[morri2]

Hi!  Might be a bit late with this, but did you see my post a bit further down about my ewe lambs refusing to eat their hay?  Its now been a week since the snow has been on the ground and they have, at last, started to eat it, but it took some persuasion.  I kept putting it in different places and turning it to get the scent to them, anything I could think of to tempt them, but we got there in the end.  However mine have been eating ewe nuts like their life depended on it.  I tried porridge earlier in the week as I was mixing it up for the chickens.  They turned their noses up at that - heaven knows why, I thought I was giving them a real treat!!  Basically, they are young, don't know what to make of all this 'foreign' stuff we are giving them, and need time to get used to winter feeding when there's no grass available.   Hows it going with  yours now? 

[katie]

My ewe lambs will eat a bit of hay but they're not really keen. The ewes  on the other hand, are wolfing it down. I wish they'd hold back a bit!

[OhLaLa]

They refuse to eat hay. Refuse to eat kale (they gave it a try , I think they would have eaten it if still in ground to pull on, but they found it unpalatable as a 'leaf').

This morning their galvanised trough had defrosted enough to tip the huge ice block out of it which was filling it so I put their hard feed in there (as had done prior to the snow arriving) and bingo - eating it just fine. It appears they didn't approve of the feed buckets.

Grass appearing again now, so panic over.........

  

[doganjo]

I had no idea sheep were so fickle!

[ScotsGirl]

Sheep are definitely fussier than children!  Mine pick the best bits of hay and will only eat nuts etc if the buckets/trough are scrupulously clean.  I forgot to turn over yesterday and one had a bit of bird poo in it and they flatly refused to eat anything out of it!

It was easier when I had the horse as they were too worried about her eating their grub and would scoff everything including her dengie if allowed!

[robate55]

They aren't all fussy. Mine will eat anything. At the moment they are eating a lot of straw while they can't get to the grass. They also browse on bushes & eat any sort of hay evem if it looks a bit dubious. I think they think they are goats

[Brucklay]

My orphan lambs are a wee bit fussy - beg at every opportunity then sleep on the hay - I have Ready Grass/Grass On (dried grass in a big bale) as a treat for the goat now and again and tipped a bucket of that over the hay and that got mine going - maybe worth a go

[mab]

Mine certainly aren't fussy - they keep breaking into the chicken run to eat the chicken feed - they even lick the spilled food off fresh chicken poop - Urgh!

[Sylvia]

Mine are also fussy. They would eat nuts from a bucket but now I've bought them a trough they can't seem to fancy them. Do you pander to them or ignore them?

[Anke]

Sylvia - depends on their condition. If they are in good condition any way, I would leave them to it, but empty the troughs after a while, otherwise the crows will c**p all over them, and they fill up with water/snow.

My ewes are in good condition and will not eat their afternoon straw (but eat their nuts and haylage in the morning), but the lambs are polishing off anything, including their straw. But we have more than 2" of snow here now for over a week!

Also the lambs are much more vocal, I find I have to close my ears - whenever they hear me outside the baaa-ing starts!

[Brucklay]

Thank you Anke - close my ears, must do that - I hear the lambs and automatically throw more hay over to their pile, then noticed it was a pile so I think their getting picky and just shouting when they see me - will bowl me over for crunchies in the evening but spend more time sleeping on their hay pile than eating it - so I think the conclusion is their spoilt!!! We do have about 2 ft of snow though so I don't want them to be hungry -- rock and a hard place springs to mind

[ellisr]

Well I was having the same battle with 3 lambs and I have sadly lost. 2 I can understand as they just didn't have the same condition as the other lambs and for love nor money could I get them to eat hay but the other looked in good condition but when I came back from getting the food at the weekend she had past away (it was -12) I have a feeling that the cold had a role to play as well as the battle with there condition.

[Anke]

That's quite sad, but if they weren't in good condition there is not much you can do with this  cold weather just now. I have a 12 year old ewe, she is in with the lambs as I really do not want her to see the tup again (she would if she could!), and check every morning if she is still there, so far so good she is doing ok. She is a shetland, tough as old boots. No teeth left - and she loves toast. I can hand feed her with no danger of getting my fingers crunched too!

If my lambs wouldn't eat their haylage within half an hour I will take it away again (and give to the ones that eat it), mine have it in feeders and I do throw a bit onto clean snow - all is gone very soon. It is strange I never taught them about hay, so don't know why yours wouldn't pick it up. I did feed concnetrate to the lambs and ewes right after they were born, as we did not have good grass until the end of April, so they learnt to trough feed early on. I think I had a hayfeeder in there too, but can't remember.