Shelters for Llamas

Llamas are extraordinarily tough and hardy, but some kind of shelter is necessary and useful. The type of shelter needed is dependent on age and condition of the llamas and on the environment in which they live.

Shelter for healthy adult llamas

In hotter regions of the country, three-sided shelters are usually all that is needed for most cases. This can be used as shade from the sun and shelter from winter winds.

Where it is very hot, a better arrangement for summer shade is a roofed structure with no sides. Shade trees with some spacing through them (for air circulation) are excellent. Some people put pea gravel down under groves of trees to make the ground even cooler.

In cold climates, it is a good idea to have a place to put the llamas where doors can be closed, to shut off all wind. Heating is usually unnecessary, but reducing wind chill is a good idea.

Shelter for crias or ailing llamas

Very young llamas do not have good ability to regulate their body thermostats. If crias are born during extreme weather (heat or cold, or storms) they are much more likely to do well if they and their mothers can be sheltered from adverse weather conditions. Llamas that are ill, don't need any further stress, so again, it is useful to have some better shelter for llamas that fall into this category. For these animals, we have a traditional barn with horse stalls that we use as our llama "hospital" and "maternity ward".

A place to keep llamas before a show

We also use our traditional barn for keeping llamas that are being groomed (or have been groomed) prior to a show. It doesn't make much sense to thoroughly groom a llama and then put it back out into a field so that it can dirty itself back up again.