Help with Noisy Lambs. Baaaaaaa!

[lyoness]

Last year we got 2 male Dorper lambs @ 4 months old, and they hardly made a peep the whole time we had them.

This year we got 2 male Dorper lambs @ 2 months old. And they will not shut up.

We have had them almost 4 weeks now - their Mom had just died of a bad bloat after eating too much rich hay. They would not consent to being bottle-fed at that point, and went straight to eating alfalfa. They are good and fat lil guys, healthy-looking and active with nice bright eyes. They get alfalfa and some room to graze during the day while we are at work. In the evenings we let them out into a bigger grazing area (just don't trust them to totally roam unsupervised yet). They always have access to fresh water.

Every time they see or hear my husband or I, or there is a loud noise, or sometimes for no reason at all, they just start bawling their heads off. And it actually seems like it's getting worse.

I've tried babying them - petting their heads and noses, using soft words to soothe them, and they do calm down for a bit. But the baaaaaa!-baaaaa!-ing starts up again when I walk away.

We're trying to offer them a little "show lamb" grain feed. For last year's lambs this was a great treat, they would practically beg for it, and be awesome contented little lambs after their treat. But these guys kind of just push it around with their noses and baaaaa! at me.

Our property is only about 1/2 acre. We do have a couple neighbors' homes close by. While we are zoned properly for a small flock, and our neighbors are cool people - no one has complained about the noise yet, but I think it may only be a matter of time. Because the baaaaaa!-ing even woke ME up this morning.


Any ideas? Do they need more attention? Less attention? Different routine/diet? Pretty much willing to try anything at this point.

We really enjoyed raising our lambs last year and it is the best meat we've ever had. I would love to keep doing this. Thanks!

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Great lines there, totally relevant to anyone who goes with the notion that any breed is inherently representative of any characteristic. I've had plenty of 'quiet' and 'violent' breeds turning out to be the opposite, lol.

My experiences with trying to silence my orphan damara lamb aren't relevant to your situation so I won't share them now; suffice to say I am currently temporarily in suburbia, have had her since she was 2 weeks old, she's 6 months now, and can be deafening; and she's long weaned but won't graciously let me out of her sight.

My best bet with your new two lambs is that the problem is that they lost their mother in traumatic circumstances and have then fastened onto you as a comforting source. If they're twins, they're more aware that the other sheep with them is not an experienced leader to take them in hand and show them what to eat, run from, etc, so they need an adult like you to stay with them or they are aware they're easy dog-bait, at least they would be in the wild. They have strong flocking instinct as it's survival to them. With damaras even adult sheep will bawl all day if separated from the flock. A lone sheep is acutely vulnerable and twins probably don't find each other as being a comforting as an unrelated same-age sheep.

I think they should quieten soon but maybe getting an older animal, nanny goat or sheep or whatever, would calm them. It might be a good investment for future noisemakers, though you're not on much land there. Personally I'd seek more land because there's few things as stressful as trying to keep noisy animals quiet in what is effectively suburbia. Who needs it? If your penchant for farming is strong, you'd probably thrive on larger land somewhere rather than be stressed and thwarted in suburbia. My two cents on it, anyway.
Quote: In my experience that worsens it. In both domestic and wild flocks you'll notice many mothers ignore the bawling to a large degree, and those few mothers who respond instantly rear anxious and clingy lambs who fret terribly over nothing. The same is true of mothers of most species, an instant response reinforces the habit of making a noisy demand for instant attention which is often not needed, only wanted, and the baby grows up to be very demanding. Maybe their mother was one of those. Often the most demanding, sooky adults were the over-coddled offspring of anxious mothers, and they often don't grow out of it. Best wishes,