[JulieJ]

Helllo there! I’d be very grateful for any advice regarding what I can safely use as a (two small handfuls each max) daily feed to keep my little group of adult non breeding sheep tame now that I have a wether among them. They live out at grass all year, they get hay in the winter (and quite often at other times just to keep them healthy), they have a mineral block and a salt lick.

They are Soays and Shetlands and they range in age from 3 to 10+.

I was giving them lamb pencils with added ammonium chloride but I’ve read that this is not healthy long term and possibly not that effective at preventing urinary calculi so I am currently switching them over to coarse mix without ammonium chloride.

Does this sound like the best I can do for them or should I be giving them soaked beet pulp or grass nuts maybe?

Any advice appreciated.

[twizzel]

I would have said a lamb mix with ammonium chloride would have been best. My tups get a bit to keep them tame and have never had any problems. Quite often feeds without ammonium chloride are suited more to ewes and therefore not good for wethers.


Really to keep them tame a handful in a bucket once or twice a week will suffice. Pet sheep in good condition don’t need daily feeds.

[Richmond]

Why not offer chopped up carrot and/or apple in a bucket instead? Or hold a whole carrot in your hand by the end and let them bite bits off (our Soays like doing this).

[Bishybarneybee]

If you have a Mole Valley Stores near you they do a Lamb & Tup coarse mix that contains Ammonium Chloride.

I feed it to my ram lambs, wethers and tups and they all love it. It keeps them friendly too!

[Fleecewife]

Carr's Champion Tup but really you would be best with something without feed value such as willow branches, cow parsley, carrots and apples if they like them or even very small bits of digestive biscuits, a piece each.  Soays in particular and wethers in particular again, don't need an actual feed treat. Both Soays and Shetlands can get too fat quickly and can become pushy and rough with you from hand feeding.  It's very cute when they eat out of your pocket but the shoving and jumping can be too much.  Just because they're actually wethers doesn't mean they don't think they're tups.
I agree too that treats a couple of times a week is enough to keep them friendly.  We give our males a very small amount of Tup&Lamb coarse mix when it's snowing or frozen solid, otherwise they graze and browse the hedgerows, with ad lib hay in winter and willow branches.

[Clay]

Sugarbeet pellets, not expensive and rattle in the bucket they will come to you. No need to soak first with sheep or cattle. Horses a must.