Guidelines for Spending Time with Crias and Young Llamas - Part 1 of 2
– by Gwen Ingram and Jim Krowka

Editor's Note: This is Part 1 of a lengthy article. It is very informative information and it's advantageous to run it along with the berserk male article. We broke it up into two parts because of the length so look for Part 2 in April.

Although humans and llamas coexist in a domesticated social environment, we humans are with our llamas only a small portion of the llamas’ lives. The time we spend with them gives them their only clues how to perceive our role in their world. Our role depends on how we shape it – each and every time we interact with any llama, particularly young, impressionable ones. If we don’t define ourselves clearly, then our llamas will do it for us.

The ideal goal for both human and llama is for humans to be respected without being frightening. Being respected equates directly with our personal safety. Even a 100-pound young llama has the ability to harm a human, and a 300-pound adult has even more potential for harm. Having respect for us means that the llama will ensure there will be no uninvited physical contact with us, even when s/he is in the throes of an instinctive reaction – just as would be true for a respected llama in his or her herd.

Not being frightening equates directly with comfort for llamas and the very gratification we humans seek from having them around. Having a domestic companion animal that is afraid of humans is, to say the least, a contradiction. Having a chronically difficult-to-catch llama isn’t what any human really wants, even if many humans do accept it. And from the llama’s point of view, not being scared is vastly preferably to being even a bit nervous, let alone petrified.

To Handle or Not to Handle
Of all aspects of cria management, cria handling (or not handling) has historically generated the most comment and controversy. One extreme viewpoint insists that not handling crias is the only sure means to a safe adult lama who respects humans’ comfort around humans is not considered important. The opposite extreme advocates early handling to make lamas comfortable around humans without making any distinction between good and bad early handling, and thus respect and future safety is left to chance.

The “no handling” model of cria management is sometimes a matter of convenience or circumstances, but as a deliberate practice, it is overwhelmingly advocated a “play it safe” policy. Handling normal crias is strictly avoided, and contact is minimized when handling is absolutely necessary (such as when treating a sick cria or bottle-feeding one who has lost its mother). All socialization is with llamas and by llamas. “No handling” does prevent llamas from becoming comfortable with us during the developmental period when they divide their world into, llamas, dangerous not-llamas and safe not-llamas. It does not, however, prevent disrespectful and dangerous behavior as proponents claim. Later handing (and the llama’s individual inherited tendencies) can still result in aggression directed at humans. Many of the “attack” llamas we have rehabilitated were not handled at all until after weaning. So, even if “no handling” works for some, it’s important to understand it does not guarantee future safe behavior.

Early handling with no structure or responsibilities for the crias does indeed result in disrespectful adolescent and adult llamas; indeed, the effects of disrespect for humans are as – or perhaps more – dramatic and frightening than in any other domestic species. However, it is critical to make the distinction between good, structured handling that results in respect and disrespect. There is no such thing as “over handling” a cria or young lama. Anything deemed “too much” is not good handling, but rather can be demonstrated to be flawed in some way.

Llamas do not have to be afraid of humans for us to be safe; this has been proven over and over. Llamas’ early interactions with humans need to be structured carefully to be sure that each of the two important goals (comfort around us and respect for us) can be achieved without compromising the other. This becomes possible when humans have learned how best to deliberately shape their role and each cria’s perception of humans through clearly enforcing correct social behavior toward humans whenever we’re around llamas. We become mentors – neither peers nor parents but an important part of the lama world – and in so doing, we accept responsibility for young llamas’ future wellbeing.

The Importance of Natural Socialization
Regardless of how much humans do or do not handle crias, what crias, weanlings, and yearlings learn about llama society and their place in it from other llamas is essential to their future mental health and social comfort. Crias of the dominant female often present some special management challenge precisely because they could get away with anything for the first portion of their lives from actually annoying other llamas to simply not paying attention to important social issues, such as where other llamas were standing. If such a cria is female and remains in her mother’s herd, she may remain “socially retarded” for her entire life, and may not be able to fit in when her mother dies or is removed.

Although correct socialization for unweaned crias is certainly very important, an even more crucial age is from weaning through 2-3 years of age. Young llamas get taller, become more confident, and thus gain social status if they are kept with a herd of adults. If they're only with peers, they still get taller, become more confident and try to climb the social ladder all the way to the top. The difference is that most assertive young llamas in a peer-only group have a greater risk of thinking they are King of the Known World, this impression can extend to non-llamas they interact with, including humans.

