foster care...he officially belongs to LRN. Both llamas had papers...they were bought at a local livestock auction. The female's name is X...she went thru the Hartman sale in NE last spring, as did the other young male & female that died. She has a body score of 2...the female that died had a score of 1. She is so small, we couldn't believe the age on her papers. For awhile, we suspected she was a miniature, but when we checked the spring Hartman's flier, the herd sold was of standard size. X is probably pregnant (she's now 20 mos.), and is scheduled for a progesterone test. So, I read with interest the info. shared here re. abortion vs. letting the pregnancy go to term for a female that is at risk of surviving...and I passed the info. on to the new owners, as they have to make the decision. Her ears are extremely crusty...right now we think it's ear mites (& she's being treated for this), but it could also be a sign of poor nutrition.
is a 4 yr. old male...purchased at the same auction 2 yrs. ago as a gelding. I had to tell the owner that he was not a gelding....and I never convinced them that he was breeding the females even tho they had never seen this behavior. He/She had seen X bully into submission the younger male that died...the younger male would kush every time X would come around. (I believe this llama died because the owner did not realize that he was being raped & did not separate them...he had maggots seen under his tail & was not treated for infection before he died, eventually w/ pneumonia.)
Back to X...he has been trained at some point to lead & loads in a trailer. He does not stand tied w/o supervision & is afraid to be touched. He is not trained to allow toenail trimming, but fortunately, his nails were not long, as he is constantly moving. I cannot prove my theory, but I believe he was way overweight when bought at auction 2 yrs. ago, as he has wrinkles between the front legs & on the sides of his neck and there are noticeable folds of skin (kind of feels like a bunched up heavy coat). He is a good weight now, but thinner than most people in our area can keep our llamas at this time of year. His fiber is dry...topline is scaly...not just dandruff.
This is the first llama I've had to take in under LRN....and has as such been quite the learning experience. I was required to have him castrated, which I would have done anyway, as he's not one you'd want to breed.
Today, X is getting a
couple of hours of 'pasture time' for the first time since arriving 3
weeks ago. He is in a pasture adjoining the one w/ the other
llamas...and is very motivated to be with them. Due to his history of
aggressiveness toward other llamas, I plan to integrate him into my
herd of 5 geldings a bit differently than normal. Instead of putting
him with a couple of the less interested llamas, I'm going to start
him out with the herd leader & 'the baby'...who was quite
aggressive and the physically compromised llama we took in last fall.
(Not sure which order, but they will give him a run for his
money...he will not be allowed in the same pasture as XX.
Say... a friend of a friend who works at X just phoned me about a
free llama - a "trained" (I haven't seen the llama) 7 yr old female -
here is the person and number to contact if you have any takers:
Evidently the llama is headed for the slaughter house.......So who
knows - maybe someone will want a pet with nice wool. Hope so.
I just acquired a stud Llama named X who is big and powerful. He has
years of growth and it is too late to groom him for this year. It
took awhile to handle him because he is so strong. He fights with the
males and harrasses the female llamas. He is a character that has
been dubbed, due to the timing of his acquisition and his oppressive
attitude towards females, X.
I have one female that balks. I sometimes have walked her with a rope attached to a 20 hp Craftman tractor to keep her going while I calmly talk to her and try to lead gently. If she balks it will tighten the rope and pull her along. If she tries to sit it will bring her right out of it and we walk around the pasture until we have no episodes. But a week later we are back to using the tractor. Any ideas for training them to lead at our walking speed? or do we just keep doing it often enough that they know what is expected and that we will not concede to their resistance?
Before I got him I
had another stud who was like the devil himself when with the other
llamas. He was mounting everything that moved all the time including
the geldings, and reeking havoc. So I have not put X in with the
rest. He is well behaved with me. I have been told that if the
females are bred the males should be fine with them and they can
pasture together. What are your thoughts?
Say... a friend of a friend who works at Sardis just phoned me about
a free llama - a "trained" (I haven't seen the llama) 7 yr old female
- here is the person and number to contact if you have any takers:
Evidently the llama is headed for the slaughter house.......So who
knows - maybe someone will want a pet with nice wool. Hope so.
Hi Niki, X brought me an ad from our local paper where some one is
giving away twelve llamas ranging from six months to nine years. I
thought this sounded like something a rescue facility might want to
know about.
An older man locally here needs to place his 4 llamas. He has had
cancer and wants to start making arrangements to find new homes for
these llamas. I haven't seen the llamas in two years, but here is
what I remember.....
Just received a phone call from X, the message......we are giving
away all our llamas. They will be moving to X and need to find good
homes for their critters. A few of their llamas I helped care
for....they seem very sweet tempered. We had one at our farm for
about six months....very sweet. I do not care for their living area,
but do not believe they are in poor health. If you know of any kids
that need 4H llamas....this might be the place to look.
