You will have to teach him how to eat feed and grass since he is not with the herd to learn. You can start anytime, when you are done with his bottle, take some soft, new grass growth, wad it up in a little ball and stuff a little in his mouth (watch those teeth!). He'll spit it out at first, maybe for a while, but he will eventually understand and start chewing it and eating it. Same with a little food. With mine, I took some pellet food and softened it in water to make kind of a paste and stuffed it in her mouth - also used corn meal mixed with the pellets. I hung a bowl in her pen that she could not get into, but could reach into (ie: she couldn't get in it and put droppings in it - VERY IMPORTANT) with food in it and every time after every feeding stuffed some (First soft, then just dry like was in her bowl) into her mouth. At first, they will spit it out, again, it takes time and they will learn. You may even have to use some milk to dampen it first to give it that smell and taste to get them used to it. Eventually, she started eating on her own out of the bowl and on the grass.
As for tearing up, I don't suppose there is any way to put him in with any other babies so he could be occupied while you were gone .. ? He would also learn to eat better if he was with other sheep. Of course, this isn't always possible to do, but would be preferable. . . Otherwise, I don't know what to tell you . . . Good luck, Onalee In a message dated 6/3/2004 4:02:53 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Hello There, I am currently raising ophran black-belly barbados ram, its over a week old right now. Bubba-Tex which I call him, he is very hard-head for me to try to deal with! Do anyone have any kind of ideas or advices.. I WILL BE SO HAPPY when I do learn something NEW! He demanding to be with me 24/7 but I have to work and do some errands while he is demolishing his pen. I also want to know when the best time for him to get eat some feed intead of being on bottle? Let me know thanks!! Kristen Hejl Bastrop, Texas =============================================== This message is from the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep mailing list (http://www.awrittenword.com/listserv/index.html). To respond to this message, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe or change your membership options, go to http://lists.coyotenet.net/mailman/listinfo/blackbelly To search the archives, go to http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