We have found that, even with crias who have not been handled much prior to this stage, incorrect, haphazard, and blundering socialization with humans during this time – especially coupled with the wrong dispositional tendencies – results in the llama making the rules and progressing swiftly to levels of misdirected territorial aggression similar to those generally associated with improperly handled crias. During this stage is when young male llamas’ testing just what they can do with the world and what the world can do for them escalates, and they are very naturally predisposed to use physical force when things don’t go their way (they’ve already been practicing with their peers). They start looking for ways to put their boredom to use. The guy who’s number six out of six sees a newcomer (usually a llama, but perhaps a human) and thinks, “YES!!! Here comes number SEVEN!” And on top of it all, the ol’ hormones start kicking in, for some llamas sooner and stronger than for others, exacerbating and magnifying all of these perfectly normal tendencies to acquire social standing and territory.

To summarize, placing young llamas with safe, mature llamas after weaning makes an enormous positive difference in the juveniles understanding the benefits of respecting others; and, the amount of time we handle them (and even the way we handle them) cannot begin to compensate for the lessons they learn from older llamas about unavoidable social consequences for transgressions and why it is better to make the effort to get along with others.

Learn and Use Llama Rules to Instill Respect Without Fear
In order to learn how to be a successful mentor to crias in terms that they can easily understand, the most important initial step is to pay attention to acceptable and unacceptable behavior in llama society, and the consequences thereof. Sit down for a day and watch a group of adults and crias interact. You will likely witness quite a bit of corrective responses for improper entry into another’s space directed at crias (particularly older crias) by the adult llamas. You can learn which behaviors are acknowledged and which ones are not, and how that is done.

A cria (particularly a younger cria) entering an adult’s space may not be acknowledged unless that entry is accompanied by other action (pushing, rubbing, mouthing or attempting to nurse, for example). When the cria is new, some adults may blow in its nose, but just as many adults don’t, and most inspect the newcomer on their own terms and for as long as they want, and baby has to just tolerate it. Adult llamas certainly don’t bend over the cria who is being submissive and looking for a free lunch, look him/her in the eyes and say “My what a cute, CUTE, KEEEUUUUUUUUTE little cria you are!!!!” (Bet you know at least one human who does that, don’t you?)

Notice that adults (other than mother) certainly don’t hum back. When a cria walks over into another female’s space (i.e. not its mother) and says, “I’m a baby, you got any milk for me? I can smell it! Give me some milk, now!” (a warbling hum), the response is more than likely to be translatable as “I’m NOT your mother, and if you stick your nose any closer, I’ll turn it so green you won’t be able to eat for hours!” Certainly the adult females doesn’t flip her tail over, put her neck down, and squeal ecstatically (mixed message no matter how you look at it). What must a cria think when a human does something that seem like submission combined with long, loud squealing? Certainly the conclusion is not that humans are respectable adults!

There are many different ways to reinforce social rules in language that crias will automatically understand. Watch the adult llamas and they will teach you! There are many nonphysical and mildly physical ways to intimidate and correct a cria who is being disrespectful, including towering over them, walking at them, and putting our hands close to their eyes (because our necks are too short and less effective than our arms or a llama’s neck). One other correction we have at our disposal is to grab fiber (the cria will supply the pull when it automatically moves away).

A critical element that is often missed by humans is to release the pressure, intimidation, or corrective measure quickly once the cria has yielded (moved away). This cannot be overemphasized because llamas learn from the release of pressure. In other words, they will remember what they did to make the pressure stop, and if you fail to make the pressure stop, they’ll assume that whatever they did (even if it’s what you wanted) was the wrong thing to do.

Although you may hear that humans shouldn’t spit on llamas “because it will teach them to spit back,” we find this to be totally false. We’ve seen llamas spit at all many of specie that certainly never spat at llamas first. Disrespect for us and fear of us are what prompts spitting at us.

We avoid spitting at llamas ourselves except as a last resort because, try as we might, we can’t get our spit to stink. We need our spits to be taken as one of those “un-oh, s/he’s getting really mad now!” warning. Interestingly, once a cria has endured the aftermath of being slimed by another llama, one spit from us almost always provokes the memory-triggered “bad mouth” and results in the cria being more respectful in the future such that we don’t have to reveal that saliva spit is all we can manage.

