Hey Ben, thank you for taking the time to share your experience. At first we were wanting to keep them until 12 weeks, but then I considered what the two breeders who sold us the mama and papa did. The first breeder kept our mama, Joy, till she was 12 weeks old. Joy learned a lot at the farm she was at, was able to be with her mama and aunts and siblings, but she was not allowed into the fields with the animals, so she missed out on those interactions. In addition, she was fed a kibble diet, so did not get the awesome food we feed until 12 weeks. The second breeder released our papa, Teddy, when he was 8 weeks old. When we got him, he came to our farm and immediately started learning from our girl, who was older than him, and quickly became accustomed to our farm and our animals. He was able to spend 6 whole weeks of his formative learning weeks with us. We are glad we had Teddy for longer during his 14 week learning period, because he is now more attached to us than Joy is, got more time with us, got more time to learn from us and in our environment here. So there are two camps of thought on this matter, and I have seen the benefits of both. - Ruth
