Thankyou for having a go at the 'adjustment' query. Still don't feel that between us, we have really managed to explain why sheep can eat dry for half the year and graze the rest without becoming sick and depressed from lack of grazing during winter (and summer in scorching climates!)
I think it's a 'lesser of two evils' situation. Sheep outside for a long wet winter, especially if windy too, and/or snow which could bury them, may be better off indoors, and it is then the lesser evil. As soon as the grass and weather are suitable however, they are better off outdoors.
If we were talking 100% indoors then I would also be worried about overheating indoors in summer, but as you say you have a small paddock for him and his companion to roam around in, so it's the lack of grazing that is the main issue.
For me also there could be an issue about how much room to roam around there is - sheep behaving naturally will cover a lot of ground in a day, and that exercise is good for them physically, physiologically and, I would assume but can't know, psychologically. I see a lot of ponies in tiny bare paddocks to prevent them getting laminitis - well I wouldn't wish laminitis on my worst enemy, so I'd agree that its prevention is a priority, but equines are designed to walk many miles grazing every day, and unless that exercise is replaced then, for me, the tiny bare paddock is no solution. I intuitively feel the same about a sheep in a small bare paddock - where is his exercise? Mental and physical stimulation?
Before coming back to you I went away and re-read the government Codes of Practise on Welfare for Sheep. The first point was that the Codes for *all* species give one of the 5 freedoms as being the company of animals of their own species. So I'd say another sheep for company would be a must.
On your point about horses who have a goat for a companion, these are generally stabled racehorses, who go nuts incarcerated in a small box with no company. It's not safe to have two horses loose boxed, and not always feasible to take another equine companion on all trips, so some folk substitute a goat. Much better than no companion - but not as good for either goat or horse as each having a companion of their own species. Years ago, after a dog attack reduced my chicken flock to one hen, until I was able to restock, that hen was an only hen. She palled up with the sheep, and flocked about with them, giving every impression of being perfectly happy with the arrangement. She'd come and chat to us, and follow us about, if we went out, otherwise she'd be with the sheep. When we did get more hens, she left the sheep without a backward glance. It had been better than no company, but other hens were clearly very much preferable.
Back to the Codes, on the subject of housing sheep, it does not say that sheep should not be housed all year round. What it does say is
The greater the restriction imposed on a sheep
through housing systems, the less the animal is able
to use its instinctive behaviour to minimise the
effects of any imposed, unfavourable conditions.
Housed sheep require continuing conscientious
attention by staff well-trained in the nutritional and
environmental needs of the sheep.
The 5 freedoms it lists as
1. freedom from hunger and thirst
- by ready access to fresh water and a diet
to maintain full health and vigour;
2. freedom from discomfort
- by providing an appropriate environment
including shelter and a comfortable resting
area;
3. freedom from pain, injury or disease
- by prevention or rapid diagnosis and
treatment;
4. freedom to express normal behaviour
- by providing sufficient space, proper
facilities and company of the animals’
own kind;
5. freedom from fear and distress
- by ensuring conditions and treatment to
avoid mental suffering.
(Worth quoting in full, I think, as others reading the thread may not be as familiar with them as you are yourself.)
From which, coming from my admittedly biased preconceptions about sheep, I would highlight
a diet to maintain full health and vigour - which I am not sure a dry diet would do, and it seems that the concensus has been that adding random vegetables would not overcome this
freedom to express normal behaviour - by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animals’ own kind - to me, normal behaviour for sheep is moving about grazing with other sheep
freedom from fear and distress - by ensuring conditions and treatment to avoid mental suffering - I have a horror of zoos, having seen too too many animals over my lifetime exhibiting very clear signs of mental torment in totally unnatural unsuitable internments, and it would worry me that a small bare paddock and access to a shed would be at that end of the spectrum for a sheep.
However, all of which said, you seem to be prepared to get him a companion of his own species (also rescued from death row, I hope, or I'd be in more ethical agonies!), and to investigate dietary variety and I am assuming therefore also other 'enrichment' ideas, so... One option which might work to give them the dietary variety (not just dry forage) could be roots or cabbage, which you could chop up and scatter, so that they would move around and kind of 'graze' to find them. Not too much or they'd get too fat, but just a handful scattered widely once or twice a day, to give them some stimulation, exercise and 'grazing time'.
And my final contribution at this point is about fleece. Southdown is lovely, although perhaps the most challenging of all the Downs fleeces, being nearly always incredibly, almost unusably short. If you would like a nice Southdown fleece every year, it wouldn't cost much more than a tenner to buy one. Your Southdown boy and his companion will cost you around 20 bales of hay per annum, probably similar in straw to keep their feet healthy, a total of perhaps 150kg roots / cabbages, routine meds (wormers, vaccinations, flystrike prevention) - I keep sheep for fleece myself, and I am very well aware that if it was
just about the fleece, I could buy the fleeces I want for a fraction of the cost of keeping the sheep
