Planning for the Future w/ Bottle Ram

[bubba1358]

THANK YOU, everyone. This is excellent.

You will learn to recognize this look--sometimes it's very subtle--but they have their head kind of off to the side, with their ears a little bit back, and they kind of glare at you. One of these days I will make a video of ram & sheep body language (like I made one for vaccinating and newborn lamb processing).

That would be GREAT! And very very useful.

It did teach me respect for rams however and never allow my kids in the pen unless they are right with my 2 GP dogs or with me.

How do the sheep handle the presence of the dogs? From what I've read, they are very scared of larger dogs. With a 200 lb. mastiff in the pen, would the ram instinctively keep his distance? That might very well be the solution for me, especially with the wife and kids. The dog walks well on a leash, and is protective of the family.

I agree, unless you have a donkey that is used to being with sheep you have no idea how he will act. ... Do you already own the bottle baby ram? Can you sell that one and buy a different ram? Or as someone else suggested, feed him through a fence and ignore him other than feedings. No tickles or loves from the kids or anyone? He needs to know he's a sheep and you guys are not!!!

I have the donkey running right next to the sheep outside right now. I have the donkey inside the net 24/7, and the sheep currently are only back into the shed from midnight to 6 AM - otherwise, they're in a smaller 'pen' of netting that shares a side with donkey. Donkey was extremely wary on Saturday, but he's warmed up and is in the alternating curious/ignore stage now - no aggression. I'm gonna keep doing this all week, and run them together on Saturday while I supervise after moving the net. Then back to separate pens for a few more days. We've had donkey for a year, and he'll be good with them. I do already own the lambs. We got them Friday night. I've been price shopping and finally found a set I could afford, so exchangign is not really an option. Have already spent the livestock budget for the year.

Depends but I guess probably not. He will probably associate the with food and scratches which will keep him interested. Our bottle fed ram will walk up to get petted and then head butt and want petted some more.

Except for the head butting , this is what I actually want. I need to be able to have a way for him to approach non-aggressively, so it seems like treats is the way to go. I may have to keep him haltered all the time so I can hook him up easily to a post or tree for weekly fence rotating. But I like the idea of the fiberglass rod as a learning tool. I may invest in a shepherd's crook before they get too big, so he learns to respect the tool when I have it, but also learn to approach calmly for treats.

Thanks again for the replies!! Y'all are great!

 

[purplequeenvt]

I going to offer a little bit different advice.....since you already have the bottle ram, use him. You can always put him the freezer sooner rather than later if he is a jerk.

Not all bottle rams get mean. We have been raising sheep for 13 years now and one of our first rams was bottle-raised (by us) and we had him for 10 years before he died. I WOULD have trusted him with anyone, even children. He was the calmest, sweetest ram in the world. And we by no means threw him out in a field and ignored him. He was handled A LOT, especially in his younger years. He was even cart-trained. We currently have a 7 month old ram lamb that was also bottle fed that is destined to be a breeding ram. I don't anticipate any problem from him either.

The key is not how much they are handled, it is in what way. You should be able to trained your ram how to behave. He needs to learn who is in charge. Halter-train him. I have found that this makes the rams much easier to move around as well as giving you control over him AND it helps teach him that YOU are in charge. Don't ever let him jump on you or rub his head on you, even in fun. Always stay calm, never get aggressive with him. If he is being annoying....calmly push him out of the way (push on his shoulder, not face) and ignore him. It may take him a while to understand what you are telling him, but keep at it. This method has never failed us and we have used it on many rams (not just bottle rams).

Don't panic about the bottle ram thing, but educate and prepare yourself to handle him.

 

[bubba1358]

The key is not how much they are handled, it is in what way. You should be able to trained your ram how to behave. He needs to learn who is in charge. Halter-train him. I have found that this makes the rams much easier to move around as well as giving you control over him AND it helps teach him that YOU are in charge.

OK. This makes 100% sense to me. I have a quality over quantity mindset to begin with, so I can definitely see this working out very well. Thank you for sharing.

If I don't have a halter yet, would a small collar and a leash work while he's little?