I spoke to you yesterday about a llama and our desire is to place
him. My husband and I purchased him as a weanling in early 1996 from
X farm along with a second weanling from another farm. We trained
them for packing at an early age and have used them many times in the
Wilderness, though not in the past couple years. The longest trip
they have been on was in 1999 when we went out for 4 weeks and 120
miles. Both llamas worked fine with the exception of our boy's speed,
which is the main reason we have decided to place him. Our Boy's walk
is better suited for a wedding party than meeting our pace on the
trail! He will move out for brief periods, but really prefers not to.
Our second llama, X, who has always accompanied him, keeps up a pace
fine. We're not talking about stressing them either: Our boy just
doesn't seem to like moving quickly.
Dear Niki, X gave me your number. I have some health issues and
location problems that have lead me to decide to liquidate my small
herd. I have 2 males, 2 females (1 with a new X male cria). I also
have some tack and odd & ends. If you come across anyone looking
for a good deal, have them give me a call at.......
Hello Niki, Seems the only time I communicate is when llamas need new
homes. The X's are divorcing. X called and asked me to spread the
word about finding new homes for their six llamas. Two geldings, and
one with a retained testicle, but a sweety; three females. I told
them that I would send you an e-mail in hopes there are some good
people on your side that need some llamas.
We have a Llama in need of rescue. We would appreciate your help in
finding an appropriate home for this animal. We don't have any good
solid history on this animal. It was auctioned at a place called X in
X, which is about16 miles north of X. Our son was there two weeks ago
to sell some of the chickens and ducks he has raised -- and on a whim
with a few dollars in his pocket decided to bid on the Llama, never
expecting to be the high bidder at $22.50! This has proven to be a
tough learning experience for our son. We are not pleased with the
problem he has created for himself and us, but our primary concern
now is the welfare of the animal. Here's a bit more information about
the condition of the Llama for which we are urgently seeking a home:
The one person who came to look at it when we had it advertised last
weekend told us that he guessed it was in the range of 2-5 years old.
Although our son was told at the auction that the Llama was a
gelding, this prospective buyer told us that it has *not* been
neutered. Also, there is a wound of some sort on the hind right leg.
We don't know if it us just a tear in the skin that is healing, or
perhaps a tumor, as there seems to be a bit of growth on it. The
Llama seems well-mannered. He has never spit at us! He will follow
with a halter, but is extremely resistant to going up a ramp into the
pickup truck with which our son has transported it twice. We've since
found a friend who has a horse trailer that we intend to use for any
future transport! The animal is currently at the auction house in
Woodland. Our son took it back there yesterday, hoping to sell it
off. He could not stay for the auction, due to other appointments --
and the Llama did not sell. Thus, the Auction House has asked us to
come and pick it up at our earliest convenience. We are in the
process of trying to locate a Veterinarian in the our area. Once
we've done that, we will go get the Llama and take it to the Vet.
Then, unless we find a better avenue, the only option we have is to
bring the poor animal back to our home in a residential neighborhood
of X. We do have a small pen for chickens, ducks and a pygmy goat.
We're also in the process of building a 10'x12' barn, and that is
where we've been keeping the Llama. I hate to think of leaving him
there much longer...So, anything you can do, to help us find an
appropriate home for this dear animal would be MOST APPRECIATED!
NOTE: This guy ended up having to be put down.
Niki, I was talking with X and she informed me that you might be
looking for a good 4H llama. I have an outstanding show quality
gelding with a great disposition that I need to give away. He's out
of our champion stud "X" and he's approximately 3 years old. I've
just recently sold the farm and need to find him a good home
otherwise he's going to have to go to the Montana sanctuary. Please
let me know if your interested as I'm planning on leaving for Montana
on July 12th. Thanks.
I received a phone call from a member who is going through a divorce
and thus a move. She has 11 llamas. She wants to keep 5 of them but
needs to foster them for a year until she can move to X. The other 7
she needs to find good homes for. There are 4: a gelded male, a
female and her baby that she would like to see be kept together. The
other 4 are females. The ones she needs foster care for are 5 gelded
males and 1 female. She is currently living in downtown X, but the
farm will be liquidated by the end of July and it is located in X and
she has friends who could transport if necessary.
Hello, We live on X and we have 4 wonderful llamas, all with papers
and trained in the Tellington Touch method available! (X, 9 year old
appaloosa female, her 2 daughters, X, 5 years old and X, 3 years
old-both coffee colored with incredible wool; and X, 10 years old,
gelded male, guard llama, great personality, and trained to pack- and
has incredible to crimp to his fiber (has wool evaluation papers,
too).) The property we moved to in May, will only support 2 animals
(and we have 2 dogs). This has been a very sad time for us…We
desperately need to find new homes for our llamas-we have just
learned that we need to have our llamas off the pasture we are
renting as soon as possible because new tenants are moving in-we have
about 2 weeks.
Received a phone call from X this afternoon, who has a family getting
involved in 4H. The father has been planning [ not very well as
you will soon see] this or quite a while now. He purchased
Storey's Guide to Raising llamas more than a month ago and then
decided it was time to get some llamas.
This is where it gets ugly. Somewhere along the line he stumbled on
some folks who had llamas and were giving away two of them in order
to make room for more when their females gave birth. A bred female 6
years old [they think] due in June, along with a 4 year old
[ they think] intact male. They had gotten the llamas from
someone else. This is where it gets more bizarre and scary.
