The photo here is of 4 of my girls, Missy, Ebony, Gypsy, Jolie ,and my baby Dollie Llama. I know it’s corny, but I couldn’t resist calling her that!
Usually the first question I get from people is “Why Llamas?”, then “Don’t they spit?” To the first questions I usually answer “Why not?” If you have never been around them you don’t realize what wonderful loving creatures they are. The the questions “Don’t they spit?” Well, yes they do, at each other. They love having food fights, even though they each have their own bowl for food. The inside of the loafing shed shows signs of the “food fights” that they have had. They will also spit to figure out who is the dominate one. And before you ask, yes I have been spit on. I learned very quickly not to stand in between two llamas when they have their ears back. They were not spitting at me, I just happened to be in the way.
If you have not been around llamas before then you probably do no know much about their language. They communicate with each other by humming. I have found that if I go out and just talk to them, they will talk to me by humming. I must admit I’m not too good at speaking llama, but have been able to tell the difference in a happy hum and an upset hum.
A good way to tell the llamas moods is by looking at their ears. If they are laying back, they are upset and might just want to spit at something. I have discovered that if they are doing this, I just go up to them and start talking to them in a very soft voice. They want to know what I’m saying so they will lift their ears up to hear me. When their ears are up and forward they are alert to what is going on around them.
Those of you with llamas know what I mean when I say I have become the “white bucket”. When I come out my back door they will watch to see if I’m going to the barn and if come out with the white feed bucket, they start lining up at the fence to see if they can get a handout before I put their food in the food bowls. They each have their own bowl to eat out of, but as I said earlier this does not prevent the food fights from happening. For the most part they will eat out of their own bowl, except for my male, Scout, and he thinks all of the bowls are his to eat out of and the girls are pretty good about letting him do that.
I will be posting more information about my llamas so I can introduce each one of them to you. Also our granddaughter, Tabi, will be telling you about her experiences with the llamas and goats. I will also be introducing our goats and will let you know when I have goat milk soap to sell.
