[piggy]

Have had a hell of a few weeks my dad is in hospital and the lady that helps me with my animals and business has fell off her horse and broke her leg,so came back tonight from hospital to find OH very pleased with himself that he had collected all the eggs which he sometimes does,fed the chickens,ducks,geese, horses and sheep which he never does i thought oh thats great thanks, he said oh bythe way the sheep loved the food and then it hit me,how could he have fed the sheep as there food is still in my car from my delivery this afternoon? he'd only gone and given them layers pellets,they seem ok but will this harm them.
Bless him he doesnt normally do the animals and i know he was trying to help but i wish he hadnt,just hope im not going to have a load of dead sheep in the morning.

[supplies for smallholders]

Generally layers pellets are very bad for sheep - check the copper content on the ingredients, its the copper that does not agree with sheep.

[Fleecewife]

I expect they'll be ok with just a little bit of the copper in layers pellets.  Round here sheep suffer from a lack of copper as the iron and molybdenum in the ground prevent copper uptake in the diet. Some people feed a proportion of calf coarse mix with their normal sheep food to give them some copper intake.  We give ours a copper bolus most years so they get a controlled amount. Occasionally our lambs have been found inside the henhouses (via the popholes) stuffing themselves with layers pellets from the feeders and they have been ok.
I hope yours are all ok in the morning 

[ellisr]

I have a whether that is hand tame and he has been known to raid the foodstore after one of his escapes, he has had layer pellets and has never had any bad effects except a poorly tummy from over eating as he is partially to a mix of layers and horse feed.
I have moved the feed store to the locked tack room but I have still had a couple of instances of when I am busy with the horse he sneaks past and has a feast, I try really hard but as he thinks he is a pony and jumps any fencing I put in the field including electric I just can't win. I am now looking at keeping food up high but haven't worked out the logistics.
Really bad thing is he is showing ram lamb that I was going to keep how to escape and feed on naughty things

[Rosemary]

I wouldn't FEED them but our girls, being greedy and always having an eye out for gub, used to squeeze (and I do mean squeeze) themselves into the chicken arks to raid the feeders. Ever seen a sheep with an ark on its back? In the end we had to rig up some preventative measures. The sheep seemed fine.

[shetlandpaul]

make sure that he does not feed medicated chicken feed to your horses. i read stuff on the label that warned it was very bad for horses.

[piggy]

Pleased to report all safe and well.

[ellisr]

Shetland paul did you mean the sheep feeding medicated chicken feed to the horse, luckily the horse doesn't fit in the tack room door so he can't get into food and he is too old to bother. The rest of the time the horse is in the top field so now where near cutlet and his antics, and I haven't hatched this year so no medicated food.
Now I have this image of cutlet walking up the fild with a bag of food on his back to feed Blueshaan, idol minds an all.

[Roxy]

When I feed my hens in the field, the two large male goats and the sheep rush up the field.  They go mad for the layers pellets.  Not that I feed it to them deliberately, but there is something in it, they love.

Had to smile at your OH.  My OH makes blunders now and then, and mixes up the feeds for the animals.  They have all surived his mistakes so far, but I tend to do it myself if possible!!