# Katahdin/Dorper lambs shedding



## Timonlionking (May 14, 2021)

I’ve been looking all over google, and I’m not coming up with any answers... 

Will hair lambs shed their first year? I have 3 katahdin/Dorper lambs that were born first of February, and they are FLUFFBALLS! I know it’s gonna be super rough on them when it actually gets hot around here. They have at least 1 1/2” of thick hair on them right now. They are shedding all over me, but it doesn’t seem to get better. 

I’ve never sheared (shorn?) before, these are my first sheep... any tips?


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## Baymule (May 14, 2021)

I have Dorper and Katahdin mix ewes with a Katahdin ram. I have ewes that never shed out and keep a matted mohawk. I recently ordered hand shears and am waiting on them to arrive. I pluck them all I can, but that fluff gets to a point where it just won’t let go. The more Katahdin I breed in, the less fluffy lambs I get. I had a Dorper ram before the Katahdin ram, the Dorper put a lot of fluff on his offspring and they don’t shed well.

We recently sold 6 ewes at auction, culling the flock because the half Katahdin lambs I’m keeping this year are more of what I want in the flock.

What kind of ram do you have? Does he shed out slick and do your ewes shed out also? I wouldn’t worry about your fluffballs this year. Some of mine kept their baby wool and didn’t shed until their second summer. The second summer shedders usually need some help. Hope this helps.


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## Timonlionking (May 14, 2021)

Baymule said:


> I have Dorper and Katahdin mix ewes with a Katahdin ram. I have ewes that never shed out and keep a matted mohawk. I recently ordered hand shears and am waiting on them to arrive. I pluck them all I can, but that fluff gets to a point where it just won’t let go. The more Katahdin I breed in, the less fluffy lambs I get. I had a Dorper ram before the Katahdin ram, the Dorper put a lot of fluff on his offspring and they don’t shed well.
> 
> We recently sold 6 ewes at auction, culling the flock because the half Katahdin lambs I’m keeping this year are more of what I want in the flock.
> 
> What kind of ram do you have? Does he shed out slick and do your ewes shed out also? I wouldn’t worry about your fluffballs this year. Some of mine kept their baby wool and didn’t shed until their second summer. The second summer shedders usually need some help. Hope this helps.


I actually bought these guys as bottle babies, but in the pictures I got of their mamas, they look like they’re shed out 🤷‍♀️


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## Beekissed (May 14, 2021)

Yep, what Bay said....first year they seem to not shed out, by the second year it's a horrible mess and it starts to look like Mad Max Under Thunderdome out there, with sheep wearing bits and pieces of a wool jacket.  The less Dorper you have in the flock, the less you have to deal with that, but usually the first year they keep their jackets, for the most part.


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## wolf (May 19, 2021)

Timonlionking said:


> I’ve been looking all over google, and I’m not coming up with any answers...
> 
> Will hair lambs shed their first year? I have 3 katahdin/Dorper lambs that were born first of February, and they are FLUFFBALLS! I know it’s gonna be super rough on them when it actually gets hot around here. They have at least 1 1/2” of thick hair on them right now. They are shedding all over me, but it doesn’t seem to get better.
> 
> I’ve never sheared (shorn?) before, these are my first sheep... any tips?


I have a ewe - was my very first lamb - her sire was 3/4 Katahdin/Dorper and her dam was 7/8 Katadin/Dorper. She has the longest fiber when she sheds, of the ones I have with higher percentage Katahdin. Mine have kept lamb-fleece through first year and following Spring their "blanket" starts to loosen and shed. She scrapes a lot off on shrubs and fenceposts, and I get the rest between intermittent plucking and by running a horse's shedding-blade over her. The resulting fluff that comes off makes great dense pillow-stuffing and quilt-batting once it's cleaned. The fiber that comes off her is about 5" long. But once she's done, her hair is as short as a pitbull's. It fills out over the Summer to Winter - and then she goes through the while process again the following Spring.


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## Cotton*wood (Aug 18, 2021)

Most of my lambs still have about half their fluff coats now (mid-August), and it's HOT out there. Poor lambies.  My one ram lamb shed out, but the ewe lambs are really hanging onto it.  A couple of them I think would come off if they'd let me work on it, but they're wild things.  Alas.  I'm glad they're likely to shed next summer.


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