Baby sheep question..Cause this sheep is ticking me off?

Question

so a baby sheep was boring about a month ago and the mother end up dieing...so we took the responsibility to take care of the lamb and it went very well it came out to be a very strong health sheep now.Also the fact that it finish a 50lb bag of formulated sheep milk.Now we feel its time for the baby sheep to go with the bigger sheep's and start feeding it self. but this d**n sheep is so d**n attach to us that it does not want to leave us...and it still Lambs us for milk we see the Lamb eating grass but it still keeping coming back. We kick it off our porch were it sleep from the time his mother died until now..And now he is much older..we want him to go with the other sheep but he doesn't.HELP ME PLEASE!!Before i eat him all up!

Another thing is we took care of this lamb for over a mouth and a half now..so isnt it time

Answer 1

Uhhh . . .yup.  That's the problem you get when you try to be nice to animals. They become lazy and absolutely dependent on YOU.

But, given good food, NO animal will let itself starve.  So you need to practice "tough love".  Pu it in the pen and LEAVE IT THERE.  

I know you feel sorry for it, but it will become a pest if you don't.  Sheep are sweet animals, but they canNOT be housebroken, and make bad indoor pets.

So, no matter how much it cries and looks at you this those big ol' eyes, you HAVE to leave it in the pen with the other animals.

Answer 2

it def has to be a gradual change for the lamb..since it is so used to you guys taking care of it it looks to you guys as the head sheep..so i would gradually ween it from you and the milk

dont just put it outside and say go away and hang out with the other sheep..that aint gonna work..id try taking it out with all the other sheep and feeding it there with all the others around ..maybe stick around for awhile till it gets used to everything and then leave..coming back every once in a while to check on it ..it will get the point sooner or later  

Answer 3

When you say you 'kick it off your porch', I hope you don't mean that literally. Please don't be cruel to it, because it doesn't understand that you are going to care for it one day and try to get rid of it the next. As far as weaning is concerned, it might need to be fed milk for a while longer. Lambs are usually weaned at 2 to 3 months of age, so it would depend on how old it was when you got it. If it was newly born, it would need to be fed milk for at least another two weeks. If it was already a few weeks old, it should be okay to wean it now. If it's eating grass and drinking water from a bucket or whatever water supply it has, that's a good start. Even when it is of weaning age, it will still want milk until it gets used to the idea that it doesn't get fed any more. That's normal. It takes them a while to realise, as you'd expect.

I grew up in the country, on a sheep and cattle property, and I can tell you that every single sheep that we hand raised NEVER left the area around our home, even when they grew up. This is the responsibility you have when you decide to care for animals. It almost certainly believes it is a person now, and the chances of it ever wanting to mix with other sheep are not high at all.  

I don't know what your situation is, but if you live on a ranch, I'd suggest just putting it outside your garden and letting it eat the grass that grows there (assuming there is plenty of grass for it to eat) and live out there. All you need to do is make sure it always has a water supply. It will always be a pet and you can just pat it and talk to it when you are out there.

If you are totally set on the idea of getting it away from your house, there is one thing that you could try, but not until after it's been weaned. It may or may not work. If you have a paddock where the water supply (dam etc.) for the stock is on the side of the paddock in the direction where your home is, and if sheep are in that paddock, you could try putting the lamb in that paddock with the other sheep. The reason it's important that the water supply is on the side of the paddock in the direction where your home is, is that the lamb most likely will stay around that fence. I don't know how clear that sounds. What I mean is....Imagine where your house is in relation to the water supply of the paddocks. To put the lamb in a paddock to the east of your house, make sure it is a paddock where the dam is on the western side of the paddock, and near the fence, because the lamb will almost certainly be staying on that fenceline trying to get back to your house. If there is no water around, it may dehydrate and die even if it does end up trying to find water. When you put the lamb in the paddock, make sure you put it with the other sheep, and do it while the other sheep are actually at the dam. Honestly, I don't give any guarantee that it will work, as the lamb will probably end up just hanging out by itself near the fence, and getting eaten by a predator because of being alone. For sheep, there is safety in numbers, and a sheep by itself probably won't last long.

If you have really decided that you don't want to keep it, and if all the above sounds like too much hassle, I can only suggest that you sell or give it to someone who wants a pet sheep. Make sure that it's a kind person who doesn't have dogs that will attack it. Ideally, try to find someone who lives out of town to take it.

Sorry this is so long, but I just love sheep and I hope my advice has helped in some way. I had dozens of pet sheep when I was younger which had been orphaned/rejected by their mothers etc..

Good luck. Hope things work out well for all concerned.