5 month old doe trying to kill my new mouflon lamb.

[philter4]

Last week I received my mouflon lamb (it's a ram about 3 months old) and my 5 month old "wild" goat doe will not leave him alone, she keeps charging and head butting him as soon as they are in the barn for the night. It has been a week and she will not leave him alone. I go in and separate him after about 15 to 20 minutes because I can't stand the torment or his crying. Her horns are about 3 inches but very sharp and I am afraid that not only will the constant ramming of the doe hurt the mouflon internally but at some point her horns are going puncture and kill him. Every night I stop them and put him in a dog carrier because of the doe. During the day she chases or hits him if he gets close but he can get out of her way in the outdoor pen, which is an acre on a slope with all sorts of brush, live oaks, and 3 digger pine trees.

I don't have a way to separate them in the barn other then confine one of them to a carrier, is there a trick to getting them to stop the fighting? How much will she beat him if I just leave them alone for a night? She is a bottle fed orphan from a pair that was on the slope for brush control and the female died after giving birth to twins, her brother just ignores the new lamb other to occasionally sniff him.

Any advice on adding a new addition to a herd would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bonbean01]

I've seen people here will sometimes crazy glue bicycle handles to sharp horns...that will cause less damage. When we add another young sheep to our herd we do separate them at the beginning where they can sniff each other but not touch for a few days and have had no problem. Since this isn't an option for you, fencing off a portion of your barn with cattle panels may be the way to go. Hope she starts being better with the little one and people with more experience can give you better advice than what I have to offer.

 

[JTuffnell]

Our solution to a similar problem was to get rid of the butt-er! We had a 3 year old Shetland ewe (who does have horns although that is strange for Shetland females) who butted our new Great Pyrenees puppy repeatedly. She would go looking for him, it seemed; she butted him against the barn wall at one point when we decided she would kill or paralyze him if we did not stop it. We separated all the sheep (we have 5, all pets) and would walk the puppy, on leash, past them, and then in with them. The other 4 were okay...an occasional butt to show the puppy who was boss...but not this one. We then separated her from the other 4, although they all were in the same area. She almost destroyed the pen we had her in when the puppy would walk by any side of it.
We gave her away to a gal who "rescues" animals that are a bit "off", with the help of the sheep breeders we got our sheep from. They discovered that one of her horns was loose, and might fall off. THAT's how much she butted! Now they wonder if she has too much testosterone which is why her behavior was more like a nasty ram. At any rate, I was sad that she had to go (she did have nice fleece) but now it is safe out there for the rest of the animals.
By the way, she never ever tried to butt the llamas or alpacas, so she did have control over it.
You need to make your own decision for what will work for you; the doe may be our ewe's evil soul sister (!) in which case she may need to find a new home if your lamb is to live. Best of luck. JoAnne

 

[philter4]

Thank you for your experiences and advice. They have calmed down but not enough for me to leave him free in the barn at night with her. I solved the problem by putting up a dog run in the barn that is 12 X 6 so she can't get to the mouflon directly. When they are out in the pen she will push him away if I put food in but she does that to her brother also, and if they are just grazing she now just ignores him unless she thinks he has something she wants but even then she just pushes him out of the way, she doesn't chase or head but him any longer.