Llama frameset

2004 Offspring Iruya 2006 Offspring For Sale Group for sale

The South American Camelid family, which also includes the alpaca, the guanaco, and the vicuna.

Their natural habitat is the Andes in South America but they are very well adapted to adverse conditions.

The llama is the largest of these in this country.

Llamas are readily identifiable from other camelids by their distinctive "banana-shaped" ears

Llamas come in a variety of colours from white through greys and browns to black and many are multi-coloured.

Adult llamas stand approximately four feet high at the shoulder and weigh up to four hundred pounds.

They are strong, intelligent animals with a gentle temperament and an inquisitive and friendly nature.

They are very elegant and versatile creatures and make excellent pets or companion animals

Llamas have a split upper lip and incisor teeth in the lower jaw only. They are primarily grazers but will also browse a little.

They do better on rough pasture than on lush grass and a fully-grown llama will eat less than a goat does

They need a little hay and concentrates as supplements during the winter

Llamas are very easy to keep and are very clean. They use a communal dung pile, so their droppings are not spread over the field.

They are extremely hardy and can live out in all weathers all the year round, as their thick coats are excellent insulators against both heat and cold

Llamas are very healthy animals and suffer very few diseases. They are known to live for in excess of twenty years. They have no foot problems but their toenails need trimming from time to time.

Female llamas mature at between eighteen months and two years of age and males do so between two and three years.

They do not have a regular breeding season and will breed at any time of year. The females are induced ovulators and ovulate in response to mating.

The gestation period is approximately eleven and a half months and mating occurs again two weeks later, so that a calf is born, on average, every year.

A single calf, or cria, is produced and llamas almost always give birth during daylight hours.

Mothers and crias communicate by soft humming sounds.

In South America, llamas are used very much as pack animals and in this country also they are used for trekking, carrying packs or panniers on their backs Some llamas can be ridden by children for short distances and some can be trained to pull a cart.

Because the foot has a soft pad and does not damage the ground, golfers are finding that llamas make excellent caddies.

Anglers and campers use llamas to carry their gear to out-of-the-way places.

Farmers are finding that an adult male llama in a flock of sheep is extremely effective in protecting new-born lambs from foxes at lambing time.

llamas produce a high quality luxury fibre, which may be sheared at one or two-yearly intervals or brushed out as required llamas are essentially herd animals and one.

They should not be kept alone. They will live happily with sheep, goats, donkeys and ponies.

Llamas have an undeserved reputation of being spitters - spitting is a defence mechanism and they rarely spit at humans unless they are mistreated.