# Katahdin ram



## KatahdinMomma (Jun 28, 2015)

Hello! Earlier this year I acquired a ram from my father who had originally planned to breed,  but never bought any ewes. I have katahdin x ewes, so I took the ram off his hands.

All my ewes,  and rams I have seen shed  their fiber come spring/summer. My ram has barely shed and is maintaining his coat. Has anyone had katahdin or other hair sheep who did not shed? Should I assume he is cross and plan to sheer him?


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## mikiz (Jun 29, 2015)

Do you know how old the ram is? Maybe it's not as warm as it should be for him to start shedding, as far as I know an f1 should still shed out a little bit, f2 sheds out about half, f3's shed most of their coats and f4's tend to not need shearing at all in most cases. 
Do you have a picture of the ram?


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## KatahdinMomma (Jun 29, 2015)

mikiz said:


> Do you know how old the ram is? Maybe it's not as warm as it should be for him to start shedding, as far as I know an f1 should still shed out a little bit, f2 sheds out about half, f3's shed most of their coats and f4's tend to not need shearing at all in most cases.
> Do you have a picture of the ram?





 I believe he is 3 this year.  It's definitely been warm! It's been 80s, and this weekend peeked in the 100s. That's why I was considering sheering.


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## mikiz (Jun 29, 2015)

If he's tame, have you tried pulling or combing some to see if the wool is coming loose?


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## KatahdinMomma (Jun 29, 2015)

mikiz said:


> If he's tame, have you tried pulling or combing some to see if the wool is coming loose?


I was thinking about it! I can pull a loose tuft her and there.  My little brother (who wad the main handler before) is coming this weekend.  I have a shedding blade for our llama and was thinking of having him try it on Ramsey (our ram). Thanks for the suggestion!


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## mikiz (Jun 29, 2015)

Good luck, hopefully he's just fond of his wool and likes to hold on longer than usual, he looks like he's starting from the hanging fluff around his neck, makes him look like it'll come off in one coat haha
If it doesn't come off I'm sure a quick shear won't hurt


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## L J (Aug 5, 2015)

I was just thinking this same thing w my Katahdin/Barbados cross Ram.  He is the big brown one in the pic, Capone. He was born in February this year. 
  We had 95-105 degree weather the entire month of June and July hasn't been much better.  You can see he did get a chunk shed off, but all around his buttocks and around front legs just won't come off. He is surprisingly a pretty friendly ram, so he will let me pull chunks out, but only a few then he gets mad.


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