Housing Sheep and Goats Together?

[mylilchix]

I know this is usually a big no, no, but I have an interesting situation. I started with 2 bottle ewe lambs with the idea of keeping them separated from goats. Shortly after getting the girls we ended up with 2 bottle goats (long story). I put the goat babies in with the lambs to make bottle time a little easier. Now when I try to put the goats in their own pen they find every way possible to escape and return to the lambs. What should I do?

Thanks, Sonja

 

[woodsie]

I keep my goats and sheep together and they have lived happily together for almost a year now. The biggest issue is the copper toxicity issue in sheep (goat feed and minerals have too much copper for sheep). I got around this by feeding the goats their grain on top of a flat roofed shelter, or letting goats into another pasture and feeding them there and then moving them back later....a little labour intensive however but my goats are really tame and quite easy to move where I want them to go.

I just feed them sheep minerals and then you can copper bolus the goats 2 times a year....I also have a goat mineral block, the molasses kind (not the greatest quality minerals however) on top of the shelter as well, so the goats can get at it but the sheep can't. You could probably devise a way of getting a loose mineral holder on top of something that the sheep can't jump onto but the goats can. I don't live in a copper deficient area so I don't seem to have a deficiency problem anyhow.

They have probably bonded as a "flock" and now try to keep the flock together....if you are willing to do a little adjustments, they can live together quite happily.

 

[mylilchix]

Thank you very much for the advice. I may have to do that with this little group. I'm hoping when m ram arrives I can separate them, but in the meantime it helps to know they can live together.