Breeding

BREEDING llamas is relatively easy as female llamas are induced ovulators, which means that the breeding act itself will set in motion an ovulation without the necessity of a heat cycle.

Female llamas are generally old enough and receptive to breeding at about l6-18 months of age although female llamas have been known to become pregnant much earlier, a situation that llama breeders should take precaution to avoid by removing breeding age males from areas where young females are kept. Male llamas become consistently fertile at an age of about 22 -25 months but here again, much younger male llamas have been known to impregnate a female.

How do you breed a llama?

THERE ARE several recognized methods of breeding llamas. One is called hand breeding, in which the female llama is led preferably into the male area to be bred. The other is called field breeding, in which a female llama or a group of female llamas are left in an area with a male llama to be bred whenever the male feels like it and the females are receptive. Field breeding while minimizing the effort of the llama breeder has many serious drawbacks and is not recommended and therefore will not be addressed in this section. When you hand breed a female llama, you not only have a record of when that llama was bred, which is invaluable when calculating due dates, but you can also control how often that llama is being bred thereby minimizing trauma to the female and reducing the risk of infections. 

    When possible it is best to introduce the female to the male's pen or area for breeding. Males taken to strange or unfamiliar areas sometimes don't like to breed readily. The male will mount the female and eventually the female will lie down in a sternal position while the male breeds her. It is also advised and another benefit of hand-breeding, to move the female's tail away from the male's penis to prevent injury to the male. The breeding should last about 20-40 minutes after which you can take the female away and back to her area. Females should never be bred more than twice a week and preferably only once a week to minimize breeding trauma to the uterus. Females can be introduced to the male again after a week and if receptive will breed again and if not, will usually spit the male off or show obvious signs of refusal. Experienced males will also give up easily and not try to breed an unreceptive female. 

    Breeding maiden females can sometimes require special handling but in most cases can be handled just like experienced females. If the maiden female seems unsure of herself, you can sometimes overcome this problem by breeding her within eyesight of another female being bred. Most females learn what is required by watching other females being bred.

How do I know if the female is pregnant?

IF A FEMALE refuses to breed again after about 16-17 days she is probably pregnant but a better date to confirm pregnancy is 21 days post breeding. Many breeders will draw a small amount of blood after this time to submit to a veterinarian lab for pregnancy confirmation. If a female llama continues to remain submissive and breed and needs to be bred more that 4 or 5 times other factors may need to be considered. The female if she is a maiden may be too young and not sexually mature, the female may have an infection that needs medical attention or there may be an anatomical problem that needs to be addressed. Too, if the male is young and inexperienced, he may not be fertile enough or physically able to breed the female. That is why it is recommended that inexperienced males not be used to breed maiden females. Also if the weather has been unseasonably hot, males will lose fertility until the weather becomes much cooler, so breeding during the summer months is not advised either. 

    Being able to observe your llamas breeding and reacting to each other is invaluable in assessing what is happening with your llamas. Strong refusal to breed again after being bred is a good indication that your llama has ovulated and if this refusal persists, the chances are good that she is bred. If however, the female llama shows ambivalent signs, something else may be going on that requires further diagnosis. If the male shows ambivalence, it may be a sign that the female is bred or it could indicate that the female's hormones are not quite right if the female has not yet been bred.

Breeding females who have just given birth

IT IS BEST to wait at least 15 days before breeding back a female who has given birth. If there were problems with the pregnancy such as a dystocia, you should wait at least 21 days before breeding these llamas back.

How should I choose a stud?

MANY FACTORS need to be considered when choosing a stud to breed your llama to especially when using an outside stud service. The purpose here is not to debate the merits of using outside stud services versus your own studs or to evaluate outside stud services but to inform the viewer what factors they may want to consider when evaluating their breeding options.

    If you want to add a particular bloodline to your herd that you don't already have, one of the cheapest ways to do this is by using an outside stud service that has this bloodline. You want to choose a stud based on a history of the offspring that he has produced, the stud's ability to impart to his offspring those traits that you find desirable, and most importantly and often overlooked the absence of genetic defects in the line.

    Many breeders will not disclose information about defects in their stud's offspring, especially if the stud was a very expensive purchase and highly promoted and advertised so in many cases to find out this information, you will have to do your own research. We are not implying that the llama industry is full of unethical breeders. Most llama breeders are quality people with high standards and ethics. The llama industry just has not done a good job of monitoring and tracking genetic defects in the North American llama population and therefore many animals that have been producing defects are not widely known and have not been culled from the population. One needs to be careful when making purchases in this industry like they would when buying anyone else's product or services. It is advised that one choose a stud based primarily on the stud's breeding history and not on hype and promotion or what the stud sold for at auction. At lot of high priced auction animals never panned out as stud animals. You need to evaluate the stud based on the concerns and needs of your breeding program--not what other people are doing. Do your homework, choose wisely and get written guarantees in writing and you should benefit from your choices.