The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: Nadine on September 13, 2018, 07:25:57 pm
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Hi everyone was wondering if anyone could help me. My two sheep are now 1 1/2 years old i feed them sheep
Mix once a day and they have plenty of forage and grass to graze on. As well as fresh water and a salt block. I was told today by a farmer that they would benefit from having a protein block instead of the salt block in their pen and a glucose drink every day each. Is this ok? And if so any ideas on what brands are the best. Thank you.
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Hi Nadine,
I suspect the stunned silence from everybody is because none of us give our sheep half of that stuff. I certainly don't see the local farmers around here queuing their sheep up every day to give them lucozade!
Whereabouts do you live, and what do you want from your sheep then? Are they for breeding, or just kept as pets? This makes a big difference, since if they're not being bred from, their nutritional needs will be far less.
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How much grazing do they have? And are they shut up in their pen at night, or free to come and go?
Without seeing them, knowing the situation (including whereabouts you are - what country and what area) and knowing the farmer, it’s hard to know whether his experienced eye tells him they’re lacking something, or quite why he would recommend all those things. If he’s suggesting glucose he may think they’re really quite run down. Or I wonder, was he suggesting the block instead of the sheep mix and salt? If the grazing is limited, he may think the balance between forage and hard protein has affected their digestion, and the glucose would help knock it back into kilter. Thereafter, a feed block they can lick at throughout the day might well be better for them than hard feed once a day.
If you aren’t planning to breed them, and they have access to sufficient nice grass 24 hours a day, and you don’t live somewhere extreme like the top of a mountain or a desert, then if they’re in good condition to start with they shouldn’t need any hard feed at all and certainly no glucose.
So as Womble says, we need to know a bit more to be able to point you in the right direction.
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Hi Nadine,
I suspect the stunned silence from everybody is because none of us give our sheep half of that stuff. I certainly don't see the local farmers around here queuing their sheep up every day to give them lucozade!
Whereabouts do you live, and what do you want from your sheep then? Are they for breeding, or just kept as pets? This makes a big difference, since if they're not being bred from, their nutritional needs will be far less.
Definitely stunned silence here! What sheep keeper ever gives glucose drinks except for twin lamb disease treatment?? I wouldn't even be giving them the concentrates you are already feeding!
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Are your sheep for breeding or just pets?
I think as they have been growing they will of been able to convert all of the feed into growth, now they are older and their growth has slowed it will be converted to fat.
If your sheep have good grazing and hay I don't think they will need concentrates, you could give a handful of mix to sheep as a treat to keep them tame. The only time my sheep get fed is when in lamb and the first few weeks after lambing if there is no grazing.
I would stick with the salt lick, unless your sheep are in lamb