RULES FOR ACHIEVING RESPECTFUL BEHAVIOR IN LLAMAS
The following rules, guidelines, and lessons will help you make clear to a young llama just where humans fit into their lives. As a mentor, you will be primary source of information about humans and the primary force that shapes young llamas’ view of us, and thus, you are the primary guardian of their futures.

Rules for Llamas to Follow and Mentors to Enforce:
These are rules that llama society uses, but adapted for llama-human interaction. When you enforce these rules, that tells llamas, especially crias and weanlings, in clear llama language that humans are to be respected, too.

1. NO UNINVITED PHYSCIAL CONTACT and NO PHYSICAL CONTACT THAT MIMICS FIGHTING MANEUVERS. The latter includes bumping, touching, rubbing up against you, pushing into you, and wrapping necks around human anatomy. “Uninvited physical contact” also includes running up to you without stopping at the edge of your space. A llama should consider about three to six feet around your body to be strictly “by invitation only,” just as he or she does for other respected adult llamas. Whatever distances in that range you feel comfortable is fine; the key point is to define it and enforce it consistently.
   


2. NO MOUTHING (past one or two weeks old). During the first two weeks, all a cria is doing is following an instinct to discover what places milk might come from. They’re not thinking about what they’re doing, and if they’re not thinking, they’re not in a position to be learning (unless the lesson is extremely traumatic – something we certainly want to avoid). These neonates are drawn to certain types of places because it hasn’t registered yet that there’s only one milk bar. We’ve found that not getting any milk is a much stronger deterrent than being pushed away or slapped, let along flicked ineffectively on the nose – so we don’t discipline them unless they bite down hard, and we don’t foolishly offer our own noses for sacrifice ruing this exploratory period. After the second seek, however, we react to all mouthing just as another adult llama would – with NO tolerance.
   


3. ALL LLAMAS ARE TO MOVE OUT OF THE WAY when humans need to pass through the area or their space. A companion rule for us is that we don’t walk around llamas, and we even deliberately walk through areas where young llamas are standing. They don’t get the idea that they can do it to us, but rather the opposite. Their place is to move away, ours is to go where we please.
   
   With a herd of grazing animals, social structure is reinforced daily without obvious fighting in just this way. A fight breaks out only if a formerly respectful animal decides he or she is no longer interested in moving to accommodate a dominant animal. Your interaction within a llama herd is constantly shaping the llamas’ concept of your position in relationship to them whether you are aware of it or not. Equally important to understand is that he llamas’ concept of your position is based on the rules they’ve already learned within their social structure, not your misconceptions or human rules! Going around llamas doesn’t make them friendly or comfortable with you. It does tell them as plain as day that you are subordinate to them and that you don’t want to stand up for yourself.
   
   Young llamas (often yearling and two-year-old males) in a “testing phase” will often block a human’s path (or that of another llama); this blocking does not start out as posturing, but rather seems to be a casual encounter from a purely human perspective (it’s not). Although this most frequently happens with youngsters that were either quite confident or quick to be defensive, this can also happen with llamas who were previously so nervous of humans that they stayed away, never learning the lesson of who-gets-to-choose-where-they-go. This is just one good example of how a llama can develop behavioral problems without having been handled as a youngster. The humans’ response to this will quickly shape the llama’s future beliefs about whether humans can and/or should be kept out of his territory by stronger means.
   
   If the human (or llama) who was blocked changes direction and goes around, the next step for the tester will be to move at the now-subordinate being when that being is not moving (similar to what we do with the youngsters to establish our role, above). Whether that is successful or not, the final step for the male tester to establish his territory is to charge the really dense-being when it is stupid enough to wander into the testing llama’s real estate; the “testing juvenile llama” has just become a successful territorial adult.
   


4. NO FIDDLING WITH HUMANS’ BODIES. That definitely includes playing with shoes and boots – an action that is a prelude to fighting behavior.
   
   There are acceptable and unacceptable ways to get a human’s attention. This kind of behavior occurs more frequently when young llamas expect you to feed them and thus are hanging around with you, but can happen at other times, or can stem just as much from boredom as from the expectation that you are smart and can provide access to food they can’t get on their own.
   
   Bored young llamas (overwhelmingly males) often pass time fiddling with another animate being. Normally this is a male age-mate, and the ear or neck mouthing, head-ducking, neck-pushing, and such leads to what is commonly recognized as an adolescent wrestling match. The problem comes when the llama is bored (or wants attention, or for something like feeding time to HURRY UP AND GET HERE) and YOU, the human, become the focus of his fiddling.
   
