… but you don’t know where to start. You may have been looking online and seen a huge variation in price, but unfortunately this doesn’t always correlate to the quality of animal. Llamas are brilliant animals, but they are all so unique, with different personalities and temperaments. It’s easy to be swayed by particularly good looking animals, but there are many qualities that should influence your choice before looks are even considered.

Llamas can live for around 20 years, so it is vital that you get the right animals for you, and for your purposes. They all vary greatly, and therefore all suit different lifestyles and ‘jobs’. Llamas are strong herd animals and need to live with other llamas in a minimum of a pair, however a group of 3 or more is much better for herd dynamics and happiness.

You will need to be able to handle your llamas, even if they are just field mowers. Handling is essential as they will need medical treatments and management such as vaccinations, worming, shearing etc, and it will make things much easier for any vet visits too. Training llamas from scratch is really hard and will take a lot of time and patience as well as knowledge and experience. Incorrectly handling a llama can cause irreversible damage, therefore it is much better to buy already trained llamas.

Our llamas and alpacas all mean the world to us, and therefore we will not just sell any animal to any home. It must be the right home, the right people and the right animals. All our animals are halter trained and lead trained, as well as confident in themselves and what is being asked of them. We will never sell untrained or not handled animals. They are all registered with the British Llama Society, microchipped, vaccinated, wormed (if required), and all come with all the medical history we can provide.

We know each animal inside out, and we know what they would best suit for a future home or job, so we will only sell an animal that is going to the right home for them. This means that we may ask lots of questions, but this is to ensure happy humans and happy llamas!

We run husbandry courses, where new or existing owners can learn everything they will need to know about llamas, including how to handle them properly, and all of the routine care and management they will need. This is a hands-on course, where you can handle many of our animals and ask as many questions as you may have.

In summary, trained and well-mannered llamas are brilliant animals to be around, but they all suit different jobs, depending on their personality and confirmation. It is always better to seek advice when deciding on llamas so that you end up with the best experience for yourself and the llamas. Llamas are complex, and with lack of knowledge and understanding, can quickly become unhappy animals that end up with a range of behavioural issues.

This is a job that can be done by males or females, but it is advised to stick to one or the other rather than mixing. Even gelded males can be a nuisance towards the females.

Trekking llamas need to be the right conformation and be of sound health to be able to maintain a trekking career, as well as have the right temperament and personality to be comfortable and happy as a trekking llama.

Not all llamas will lead a walk, not all llamas will go at the back, some llamas prefer more llamas to be out on the walk with them, whereas others are happy to walk out in a pair. Some llamas really enjoy trekking, and on the other hand, some llamas don’t. There is a lot to consider.

An important requirement of a trekking llama is that they need to be mature, trekking youngsters can be detrimental, both mentally and physically to that llama.

the thought of having cute crias (baby llamas) sounds so good and simply irresistible. However, there is a lot of hard work involved, and an incredible amount of knowledge required, not to mention the practicalities and proper facilities that are necessary.

It needs a great deal of thought. Entire males should never be left to ‘run with’ females llamas. Overbreeding of the females is dangerous, damaging and can be fatal to the baby and the female. It can also cause the male to become dangerous to handle or be around. Separate facilities are required for housing both breeding males and females.

Also, with breeding llamas comes weaning llamas, you will also need separate facilities for this as they will need to be separated from mum between 6-9 months preferably. Young males can and will breed with their mum and sisters, but also cannot live with the older entire males.

When breeding any llama, it needs to be for a reason (the same with any animal), and to better the animals. Some llamas are not suitable for breeding, as they may have faults, whether that be temperament, conformation, or health issues.

Llamas can make brilliant field pets, but again it takes the right animal. Similar to the way some breeds of dog make better workers than pets, some llamas also prefer to be working than be left in a field all day. For other being a llama of leisure is their dream life.

Field pet llamas still need to be handled for routine management, so it is important they are still halter trained for ease of this.

Temperament is the most important element for a therapy llama. They can make incredible therapy animals, and they can truly grasp the individual needs of different people, offering recuperation with a difference. But the llamas in question have to be calm, confident and easily adaptable to different situations.