The Llamas here mostly guard the goats for my neighbors-I intend to get a couple or three-goats, not Llamas-when I get enough acreage-there is a good market for goats’ milk products here in gone galt land, along with all other natural things. I’ve been spat on by a Llama owned by one particular neighbor-that Llama-a neutered male that guards a herd of 8-9 fancy dairy goats-runs to the fence as soon as it sees someone hiking on the trail nearby and when you go up to the fence to see the pretty Llama, it drenches you in reeking spit-fortunately, the river is steps away.
I’m leery of down-sized animals, too-no matter how cute they may be, I’ll stick with the full-size creature-those miniature horses are notoriously bad tempered and unpredictable, but people line up to pay as much for one as you would for a “real” horse-just imagine a mini-Llama that kicks and spits without warning.
Having grown up on a small family ranch in SW Texas, I don’t understand people who buy into something like the Alpaca scam without considering that owning livestock means extra work and expense-stock animals are not dogs and cats, and you really need a barn/shelter and enough acreage to provide a fenced pasture for stock to roam around in-confining them to a yard seems cruel to me-even the chickens out here have plenty of space to run around in.
A couple of years ago a frustrated scam victim got busted and fined because he reported his Alpacas stolen/rustled and tried to collect money, but the amount was enough that the insurance carrier got suspicious and started poking around-it turns out the guy had gotten a friend to load the critters into a stock trailer in the dark of night, and cart them off to his place three counties away...
I’m sorry you’ve had such a bad experience with them, Texan. They really are cool animals & not inclined to be bad tempered in general. lol Yeah, you want to avoid getting spit on. I haven’t had the misfortune. It looks- & smells, pretty unpleasant. (it did give me pause about giving vacs & stuff like that- what if they have a spitfit at the worst possible time? Ya may just have to wear it for awhile. urg but that’s living with animals.)
ps We had a Long coat Chihuahua like that Llama. Beautiful dog. People couldn’t resist petting her & she looked so friendly. Then, they were bleeding.
Somebody up by Wimberley (I think) who has Llamas & goats, also sells cheese. Goats are pretty cute- esp Spanish goats. I love animals, but we’re getting older, so want to *try* to keep it simple/ not bite off more than we want to chew. I definitely *do not* want to be having babies. They’re precious, but it’s too stressful.
Nor do I, but there are halfwits out there who will fall for any get-rich-quick scheme they hear about or buy fad pets without doing any research at all on the breed. That’s disturbing about there being infomercials for this. WTH?
Yes, at least a 3 sided shelter is imperative & a way to keep them cool in the Summer (they have convenient potty habits & can be brought inside the house for awhile if all else fails). IIRC, the standard is 1/4 acre per animal-& they need a pal, so 1/2 acre minimum. That seems pretty skimpy to me. Also, there are many poisonous plants/ weeds that you have to watch out for/ control. I like to keep my critters within line of sight, but they need space. And then, there’s the bean pile that needs to be away.
Both of my maternal grandparents grew up on ranches, one on the Guadalupe; which stayed in the family (Merino sheep & cattle) & the other in NE Texas (cattle, I guess. I don’t honestly know)- so it’s not really foreign territory.
I’m sure there would be an adjustment/ learning curve. Exposed is not experienced.
wow. Husband is an insurance adjuster, P&C, but not SI or agriculture. I haven’t heard about anything like this before, but I guess I’m not surprised, really, either.