Misfitmorgan's Journal - That Summer Dust

[farmerjan]

Problem is that alpacas are useless as guardians due to their smaller size and gentler nature. Llamas can do a fair amount of damage and it sounds like these were fairly "feral" in their previous place so good luck. They often do not learn manners, etc., as they get older and set in their ways. Best place for them is on pasture without access to anything in the barn except I know you said they have to come in to get access to water. You should have the "grain stall" with boards to 8 ft so that they can't reach over. Tough to bring in animals that you aren't ready for or even expecting...good luck.

 

[Bruce]

Yep, not using the alpacas as guardians, though they are useful alert tools if I'm outside. On Tuesday they alerted on a deer in the NW field. On Thursday they alerted on a flock of turkeys in about the same place. I would not have noticed either time without their alert. Hopefully the boys will make a fuss if Mrs Fox shows up in April again.

 

[NH homesteader]

Thanks for reminding me why I don't ever want llamas. Hopefully you get them sorted out and they'll be an asset to you. Or at least tolerable!

 

[misfitmorgan]

Thankfully the Llama's are calming down and getting more used to people again. The male is letting us pet him now. They were tame 5 yrs ago before DH left his first wife so hopfully they will get tame again. i think the fence damage is related to the pasture being pretty much gone because of a couple of hard frosts we have had already. So they are trying to reach out and eat some of the taller still green stuff outside the pasture area. We have decided to put up a temporary electric fence pasture where the grass is taller and still a bit green to hopefully help this problem. We ended up putting fence wire on the top of the grain stall walls which should keep the llamas out. we planned to put wire on the tops of all the stalls eventually.

Thanks for reminding me why I don't ever want llamas. Hopefully you get them sorted out and they'll be an asset to you. Or at least tolerable!

They are not all like that lol. Several sheep farmers near us have one of two and dont have issues with them. i think most of these issues is just us not being set up for them and them being left to go wild.

So far the coyotes have stopped coming up by the back of the pasture so i hope that means they are doing their job. They did an excellent job protecting the ex-wife's flock, her sheep flock literally lives in the woods in a smallish pasture on property separate from where she lives by about 12 miles and they didnt have a single predator loss in the past 5 yrs.

 

[Bruce]

I'm not surprised the coyotes have started looking for snacks elsewhere. The llama alarm sounds like the alpaca alarm only "heftier" and the llamas outweigh a coyote by about 10x. I presume the llamas are as alert as the alpacas. Teddy alerted to an orange cat going up the private road on the south side of our property the last 2 days. It was a good 100 yards away.

Glad your llamas are settling!

 

[misfitmorgan]

I'm not surprised the coyotes have started looking for snacks elsewhere. The llama alarm sounds like the alpaca alarm only "heftier" and the llamas outweigh a coyote by about 10x. I presume the llamas are as alert as the alpacas. Teddy alerted to an orange cat going up the private road on the south side of our property the last 2 days. It was a good 100 yards away.

Glad your llamas are settling!

i'm glad too!! Hopefully they will get fixed up on toe trims and wormer soon. Have you ever seen a Alpaca kick....wow they kick fast and i didnt now they could kick forward with their hind legs. I'm thinking Llama's will be the same lol.

 

[NH homesteader]

Alpacas kick? Yikes!

Hope the coyotes stay away for good! Will llamas scare off the hawks?

 

[Bruce]

I haven't annoyed mine to the point of getting kicked I don't think they kick often, based on quick research I just did. I found a video where a guy did get kicked. He was approaching the animal too quickly, it moved forward and kicked back. Yep fast! but (the research says) since they have soft pads, not hooves, they don't do a lot of damage unless they hit a "sensitive spot".

 

[misfitmorgan]

Alpacas kick? Yikes!

Hope the coyotes stay away for good! Will llamas scare off the hawks?

I dont know if they would scare off hawks or not...i would imagine though...we shall see.

I haven't annoyed mine to the point of getting kicked I don't think they kick often, based on quick research I just did. I found a video where a guy did get kicked. He was approaching the animal too quickly, it moved forward and kicked back. Yep fast! but (the research says) since they have soft pads, not hooves, they don't do a lot of damage unless they hit a "sensitive spot".

i can tell you Llama's do damage....DH's shin is still multi-colored from the day he brought them home. Oddly i thought they would spit before kicking..nope DH didnt get spit on even once and but kicked 4 times by the female Llama.

 

[luvmypets]

As I have been on the other ends of those kicks, they can be pretty painful. Now it doesn't hurt for long(hr max)but they kick hard. Its more of a shock more than anything but if definetly gets your attention.
@misfitmorgan Im not surprised she didn't spit. They normally kick with no warning except pinned ears. It takes a while to learn their body language.