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Author Topic: Why does my sheep not like my wife?  (Read 3372 times)

Backinwellies

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  • Joined Sep 2012
  • Llandeilo Carmarthenshire
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Re: Why does my sheep not like my wife?
« Reply #15 on: August 01, 2020, 07:24:25 am »
Best place for him is the freezer ....  will taste lovely!    Why keep a male (or any animal for that matter) who is an issue... there are plenty more sheep you can home if you want grass keepers or pets.   

Had own sheep for 7 years now and got rid of several iffy rams .... but still have the first Ram I bought and first bottle fed ram lamb (who we had vasectomised )  because they are gentle men ...... 
Linda

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Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: Why does my sheep not like my wife?
« Reply #16 on: August 01, 2020, 10:24:44 am »
He is showing classic signs of becoming aggressive especially rubbing his head on you.

Yep. We only let one male lamb keep his b*****ks this year (the rest all had faults, but this one is very nearly perfect). In hindsight, that was a mistake. We don't have another tup, so he's been "the one and only" since the day he was born. He also gave me a bit of a butt this week, and tried the head rubbing thing too.

I immediately caught him and tipped him, then sat on him for a minute in an attempt to teach him that he's below me in the pecking order. He then ran off tail between his legs, so I'm *hoping* that's a lesson learned.

He's still small, so this isn't a big issue - yet. However, if he tries it again, he'll be going for meat no matter how good he turns out, as I won't have him in our flock, and definitely won't sell him on. I do wonder if a lot of this is because he's never had to establish himself in a pecking order with other males?
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Trix

  • Joined Jul 2020
Re: Why does my sheep not like my wife?
« Reply #17 on: August 04, 2020, 03:23:22 am »
We found that a squirt of water in the face from a handheld triggered squirter every time he got a bit bolshy, and he backs right off. He hates it. Even the sight of the water bottle, and he backs down. He’s been good as gold since.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Why does my sheep not like my wife?
« Reply #18 on: August 04, 2020, 11:48:32 am »
We found that a squirt of water in the face from a handheld triggered squirter every time he got a bit bolshy, and he backs right off. He hates it. Even the sight of the water bottle, and he backs down. He’s been good as gold since.


Great idea, but never turn your backs on him for a second!
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tommytink

  • Joined Aug 2018
Re: Why does my sheep not like my wife?
« Reply #19 on: August 04, 2020, 03:18:25 pm »
We bought our ram and believe him to be an ex show sheep. I liked him because he seemed tame and I wanted something easy to handle. Don’t you learn a lot when you first start out?!!
He used to rub his head on our legs. I saw him doing it with his breeder too the day we bought him. Then one day out of the blue he decided to side-swipe me. He has horns too! He did it once more, and thereafter
I have eyes in the back of my head when I’m in the field with him. Just recently I’ve started taking a crook in with me and I don’t let him stand too close to me. He won’t run at me so I can control him that way.
It is hard when they’re little as they look cute, but I try not to pet them, and definitely don’t touch their head area. One ram lamb has started to try the head rubbing and give little butts but I push him away. I always try to make myself look big and give off an aura of dominance if that makes sense.
I saw a piece online about a little boy who was “best friends” with a ram. Led him around, washed him, laid down with him. Baffles me how they’d trust it!

NZ Caz

  • Joined Aug 2020
Re: Why does my sheep not like my wife?
« Reply #20 on: August 05, 2020, 11:12:30 am »
We had a beautiful pet ram given to us after school ag day had finished.  He was beautifully natured and super friendly.  One day however started head rubbing, then head butting, then charging at and ramming myself and the kids.  Eventually started on my husband too. (All this progressed over the course of several months).  My husband would grab him, flip him and hold him down or give him a whack - that only helped for a shortwhile (as others on this forum have suggested is likely to happen).  Eventually we swapped him for a whethered ram from friends (they knew the issues but they needed a working ram, and treated their small flock as stock not pets so not in the paddock and thought they'd be fine).  A few months later he was off to the butcher as he'd broken the farmers ribs! 
I realise how hard it is to send a pet off to the works, but I suspect you (or someone else who enters the paddock!) will have a lot of pain sometime in the future if you keep him.

 

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