classic llamas

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Comment by Niki Kuklenski on February 7, 2010 at 10:43pm

Hi Erik,

All interesting thoughts....

I have never heard of rams trying to breed female llamas...Hmmm interesting.

Niki

Comment by Erik Jorgensen on February 7, 2010 at 4:31pm

Hi, I am sorry if I sounded rude or like I was doubting your advice, that is MY experience. And JUST that. I certainly would encourage putting a female in over a gelding, but Nikki Brown had said that they already had a male, and I wouldn't want her to think she had to get rid of him neccesarily. My only concern with females, is I would take them out of the pasture during breeding season (this is with sheep mind you) because the rams will sometimes try to mount them, and cause severe stress. i most certainly think it is a good idea to take in unregistered females to use as guards, they will be perfectly good at it, and it keeps them out of the hands of people who will use them to breed.

Take Care,
Erik

Comment by Niki Kuklenski on February 7, 2010 at 1:07pm

Erik,

I am glad you have had a good experience so far. Please know that I have re-homed a lot of geldings that went pervert and smothered sheep or stomped lambs while trying to breed the ewes. One gelding started breeding the sheep after eleven years of good service. There are so many females out there needing homes, why even take the chance? I have placed over a hundred females as guards and only one has not worked out. Gelding even at a young age, does not mean they will not have the hormonal urges. That is a common misconception. Anyhow, I am glad so far you haven't had a problem.

Comment by Erik Jorgensen on February 7, 2010 at 11:57am

Hi, I was reading through all of the discussions on this page, and if everyone doesn't mind, I will give my opinion as to guards. If you geld a male before he is used to breed females, and in between 18 and 24 months, you should have little to no problem with him mounting sheep goats alpacas etc when guarding. Only intact males or geldings who still have hormones should cause a problem with this. I have used geldings to guard sheep (I have 2 in with around 100 sheep, 2 goats, and an alpaca) and they do perfectly fine. They have never tried to mount the smaller animals, and do an excellent job guarding. I even see lambs going up to them and laying on their back. Mine are quite gentle, so I wouldn't discourage anyone with geldings when it comes to putting them in as guards for smaller livestock.

Erik

Comment by Nikki Brown on September 3, 2009 at 12:04am

aah thank you! Good one! I was so proud of myself the other day when I learned MDH My dear Husband. He likes it when I use that one! ;)

Comment by Niki Kuklenski on August 29, 2009 at 2:58am

In my opinion (-:

Comment by Nikki Brown on August 28, 2009 at 8:50pm

IMO?

Comment by Niki Kuklenski on August 28, 2009 at 3:03pm

Okay, here is another issue. (-: Intacts and geldings IMO should not be used as guardian animals unless it is for larger animals like horses or cattle. I have rehomed and seen far too many that breed and smother the animals they are guarding. Here is an article I wrote this last Spring about it http://www.nas.com/~jnkllamas/Article%20Sheepguards.pdf

You are correct, for a guardian, they do NOT need to be registered. I was confused as you said the female was just bred???

Comment by Nikki Brown on August 28, 2009 at 2:34pm

My Llama is a male (unregisgtered). You might be right about not breeding unregistered animals. He will work just fine as a companion and hopefully a guard whether he is reg. or not. But, is it expensive to reg. Llamas so that you are putting more money into an animal that will only be marketed as guards. Just a thought. Please add your opinions as I say I am new!

Comment by Niki Kuklenski on August 28, 2009 at 1:55pm

Hi Nikki,

Okay, glad it helped. Most people geld between 18-24 months. There are different theories re gelding and you will have to decide what works for you. I will tell you that if you don't have the ability to register the cria from that dam, I would highly recommend you NOT breed her. Unregistered llamas are pretty much unsalable in most instances. There is a huge glut of unwanted llamas and unregistered ones have yet one more strike against them. Just FYI......

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