[prns_shetland]

Hello all:

I have read some threads on this forum that deal a bit with noisy sheep, and so please excuse yet another post about it. If someone can direct me to a relevant thread, I would be grateful.

We have two Shetland lambs, about 5 months old. We have a small farm, just 1 acre. When we first got the lambs, they would amble about their field, quietly munching, and make the occasional "baaa", which was lovely.

Now, starting a couple of weeks ago, whenever they see us, or even hear us touch the door knob to come outside, they bleat loudly and longly. They seem very dissatisfied with their pasture. There seems to be a good mix of clover, grass, blackberries, wild rose bushes, etc. They tend to ignore grass, and once they've nibbled the clover flowers off and eaten the blackberries and rose bushes, they walk about as if there's nothing else for them to eat.

We can't tell if the situation is that they're hungry, or if they simply want our company. They tend to stop crying when we stand beside them. As soon as we turn to go, the scream-fest starts again.

I've put hay in their feeder, but they tend to ignore it. Because we thought it might be a food issue, we've moved them to different areas on our property using temporary fencing. But after a quick munch, it's back to loud, imploring bleating. We don't feed them by hand, just the occasional handful of clover when they first arrived (once-a-week kind of thing). We've scaled back our interaction with them in response to this new level of noise.

Is it possible that this behaviour will modify over time, and they'll go back to being happy sheep, or is this the new normal? Our tactic has been to more-or-less ignore them, hoping that if it's an attachment to us, they'll lose the attachment. As we have a small farm, they are unfortunately rather close to us all the time.

Any ideas to help our/their frayed nerves? We love these sheep, and we want it to work. (And again, apologies if this has been dealt with in another thread.)

-Gary

[Katrina]

I am not sure about what others have experienced but I do have one particularly noisy sheep.  She is known as noisy Mira, she is even known to the neighbours   . She would go frantic whenever she would see me and I thought she would never shut up. 

I then started to ignore her and I made a routine to go and see her first thing in the morning and in the evening and at no other time.  She has quietened down a lot.  At 6.30pm she will start yelling if I have not been to see her and she always shouts one baaaaa (usually with her mouth full) when I go out to the garden or pass her at, which I shout Hi Mira back and then she is quiet. 

It took a bit of time but she is fine now, and is actually useful because I know when she is going mental something is wrong - like when a lamb had escaped and when a heb was stuck in a bush.  She is my problem alarm.

[prns_shetland]

Thanks, Katrina. Your experience affirms what we were thinking, which is that we have been more-or-less ignoring them during the day, and limiting our contact with them to morning and evening as they go out and then in for the night. We'll cross our fingers and hope that as they age they'll calm down.

Thanks again!

[Dogwalker]

Have they got plenty of water?
Do they need to come in for the night?

I've got a bigger flock and haven't had that problem with sheep but one of the goats always shouts if the water bucket is empty or dirty.

[Fleecewife]

Certain Shetlands just are noisy.  We used to have one we called Yell, and her lambs always took after her.  Now Bernie, since she became an old lady with privileges is very talkative and always replies to her name (which is helpful as she is otherwise very well camouflaged.  Jezzie our ancient Heb is also very vocal when it gets towards biscuit time - she has no teeth so gets Digestives.
We just accept it.  I think your lads will settle down once they're a bit older.  Their behaviour could be associated with normal weaning behaviour, where young sheep call for their mums, but you are now their mums.

[shygirl]

ahh they love you.
if its any consolation we have goats up behind our bedroom, our neighbours also v close. they scream blue murder everytime they hear us or hear the back door open. ours sound very human like so I wonder what our neighbours think!

[plumseverywhere]

My weaned bottle lambs are really noisy!  If they see me within 20ft of them, they scream "Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam" and come running down the hill (and usually knock me over).   I think as they get older it wears off (at least my last lot did!)

[waterbuffalofarmer]

When I go out in the early morning the buff alert me to the fact that they want milking, when I am going out to get everything ready for milking. Routine I suppose.