Sheep Chat Thread

[Penny Hen]

aw i hope she gets better hopefully nothing happens to her. hm thats kinda weird that she was that scared of another sheep. mine just walked right up to each other and then just started eating grass like if they new each other, but that good that they are bonding now. kinda funny about your dog you'd think even the scent would make him know its a sheep haha.

Ah but he wool sheep will smell very heavily of lanolin where a hair sheep will not. Use sheep Nutri-drench to boost the sickly ones health. Awesome stuff. Probably another thing weirding both the sheep and the dog is that because of the shortened legs she moves wrong. The dog is possibly reacting on ancient wolf instinct to remove weak animals from the heard. The sheep is acting on flocking instinct to stick with uniformity and safety. Differentness is sometimes seen as a threat to the survival of the herd. A single difference like fluffy wool can be overlooked but she also smells weird and moves funny.

 

[theuglyduckling]

is the lanolin smell the smell you smell when you smell your hand after petting or touching one? tomorrow i will upload a picture of my two sheep.

 

[theuglyduckling]

picture of one of my sheep the baby one didnt want to take a picture.

 

[Penny Hen]

is the lanolin smell the smell you smell when you smell your hand after petting or touching one? tomorrow i will upload a picture of my two sheep.

Yes that is it exactly. There is an Austrailian saying that you can always tell a sheepman in the crowd because he will be the best dressed and smell like a sheep. The lanolin is pervasive. I stored some cold-washed wool in my clothes closet and my daughter informed me that my clothes that I was wearing smelled like sheep!

 

[theuglyduckling]

Yes that is it exactly. There is an Austrailian saying that you can always tell a sheepman in the crowd because he will be the best dressed and smell like a sheep. The lanolin is pervasive. I stored some cold-washed wool in my clothes closet and my daughter informed me that my clothes that I was wearing smelled like sheep!

lol sounds like my fiance he tells me that almost everyday.

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

We are lambing our Barbado flock right now. I will get pictures in the morning. So far they have 64 or so lambs on the ground and they are probably a little over halfway lambed out. We turned out 3 purebred Dorper rams and 2 white St. Croix cross rams and there is a pretty definite difference in the lambs. We are getting lot of red and white spotted lambs out of the St. Croix cross rams. We actually have a few that are red baldies, like Hereford or Simmental cross calves. The Dorper lambs are of course black or black and white paints, but we have a few "good" Dorper colored ones too.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Lol, thanks. This particular dog is inexplicably stupid. I don't like to apply that term to any animal but he often earns it. Both his parents are near geniuses but the sheep are smarter than their son. Go figure.

Lucy's been orphaned since one week old, and has not been able to interact with anything even vaguely like her own kind ever since. This is a first for her and she's over a year old now so her concept of what a flock is has set in her mind. She still thinks she belongs with me.

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She doesn't actually smell of lanolin at all, not to me anyway. I remember how much my first ram and ewe lambs smelt of it. This one's been washed in some detergent, I'd guess by the state of her wool, and raised in something approximating a mud yard, also guessing by the state of her health and her wool. I'd guess the dog must be able to smell some lanolin on her but he's a sight hound not a scent hound.

I tried the old trusty trick of introducing them via smell, her smell on my hand brought to him, and his smell on my hand brought to her... It's always worked before. But he didn't smell my hand at all. Didn't appear to notice anything! She did; she smelt my hand thoroughly. I've also tried introducing him to some new family dogs via the hand trick and he also utterly failed to take notice. This has never happened with any other dog I've had. They've always smelled the hand with great interest, and it's helped make peaceful introductions that way. I suspect he has a faulty sense of smell, because when introducing animals, I rub their bellies, face, etc to get a good amount of their general smell on me, to make a decent 'by proxy' introduction, and the two dogs I introduced him to the smell signatures of recently were both female, one pregnant and the other probably in heat. No reaction whatsoever from him. He's not neutered either.

Normally I'd agree with you, that the dog is acting on instinct because it sees a weakly animal, but in his case he was raised with a weakly lamb and a very ill, crippled cat, without any negative reactions at all, and his reaction towards this new lamb is the exact same as it is for any animals that he's unfamiliar with. If it runs, he runs, that's all. As soon as she stops, he stops. As soon as she starts, he starts. The same goes for all moving objects. He chases thoughtlessly.

It doesn't matter if it's a single bird in the distance flying a hundred meters high off over the ocean... This dog will chase the bird till he drowns unless you catch him first; literally, you will see his head sinking below the water as he continues the hunt he cannot succeed in. It's a mental glitch he got from his mother's side. They gallop off into the sunset, deaf to all commands to return, when they've decided to chase something. This is despite both of them being trained and usually being far more reliable. Not great stock, very self-willed, nothing like the dingo mixes I've had which were far more inclined to listen and obey than these collie/cattledog mixed mongrels. The wild born dingo mix father obeyed me about leaving the damaged orphan lamb alone, but the collie cattledog mix mother snuck in a few test bites whenever someone's back was turned yet acted as good as gold when anyone was looking. The son takes after the mother, more's the pity. Anyway, he's coming along well enough with training, I think he'll be ok, all going well.

About the Nutri Drench, I'd rather use more natural methods than drenching her without an emergency need, but I will look into it to see what's in it, so thanks for the suggestion. I may end up using it or something equivalent if she doesn't pick up soon enough. She's eating kelp and a mineral lick, as well as some lucerne hay and she's on a good paddock now, and when she's adjusted more I intend to add more to her diet. She's on a vitamin C supplement because I removed a paralysis tick off her ear and she has wobbly hind legs. Vit C is generally the single thing best used to treat paralysis tick poisoning in my experience, plus it helps with pretty much everything. I don't think there is any one specific thing wrong with her as much as a lifetime of sub par nutrition. Could be wrong. Hope not. Will look into drenches anyway, it was on my 'to-do list' as an emergency back up anyway.

Her body's not grown much at all, her legs are still in almost normal proportion. She's not a large sheep on tiny legs, she's a tiny sheep on tinier legs, still with a good amount of 'ground clearance' and very agile. More like a miniature adult sheep really, not an adult on an infant's legs. She sure can jump and she runs fine. She's not like your usual dwarf, she's more severe than that, hence my worry that it may be fatal. But she's only young, we'll see how it goes. Everything's stunted on her, just her head and body are slightly less stunted.

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Very keen to see the results! I'm keen to add some Dorpers to my menagerie in the future.

 

[Betty1]

can a sheep be kept with a horse and would they both be happy together? Also does a sheep need a barn/stable or does it sleep outside?

 

[theuglyduckling]

can a sheep be kept with a horse and would they both be happy together? Also does a sheep need a barn/stable or does it sleep outside?

idk if you can keep a sheep with a horse as a pair im sure you mbe able to but im not positive. they will get along with eachother if they like eachother. my neighbors horse and my sheep get along fine and the sheep prefer to be by him if they could. mine sleep under my balcony away from the rain and wind with my chickens and they seem to be happy. just be careful because if the horse is a male he may try to "do the deed" with the sheep.

 

[Betty1]

Ok thanks it wouldn't be a boy it would be a beautiful big friendly girl