llamas?

[mwtslf23]

Hi,

We have acquired 3 llamas from some friends of ours that had to move off of their farm. We are having a problem with them wanting to eat the side of our 150 year old barn. Has anyone ever experienced this or have any solutions? Thank you ahead of time for your advice.

Mike

[ceresone]

I don't know Llamas, but in other animals, mineral needs?

[Common Tator]

Maybe these horse cribbing products will work with your Llamas. http://www.petvetsupply.com/horse-st...d-chewing.html

[LFmenagerie]

Use a gloved hand and rub a little of their own poo where ever they are chewing. We got this advice when we had a donkey doing the same thing and it worked like a charm. We also threw in a few good sized poplar branches for him to chew on and made sure he had a mineral block.
Tom

[Annie in MN]

I would make sure they have minerals available, or they might be eating any lichen/moss growing on your barn. Maybe try spraying down with Bitter Apple?

[Christiaan]

Llama burgers?

[uncle Will in In.]

I had a team of young horses that were eating the boards off the barn. I took a length of old woven wire and nailed it to the side of the barn. They couldn't get the boards off any more.

[m39fan]

It probably is mineral deficiency. What are you feeding? If just horse or general stock feed, they may not be getting everything they need. You need to make sure that you feed them something that has selenium in it (prepackaged Llama feed or GOAT feed). ADM and Nutrena both make a good Llama formula. There is a premium brand out there but we weren't impressed with it (Mazoi?). We use goat feed from our local Co-op and have been happy with the results. Skin, fleece and general health conditions have all been good. That was NOT the case when we fed a generic sweet feed.

If you don't want to have specific feed for your llamas, you can top dress the feed with goat minerals. Our alpacas and llamas won't touch a mineral block, thus the recommendation to top dress.

In the meantime, a pepper solution or similar product for cribbing horses will be your best bet. If it is a deficiency, it won't take long to correct itself.

Hope this helps,
Mike

[alpacamom]

I agree with the minerals. Alpacas and llamas won't lick a mineral block, but we buy them from http://www.stillwaterminerals.com/ . I would suggest calling them and telling them what you told us and they could recommend the proper formula. We use 104 for our alpacas and keep them available free choice.