Have I lost my mind??

[Baymule]

Do you have a small pen? Take a lawn chair, upturn a bucket or a milk crate and sit there for awhile. Talk to them, hand feed them, it will do a lot towards gentling them down. In fact, don't put feed in their feeder, they only get feed if they take it from your hand. They are smart enough to know that if they just stand there and pose pretty for you, you'll eventually give in and put their feed in the feeder.

I feed the TSC all stock pellets. I don't give them much, but they sure love what they get. Do try to have fresh grass for them. You might have to split their pasture and dry lot them some, but that green grass means a LOT to them! For the urinary calculi, a couple tablespoons of ACV over their food several days a week should take care of that.

 

[Mike CHS]

The more you handle them the tamer they will get. At some point they will trust you completely and you will be surprised what you can do that they won't hold against you. I only have a couple that I use a halter on but they are destined for 4H. I just get control of them while I'm feeding and start gently holding their heads up. They won't fight very much if at all It and that's when I put the halter on. I put the feed bowl near a corner so I can use it to control them.

My older ewes will walk up and let me put hands on but if they have a chance to get away when you do something they don't want to do they will take it. They REALLY don't like to be forced to do anything.

We have a friend that gets shelled corn at a ridiculously low price and he feeds that but supplements with alfalfa hay to even up the calcium/phosphorous ratio. We have access to that same corn but choose not to use it since we haven't seen much info that addresses that.

 

[goatgurl]

let me answer your first question, YES YOU HAVE LOST YOUR MIND!! fortunately you lost it in a good way. I also have hair sheep and love them to death. I only keep 4 ewes and they are so friendly they can be a pia sometimes. like bay said just sit with them, talk to them and feed them out of your hand. as you hold feed in one hand gently start to touch and pet them with the other. they will not be thrilled about it for a while but over time they will be ok. this can take days, patience and consistency are the keys. if they don't let you pet them then no treat for them, they will look at you pitifully but don't give in. it won't hurt them to miss a meal and they will get the idea pretty quickly. good luck, hope they come around for you.

 

[Baymule]

We had ours in the yard today and one of the wethers got his head stuck in a plastic coffee can that I use for a feed can. My husband looked out the window and started yelling Poor Thing! His head is stuck, oh NO, he just hit the fence and bounced off! Both of us ran outside to rescue the wether. The whole flock of sheep ran to his rescue too. The can fell off and he ran off looking sheepish.