Making your own grain mixture for sheep.

[Royalhaven]

I am interested in mixing my own whole grain mixture for my pet sheep. I'm wondering if any of you are doing this? I would like to keep it as 'whole', 'natural' and corn free as possible while making sure that I am meeting their nutritional needs. They are all Shetland sheep and none are bred or will be bred. They are pets only. They do not have access to pasture, they eat hay all year round. Any tried and true recipes would be great! Thanks.

 

[SheepGirl]

You don't need to feed grain to sheep that aren't growing/bred/lactating. Just a waste of money. Keep feeding them grass hay and they'll be okay

 

[Royalhaven]

I usually don't but I have recently moved them to a new a city and the quality of hay here isn't exactly up to par. I want to make sure that they are getting everything that they need until we can hopefully get the hay situation worked out. Especially since they were recently put under the stess of moving.

 

[SheepGirl]

I wouldn't worry about the quality of hay with non productive animals. Yes it is nice to give your animals the best, but sheep tend to be very hardy & can thrive on even very poor forages. My sheep always came out of winter FAT as ticks on dried out dead pasture (no grain). Your sheep will be fat & happy on 2% of their body weight in hay plus all the loose minerals they can eat

I'm guessing these are ewes, though? If so, and you do want to give them some grain, I would just do 1/4 lb of barley each. But don't feed more than 1/4 lb of grain per sheep. That will get them too fat especially if they are just sitting around being pets! lol If you have rams or wethers, you will need to balance out the barley with alfalfa pellets or beet pulp to get the Ca to 2:1 (two times as much calcium as phosphorus). Granted you do need to balance the entire ration with hay included, but usually the Ca ratio is good in most types of hays. What kind of hay are you feeding? Grass mix (timothy and/or orchardgrass and/or fescue)? Alfalfa? other?

 

[danielburns271]

Hello there, I will just ask if someone can provide me a grain mixture for Hogs or Pigs? so I can save money for this kind of farming...thanks in advance!