k Smith

The young sheep has access to grass, hay and alfalfa horse pellets that are a bit damp to make them easier to chew.  He does it mostly laying down, a few times standing up but mostly when he is just sitting there looking bored.  (Can be hard to entertain him all the time .)  I will push the food harder to see if I can get him to eat.  I keep trying to get the flock to take him back or at least hang with him for a bit and even though they are actively not trying to kill him, they don't want him there either.  It is a step up though from killing him, unfortunately.

We are new homesteaders, finding our way on an old, hobby farm we purchased in Idaho.  I have a new young man from our small sheep flock.  We have 10 black belly sheep that we bred for the first time. (Them and us)  He was rejected by his 1.5yo mother at birth - she kept her other boy.  We did quite a few physical efforts to make sure he was able to nurse his first day from his mom to make sure he was able to get some colostrum.  The sweet little guy is 2 weeks old Tuesday.  He is in the house, living like he owns the place.  Drinking his milk well, etc.  The problem is he constantly grinds his teeth.  I was researching it tonight and realize he must be in some sort of pain, but he looks great.  He is very active, plays with the dogs, hops around, sleeps like a trooper, drinks like he can't get enough - until he does, etc.  I just thought he was teething as he tries to nibble everything.  I have hay and the soften horse alfalfa pellets available but he is still a bit young for those.  I am a TOTAL sheep rookie,  I am not sure what to do for him.  How much I should worry or if I am just pampering him too much(I've been told I pamper all the sheep too much).   If anyone could give me some pointers, I would be very grateful.  Thank you in advance.


Kim

Hello - I am a very new user - 5 minutes old. I have been getting the emails for a few months now but have never logged on to the site. So in the spirit of helping, I signed up tonight. I really like the job you have done, it is a nicely done website. But you asked for thoughts, so....

I was wondering if you would consider making the color of the words on the left column a bit of a different color. They tend to be hard to read with the brownish on brown. Also, if I can second the "new to site" quick tutorial that would be so awesome. I was able to cruise my way around pretty well. As a total newbie, I really do not understand the distinction between Hot topics and Best topics and flagged topics, recent ones are obvious . Thank you so very much for a wonderful site and your hard work. Great job to you and your wonderful team.

Kim