Does Rojo “spit”?
Yes- all camelids spit! (Just as all dogs can bite, and all cats can scratch!) Rojo very rarely spits at humans though, unless he really feels threatened, or is very stressed or tired. Spitting is a llama’s way of defending itself, or of trying to dominate another llama, animal, or human. Rojo might try to spit at me sometimes when I am grooming his legs with the fine wire-toothed brush, but that is because the little teeth tend to pull on the hairs around the sensitive areas of his body. I always try to be more gentle in brushing those areas, but because he kushes (sits) on the ground regularly, that is an area that gets dirty, and needs to be cleaned before we go out. We train all of our llamas not to spit using a squirt bottle of water- when we see signs that they are preparing to spit (ears back, neck down, grunty noise from throat), we “spit” on them first with the water, and say “no” , and this shows them that we are in charge. Occasionally, if necessary, we will use a “spit mask
