William Buchanan
Thu, 04 Aug 2005 10:17:48 -0700
Annette, You wrote: >>By the way... he doesn't ram the dogs. :O) so what does that mean?<< I think that means the ram knows the dogs are not sheep. My rams most definitely DO NOT consider me a sheep either... to them I am a predator. These are prey animals. They do not treat me like a rival ram or anything of the sort. The rams avoid me like the plague. There is no question they know I am different. I have a large Anatolian LGD also and he is their boss... they do not treat him like a sheep either, but they will allow him to get closer to them than they will me. In the winter, I feed my sheep grain in my barn/catchpen area. After pouring the feed in the troughs, I follow the rams around, constantly keeping them on the move so as to prevent them from hogging the feed. I won't stand for a bully at the feed trough. I realize the rams are only acting naturally and therefore I don't "hate" them for it, I just don't put up with it. It seems the ewes worry only about eating while the rams worry about butting everybody in sight. It's kinda funny though, the ewes and the rams both seem to know it is the rams I am after. The ewes keep on eating while the rams pick up and relocate. But this is just my experience and I do not claim to be an expert. My methods work for me, and for what its worth, most of my friends would say I am certifiably insane when it comes to animals. :) I learned most of what I know from working at a private breeding facility. We had many species of African and South American hoofstock, but they were mainly a sideline(lawn mowers). The most dangerous were the Eland bulls. 1500 lb antelopes with a pair of 4 foot skewers(horns) sticking out of their heads. I don't think they considered themselves to be prey animals. ;) The main focus was on rare species in the ape family and rare large cats and bears. Plus, I must not leave out the money makers... oddly enough it was Ostriches. It was an awesome place, better than any zoo I ever went to. Chris B. _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info mailing list Visit the list's homepage at Blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info@lists.blackbellysheep.info http://lists.blackbellysheep.info/listinfo.cgi/blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info