Question:
What special ration should I feed to my milking moms?

Answer:
There is no single answer to your question. Each dam needs to be individually evaluated for her weight loss during lactation.

You will generally see a reduction in weight in a lactating dam. Most dams that are good milk producers will lose 10 to 15 pounds during lactation cycle. We consider this normal and do not feed an additional ration to these females. These females normally recover their weight after the offspring is weaned. Some dams, however, do tend to lose large amounts of weight during lactation. These should be identified and fed an additional grain mix.

We feed one pound of the Hubbard Milling Company’s daily llama pellet to each llama. This pellet was specifically developed for a balanced nutritional diet. The Hubbard pellets have a total protein of 10% and are not considered a growth feed or as additional feed for lactating dams.

When we do need to feed an additional energy feed we have our local feed mill mix a 16% protein mix. Feeding an additional half pound per day is generally adequate to either promote growth, maintain weight during lactation or produce additional energy during the cold winter months. In fact, experience has shown that most dams will gain weight during lactation if they are fed a pound per day of the extra 16% protein grain. We find that the half a pound a day of the grain in addition to the daily pellets is aadequate to maintain normal weight in most lactating females.

The formula of our 16% protein feed mixture is as follows:

100 pounds cracked corn
100 pounds crimped oats
40 pounds soy bean meal (48% protein)

In conclusion, most dams do not need additional feed supplements. It is important to feed for proper vitamin, mineral and trace mineral nutrition and then feed the additional grain mixture only when needed. Be cautions not to over feed the grain mixture. An overweight female can actually get fatty deposits in her udders and reduce the milk supply. In the words of Dr. LaRue Johnson, "fat llamas make lousy lovers".