   Our experience is that people who do NOT have any particularly friendly or touchable llamas find it really exciting when a cheeky young male comes up and “spends time with them just out in the field.” However, unstructured time is precisely what should NOT be spent with those llamas. When a yearling starts “fiddling,” he is solidly corrected and we leave (on our own terms) to remove temptation. If we MUST stay in that pasture for some reason, we stay alert for a possible second transgression, which usually merits a bit of stall or pen time (a “time out” for the llama; freedom to complete necessary tasks for us).
   
   For bored adolescent llamas, structured interaction is more productive. Deliberately approaching a llama that likes to fiddle and scratching him (without mimicking any llama fiddling or fighting behavior) works well for casual interactions. Advanced lessons such as catching, haltering, and going for walks are also good. This may not, however, be a good opportunity for “pick up your foot” lessons, unless the llama is short-tied. Picking up a male llama’s foot can seem, to him, very much like you are fiddling with him and want to wrestle. Having him short-tied keeps you safe and short circuits his instincts.
   
   Another technique to address and short circuit “fiddling” is to do some fiddling of your own. Don’t use any actions that mimic fighting (such as foot handling) or do anything that results in the llama adopting any postures that are part of fighting (such as head down and neck across you). When our bored young llama comes up, invade the llama’s space by stepping towards him, and do something that IS attention but won’t lead to problem behaviors and postures (see above examples). Rubbing cheeks or muzzles with both hands or rubbing / scratching the llama vigorously under the chin all work well. The end result should be that the llama tires of being fiddled with (without progression to wrestling) and walks away – not afraid of you, but understanding that you are not the long-term answer to boredom.
   


5. THREATENING HUMANS IS NOT PERMITTED. Crias don’t usually threaten humans, but when they do, we have found a clear familial pattern (including father-to-cria links, eliminating environmental influence as the cause of those cases). This points to a primarily genetic cause (and a fine reason for timely neutering).
   
   We usually see threats emerging from yearlings and two-year-olds (although a few precocious weanlings get started early). It is important, though, to understand that snorting is aggressive and clucking has its root in fear. Clucking is a good clue that his llama is feeling defensive, not aggressive. Incorrect diagnosis (mistaking a clucking llama for an aggressive one) can escalate that fear and may lead to a pre-emptive attack.
   
   Most commonly, threatening starts around feeding time – particularly if “feeding time” means “special food.” Llamas that threaten in order to get something do it precisely because they got what they wanted that way in the past. Llamas don’t get anywhere making forceful displays at a bale wagon because it just sits there and doesn’t fork over the grub, and, so they don’t threaten the bale wagon – or the barn door – if that’s what’s standing between them and getting the chow. But they do threaten other llamas to get them to leave a disputed portion of food, and they quickly transfer this successful behavior to those also-animate but slow humans who just can’t feed super-impatient adolescents fast enough to suit them.
   
   A young llama may adopt a subtle spit-threat posture as he or she waits for the food. There may be a passing thought of spitting out of impatience. If your back is turned, this can occur without you being aware of it, and when you hand out the chow as you normally would, the llama assumes his or her mini-threat had something to do with that. With each successive day, the threat becomes more overt and delivered with more confidence . . . until the llama is “suddenly” threatening humans “with no warning” and willing to spit on them, too. It is the subtle ways humans often reinforce the llamas’ behavior and the llamas’ resulting view that humans can be controlled to their personal benefit that causes aggression to finally erupt.
   

If you are feeding in such a way that you CAN correct bad behavior and reinforce good behavior, and if you are structuring feeding in a way that makes competition between llamas impossible, threats rarely occur. When they do, you will know that the llama in question is directing the threat at you and is genuinely out of line, and the threat can be dealt with very promptly and clearly. We’ve had a few yearling males spit (out of impatience) at the human who was about to provide them with their food. They were both promptly removed from their feeding area by the wool and they went without their pellets that night. Neither of these llamas has given any indication that they would consider trying THAT (or any other misconduct) again – because it didn’t work, and the clear negative consequences were understood by each one of them very well.

To be continued . . .

Editor's Note: Look for Part 2 in the April ILRe-port -- to include info on: Rules for Human Mentors to Follow and Importnat Lessons for Humans to Teach to Young Llamas.