What we DO and DON'T sell
We DON'T sell rookies to rookies
We DON'T sell weanlings and juveniles to people without adequate large animal experience, and we do not sell breeding stock before full physical maturity at four years.
We have committed to keeping potential breeding stock to thwart the unbelievable number of unscrupulous buyers who have no qualms about ruining our animals' lives (and our reputation) by working or breeding them too young. (For previous customers and for those who have already proven by their actions that we can trust them to wait, we will consider selling immature llamas on a case-by-case basis.)
Keeping each llama for at least one and sometimes two more years of training and trail experience ensures that none of our llamas will be worked or bred before they are physically and mentally ready.
This also gives us the time to train each llama at his or her own pace, and to get to know them as young adults, which is very important to assessing their talents ... and facilitating appropriate, successful placement.
Finally, it eliminates the buyers who think llamas will be "too old" at about the age dogs slow down (ie, when llamas are just coming into their prime). Long experience has shown us that these folks are just not appropriate homes for llamas — they have NO idea what they are getting into, and the llamas don't deserve to be caught in the fallout.
We DO sell happy, personable packing females, not half-wild walking incubators!
It is important to us to place our excellent packing females in the type of home that will provide them with an interesting, purposeful life. We would much rather see them go to good "usin'" homes — where they will receive the special attention and partake in the enjoyable activities that they are used to — than to become a mere face in a crowd of breeding-only females ... because that's what they'd prefer, too. If you are looking for a truly excellent pack llama, don't ignore any of our available females (unless you already own geldings)!
Occasionally we acquire a female who just doesn't care for doing things with humans. We disclose this, and do not sell those females as working llamas.
We DON'T sell "bred females"!
Please note that although any females who are sold as "breeding females" at the breeding female price are guaranteed to be reproductively sound, we virtually never sell pregnant llamas ("bred females").
"Bred females" are a bad deal for you, for the female llama, and for us:
• the female starts her pregnancy under the physical and mental stresses of relocation and with a change in diet
• you run a high risk of pregnancy loss, often undetected, and subsequent lost time and effort, AND you don't get the opportunity to honestly assess the female before deciding whether she's right for you (disposition is often quite different during pregnancy)
• we always guarantee that we'll take a llama back if s/he doesn't work out, but if we were to take back a pregnant female, we'd then be taking back two — one being the unborn cria we did not choose to create (and if we'd wanted that baby, you can bet the mother would never have been for sale in the first place!).
For all breeding females, we will provide discounted breedings to any suitable classic studs we own and have chosen to stand to outside females AFTER you've had the time to assess the female in your herd for at least 90 days. In some unusual circumstances, we may also agree to breedings for females we've sold to suitable classic studs we are not officially standing to outside females.
We DO sell future success!
We have no qualms telling people when they're barking up the wrong tree or looking for a fantasy that doesn't exist. We don't have time to waste on that, and even if those people don't have time to hear it now, we won't waste their time enabling them.
Conversely, anyone who truly wants to learn will find us a near-bottomless, willing resource. We'll help anyone who is listening and genuinely interested in learning.
Because we breed working llamas (not paperwork nor political connections), and because we disclose EVERYTHING, warts and all, our typical buyers often go through the same steps:
• They contact us wanting something we don't have (and that they don't need)
• They look at what we have available and express a lot of doubt (usually it's "too small" or "too old" or "isn't listed in the XXXX registry")
• We invite them to shop around
• They return and buy from us because they really couldn't find anything better at any price
• They email us to say that the llama we sold them is outperforming everything they have (and yes, our geldings can and do outperform other peoples' studs)
When we sell trained llamas, our customers get the joy of a well-adjusted, trained llama with properly fitting equipment and proven excellence, and they tell us this alone is worth far more than the price they paid. As one happy buyer said, "We have a new appreciation for the time and training you put into your animals. Knowing something is superior and actually experiencing it are two different things!"
What do you think the llamas would say? Yup, we think they like being sold into success!
go back to The Fine Print