Thanks for your answer :-) That makes alot of sense, right along the same lines as dogs and other animals. I didn't realize they could be fertile that soon! They've not tried to mount the girls *yet, but that could change. The 2 intact boys will be very upset being seperated from the rest of the group but I don't image it would be healthy for a 5 month old ewe lamb to get pregnant either.....lamb birth control pills would come in handy right about now <sigh>. Mitzi Potter Oklahoma
>Carol J. Elkins wrote: >I don't have enough experience or information to answer your question, >Mitzi, but I do know that most animal behavior results from an interaction >between genetics and environment (nature vs. nurture). If you were to >castrate a 2-year-old aggressive ram, in all likelihood the testosterone in >his system will have already "hard-wired" his aggressive behavior. But if I >were in your shoes, I'd want to keep my options open for as long as >possible. Therefore, I would not castrate the bottle rams unless their >behavior got bad enough to justify it. I'd breed them for as long as >possible. Also, those ram lambs could be fertile as young as 4 months; >certainly by 6 months. >Carol >>Mitzi wrote: >>Carol, if a ram were neutered at that age after that sort of testosterone >>related behavior had begun, would the behavior stop? >>Or is it a learned behavior that becomes a habit? (In your opinion)....I >>had thought the testosterone mediated behavior started at a very young >>age. If it takes several *years before the "ram behavior" starts I'd >>dearly love to leave one of them intact just long enough to breed 1 or 2 >>of my girls. =============================================== 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]/
