Anyone keeping llamas for packing???? | Page 2 | Animals | Forums

KVR, I had seen that story before. Sad. It was a trend when they were popular, people thinking they were gonna become millionaire llama/alpaca ranchers. Lots ended up going quietly to the dogfood factory. A buddy of mine has 3 completely wild llamas that he rescued from 3 different ranches locally, H just likes lookin at them so they are pastured with his horses. They are well fed and their only job is to stomp the hell out of coyotes (and they are VERY good at their job). He hasn't lost a chicken in several years. But they are totlly nuts, unpredictable, and do not like people.

There are LLama rescue groups, but I am leery of going that route for those exact reasons. I want a low maintenance pack animal, not a psych patient.... However- If you are aware of Steve Rinella, his brother Matt (a montana guy) has 3 pack llamas, 2 of which are rescues and they worked out just fine. So I am cautiously looking into it from that angle.

Hessian- 1/4 to 1/3 of their body weight seems to be the concensus depending on conditioning. That generally works out to 70-110 lbs. So, in theory, 3 llamas per Elk if you want to haul it out in one trip. Going light for a few days a,d carrying a load myself I think I could pack out an boned elk with 2 in one trip, but 3 would of course be better. Its kind of going to depend on what I can find, price, and if I have the space to humanely house 3. Ideally I'd like 5 but I'm not dumb enough to start out with a herd.

"Poor mans mule" sounds about right, lol. Exactly right as a matter of fact.
The spitting thing is misunderstood. From what I've read (I've been researching for 5 or 6 days now, so I'm basically an expert) the spitting is a social heirarchy thing that they mostly do to each other. When they spit at a person its either because they were raised wrong or (like you mentioned) associate a certain person with a bad event. Or you really made them uncomfortable. People do get spit on, but most of the llama people I have been talking to say its usually more of a "got caught in the crossfire" situation, but that if you pressure them too much they will spit at you.

They can cart but I haven't looked too much into that. I know its an actual thing. And yes, we plan to use the droppings for the garden. Interestingly, they will all pick one spot to do their business in their pasture instead of just going everywhere, so thats another bonus as far as ease of care goes.