They went out to visit the llamas, and watched the kids 8 of them,
play chase with the llamas' and thought it was little strange, but
once cornered, the llamas stopped running and the kids would take
turns trying to "ride" the llamas until they got bucked off. Don't
ask me why, but this man decided to take the male and the female. He
took a trailer out to get them, the kids rounded up the llamas
[cornering them], tied lasso's around the male and female and
dragged them kicking and screaming into the guy's trailer. By this
time the man was somewhat beside himself as he realized the mistake
he had made. Even his son commented on how this 'can't be right
dad'.
Well they got the llamas to where they are being temporarily housed,
turned them loose, and promptly started calling X for information and
assistance. They went out to the NW Show a couple of weeks ago,
purchased some halters from X and tried haltering the llamas, who
naturally were somewhat violently opposed to it. The male was
screaming, spitting, baring his teeth and charging the man. He was
knocked down once during the process after being chest butted.
X went out there Saturday and they were able to halter the female and
after much greening was able to get the male haltered as well. X
indicated that there was a substantial amount of tail wagging and
ears flat back by the male while on halter, but X didn't think it was
a prelude to an attack. It has been relayed to me that the male
literally leans sideways almost continually on the female never
letting her more than just a couple of feet from him, and interjects
his body between her and anyone who approaches.
They led both animals [such as leading was worth] around for
a little bit, then the man released the male from the halter. The man
turned to walk away and was charged and attacked, chest butting,
screaming, fighting teeth exposed. It took X distracting the male to
get him to stop long enough for the man to get out of the pasture.
Twice when I was talking to X, X commented on the 'lights out'
syndrome in his eyes. X has never seen it before, but when I asked X
said that it was just pure rage, and that you could see in his eyes
that there was no one home.
Hi, I have a male llama (just turned 2 years old last month). Next
week, he is being gelded due to, what I call, behavioral problems. He
has always been very gentle, affectionate and naturally curious. We
brought him home as a 4 month old weanling. He is the only llama that
we now own. However, at one point we did have 2 juvenille males. (The
other male has since found a new home working with other sheep.) I
recently found him trying to mount a whethered market goat. (he was
lying on top of him like trying to mate.) I have never had any
problems with him. In your opinion, would he be ok for guard to other
goats. The one he was mounting is no longer here. He has never showed
this behavior to any of the other goats (wheathered males &
intact females). (The answer to this one is NO he shouldn't be
guarding anything small or be in with female llamas)
We have had llamas for the better part of eleven years and have
enjoyed them so much. We have a small barn and 35 acres in South
Tennessee. Basically, all of our llamas have been "rescued" from the
situations you speak so eloquently about.
We've had a tragedy
here in the last three weeks. A male llama was brought in. We had a
mature female and an unrelated 10 month female cria. The male llama
was put out to pasture with the females. Tonight we were finally able
to get them in. He has demonstrted all of the "berserk llama
syndrome" signs of aggression and we had not been able to get to the
females. He has destroyed the cria's face and she will have to be put
down. We are waiting for the vet to help us decide if we can save the
mature female. Her lower jaw is damaged. We have handled livestock
for years and have never seen anything like this and of course, are
devastated. You must get a lot of heartbreaking letters like this.
X Llamas of X is selling off its herd of 19 llamas at discount prices
due to the layoffs at X! All animals are very healthy, and all sizes
and colors are currently available at $150-$300 per llama. Most are
REGISTERED with the Llama registry, and bought at between $500 and
$800 apiece. MUST SELL QUICKLY! Currently have: 9 breeding females, 2
breeding males, 3 geldings, and 5 spring babies (3 female, 2 male).
Hello, we have X llama's that came with the house we bought. I have
been trying to find a home for them but I can't find anyone who is
willing to give them a good home. We have X gelded males and X female
who is the mother of both males. They are healthy and happy and will
eat out of my hand. I am hoping you might have some ideas that could
help me. We are in X just outside of X. I think they are particularly
attractive animals. Thank you
Hi, I got your email address from a man named X. I emailed several
sights trying to learn more about llamas because I have a neighbor
who has X males of which he knows nothing about. He is a drunk and a
druggie and I think they are being abused. The most recent thing hes
done is try to ride one like he's breaking a horse. The poor things
head is pulled back and when he falls off he gets so mad he's running
around the field yelling and I'm not sure what else he's doing to
them. They are always bellaring, sound like they are being beaten.
They were attacked by his rottweiler dogs previously and I took and
hour before the sheriff got here to shoot the dogs. The llama's were
tied at the time. The smaller llama was pretty chewed up and he
wouldn't get a vet out here. He told the officer he was putting
neosporin on the sore's. I doubt that cause I would have taken a
pretty big tube and he was saying he couldn't afford to get a vet.
These llamas are in less than an acre with very little grass and no
brush. I don't know how much a llama eats or what they eat since I
know nothing about llamas. I would appreciate any help you can give
me. Maybe I shouldn't even worry about them from what X said that
they will take care of themselves. \
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