Llamas a question

[Earthbound]

I have a few questions regarding llamas. I have an opportunity to get some llamas and am wondering about their keep. At present i have goats, cows, pigs, horses and various fowl. i have a barn and many loafing sheds as well as silage and local hay. I'm wondering male or female? She has a weathered male and 3 females. they are 3 years old and papered. they come from a local breeder with an exceptional reputation. i don't know why I'm even thinking about it, but i've always liked the creatures, plus from my reading a weathed male "may" protect goats and such???? that does appeal to me. these people have mucho $$$$$ and are willing to give me any or all of them. They keep saying they need the pasture for their sheep and that the llamas are taking up to much space???? Anyhow..... How are they to keep? Shearing? hooves? vaccinations? feed.........
anyhelp would be appreciated!!
corry

[ovsfarm]

We had a couple of llamas. They were excellent sheep guardians. I didn't find that they ate all that much, nothing like the horses! Ours did need their hooves trimmed once a year and we sheared them in a pattern called a "barrel cut" around their middles during the summer because it gets so hot and humid here in the summer.

They had very interesting personalities. More cat-like, very what-have-you-done-for-me-lately animals. The male was very aloof and reserved, didn't really care for people all that much, but was not only a guard, but also a midwife for the sheep. He would help clean the new lambs and help get them up to nurse if the 1st time ewes were slow about learning their job. The female llama was a brat. She and I had several serious disagreements and I can honestly say that while not much scares me, a llama looks 9 feet tall when it is rearing up and trying to knock you down!

We lost our llamas to meningeal deer worm. This parasite normally lives in white tailed deer but llamas are very suseptible to it. We tried to vaccinate every month with ivermectin, but apparently even that schedule wasn't enough. We didn't want to overdose them on the meds and kill them, but they both eventually got the deer worms and died.

Some people have llamas that they describe as very friendly and loving. Ours weren't really. They were extremely curious and very fond of treats and food. They would come running but once they discovered that your pockets were empty and it wasn't feeding time, they rapidly lost interest.

All in all, they were interesting and useful, but not all that friendly. If I could figure out a better way to deal with the parasite problem, I would probably get more.

[LLAMA FARMA]

Like ovsfarm said, the ivermectin injectable is the main monthly project here with all the white tail deer that there are here, Meningeal worm is the parasite we are talking about. The llamas are very cat-like and at times want to be beside you but not be touched. Once haltered they will lead better than a dog (if trained) and you can walk almost anywhere they'll follow.
I shear my llamas every other year as I spin and make hats & socks out of the wool. The summer they aren't sheared I watch closely for overheating, they enjoy a barn fan &/or a 5' kiddie pool to lounge in. The winters after they are shorn I watch for rain then freezing, as the rain wets them to their skin, as I would have shorn their guard hair off (guard hair shunts the water over the wool)and the freezing chills them to pneumonia. We try to get them into the barn and shut them in during the rain, then release them when the rain stops and the cold sets in. Works for us.
If you have any more specific questions you can PM me.
Emily

[GrannyG]

The llama I took in was scaring my friends horses to death, they would try to run through the fence.....he even delivered him to our house withing minutes when we said we would take him.....he gets along well with the goats, chickens, but is still scared of the pot-belly pigs. I would not put him near the horses............

[Earthbound]

Thank you all for your answers! They gave me some food for thought. I need to find out about the meningeal deer worm. I hav'nt heard of it being a problem here, but will need to confirm that. I was "planning" to run the llama(s) with my goats on the front of the property, and the horse are kept out back, so no problems with them being to close, also the pigs are in the center of the farm so no problems there either..lol!
I'm going out to her place tis morning to take care of her critters while she's away for a week (thats how i know her), and I'm looking forward to 'spending" some time with the llamas to get a better feel for them.
Thanks again!!
corry