The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: firemansam on December 12, 2012, 01:35:55 pm
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At the moment I feed sheep mix as a treat to bucket train my 6 new sheep. Is there anything better/cheaper for instance would oats be better?
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Oatcakes - mine go mad for oatcakes.
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Mine love stale bread :)
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Digestives
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Oh yes, digestive biscuits or doughnuts!!!!
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Custard creams and pink panthers are popular aswel...
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:D
Mine get sultanas but the discussion about them (or the mould on them) being highly poisonous to dogs has got me worried.
Mind you, they and the chooks haven't seemed to come to any harm and I eat the same ones and am also fine. Well, nothing that can be blamed on sultanas ;)
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I use beet - but only in moderation. They go mad for it.
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I meant more of something to half fill a bucket and feed them into a pen, digestives would cost a fortune!!!!
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i feed sheep crunch but if im training them to a bucket i use the ewes nuts as they give a better rattle in the bucket and can be heard from down the park. but they actually prefer the crunch so i take both.
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You can certainly feed oats, barley or wheat as straights. Whether in the long run they would provide all the necessary nutrients you'd have to work out against what else they get.
The strange thing is that sometimes "human" food really is cheaper than dedicated animal feed. I make my own wild bird feed from lard, porridge oats and some mixed bird feed... That's cheaper and they like it better and waste less than if I fed just the bird seed. (And I have less wheat growing in my garden!)
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I meant more of something to half fill a bucket and feed them into a pen, digestives would cost a fortune!!!!
Pelleted bet is cheaper than nuts or coarse mix - its why I started using it...
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mine have oats with 1/3 nuts(sheep) to give a rattle ....now they are in I use less nuts !!!!!
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I have been told not to feed them any mix as there is plenty of food in the paddocks for the few sheep I have. And only to give have or a litttle mix if we have snow.
So what I need is something cheap that they like, then if needed I can add some mix.
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Well then - see what you can get cheapest! Friends of mine feed mainly barley, as they grow it themselves, and only add the appropriate mix when absolutely necessary.
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train them to come to some nuts rattling in a bucket, then use stones in a bucket for rattling at them, and just give a wee handful of beet pulp pellets from your hand when they arrive. Cheap and easy.
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I spend a fortune on oatcakes and ginger nuts as special treats especially when halter training and for Christmas day. Ginger nuts for 160 odd take some explaining........
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Do you have a source of windfall apples? They do have a sweet tooth, as all the biscuit replies show, but cut up apples work just as well.
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Mine love bread and carrots with the odd apple cut in quarters thrown in.