Crash Course in Sheep Please; I'M A SHEEP OWNER!!!

[Bridgemoof]

Beautiful! And so big! Congratulations.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Thank you guys!

So they've never been dewormed either. Should I deworm them?

I won't give them the horse pellets as a full feed, but just as a treat. The goats can eat the rest.

And they are big? The male is huge, I don't know but I'm guessing 200 pounds. But the ewes are smaller than my goats, maybe 100 pounds?

 

[SheepGirl]

Congrats on getting your first sheep! As for deworming them, are they thin (excluding the lactating ewes which will be naturally thinner than the other sheep), scouring, anemic, etc? If they show any of those symptoms, treat accordingly.

As for the mineral issue, give them sheep specific mineral if you can. Even tsc has a sheep mineral. And if there are no sheep feeds then you can feed them alfalfa pellets or as said before, grain (like cracked or whole corn, barley, oats, etc).

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Congrats on getting your first sheep! As for deworming them, are they thin (excluding the lactating ewes which will be naturally thinner than the other sheep), scouring, anemic, etc? If they show any of those symptoms, treat accordingly.

As for the mineral issue, give them sheep specific mineral if you can. Even tsc has a sheep mineral. And if there are no sheep feeds then you can feed them alfalfa pellets or as said before, grain (like cracked or whole corn, barley, oats, etc).

I haven't noticed any scouring at all, I can't tell if they are anemic, the girls look pretty good, but the male seems thin to me. He also has the worst hooves. Are the wormers and dosages same as goats? I'm going to have to try and catch them again one at a time and check them out thoroughly, worm them and trim their hooves.

Unfortunately we don't have any TSC's around here, (wish we did!) but I can get alfalfa pellets, or they do sell this stuff called COB, (which seems like it's just plain grain?)

 

[BHOBCFarms]

I feed COB, most of the sheep people I have talked to use COB because of the difficulty in finding sheep appropriate grains. I feed grass hay, it lasts longer than stemmy hays like alfalfa becuase they strip the leaves off and spit out the twigs. Lots of waste. My feed store in Escondido is trying to get the sheep minerals for me, so maybe you could get them from them, too. So far I haven't heard if they have gotten it in, but they are working on it. R Hay and Grain, if you want to call them yourself.

 

[BrownSheep]

We have always fed just a general trace mineral BLOCK. I know there are people here who disagree with block usage vs loose but that's what we use. We've never had a problem with it.

 

[Heirloom]

Wow! All you need now is a pair of lions and you can change your name to 'whitemountainsark' .

Beautiful!

 

[perchie.girl]

Check with Double S feed in Blossom Valley. I believe they carry sheep specific products and if they don't they WILL get you what ever you want. They do alot of 4H stuff. As long as you know the product they have a fellow that sits in the back and orders everything. Hes been in the feed business close to thirty years.

I am heading up there to get a load of Bermuda there today.

WRT handling animals that are afraid or fearful It would be useful to build a squeeze panel. The interesting part about restraining animals this way is once they have pressure on their sides they tend to relax and "give in". There are studies done on this If you want I can dig up an article..... Also if the panels are padded some and block their view of whats going on around them.

Once you get their hooves trimmed. If you can build them a climbing ramp/structure then cover it with anti skid paint the kind with grit in it that will help them wear their hooves down. I know that works for goats.

I dont have sheep yet but My prep for stepping into a project is to dig in to the Mechanical parts of housing and fencing. Thats Why I havent jumped in yet because my fences Barely keep in my goats.

deb "Who reads A LOT"

 

[PendergrassRanch]

And here they are!!! Man, I never thought I'd be a sheep owner!!!

So far they are COMPLETELY different than my goats. Like polar opposites.

]

Congratulations! They are beautiful.

Would you mind elaborating on how they are different? I am about to embark into sheep soon after having goats.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Wow! All you need now is a pair of lions and you can change your name to 'whitemountainsark' .

Beautiful!

Ooh, lions!


.... goes off to research how to get lions....