Surprise!!

[LilyD]

Last year around August we purchased a pair of Shetland sheep, a ram and a ewe with the hopes of breeding them and making some cheese and raising some baby lambs for meat. We had the shearer come out today and boy were we surprised to find out that our ram was most likely sterile. She buzzed off his winter coat and informed us that he did not appear to have any testicles.

We are going to contact the lady that we got them from and see if maybe they will be able to trade rams with us. She sold him to us as a breeding ram.

The only problem is he is so darn nice and everyone loves him. We might end up with an unwethered wether to hang out with the ladies when they aren't being bred. Not sure if we will be able to part with him and we definitely can't make him into lamb chops he's just way too nice.

Just thought I would share my interesting day.

 

[rockdoveranch]

Wow! What a shocker!

I am told it is a good idea to keep a wether with the breeding ram if you only have one breeding ram.

 

[Royd Wood]

Theres an old post on here from beekissed about getting in the pen and giving the ram a full kit inspection before she considers buying - I hope it was a genuine mistake and it gets sorted out for you. Keep us posted and good luck

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Oh my. When buying animals you should always thoroughly inspect them! I hope the breeder you bought them from makes it right!

 

[LilyD]

It was our first sheep buy and the lady was really nice. She said if for any reason it didn't work out she would take him back. I don't think she did anything bad. We did check him visually when we bought him and he had the appearance of testicles but I didn't physically feel them lol. The lady who sheared them didn't see any incisions so she didn't think he was actually wethered. We are waiting to hear back from her but I am pretty sure that she will give us another ram since she sold him to us as a breeding ram knowing we wanted to have lambs. She was really nice and all her sheep are like babies to her and they were all really friendly.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

He had the appearance of testicles? Sheep testicles are hard to miss. They're not like dog testicles, they actually hang down. They would be VERY hard to miss. What your shearer said doesn't make sense. Either there are large dangly testicles or their aren't. If there were no dangly testicles, he must have been banded.

See this picture of a Jacob ram? Can't miss the testicles!

Either way, I hope it works out and you get a ram!

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Oops, you have Shetlands. Here's a Shetland ram pic .

 

[PattySh]

I agree sounds like you got a banded (castrated) lamb. Either they were all castrated or someone grabbed the wrong one? What did the breeder say?

 

[LilyD]

He has the sac that the testicles would come in but there is nothing in there. He was pretty young when we bought him so we figured his testicles would grow as he got older. They just never did and he never got any ram like tendencies either. The lady we got him from swears he was not banded or wethered and was sold to us as an intact ram. In talking to the vet he said that it's not unheard of to have a ram that is just born sterile and never develops testicles. Another option is that his testicles did not descend and are internal which would make him infertile as well. We wouldn't know without doing exploratory procedures and we aren't really willing to put the money into it to find out he's not usable.

The lady we bought him from called us back today and said she would definitely take him back and give us an intact ram. We will definitely be checking under the skirts this time .

 

[rockdoveranch]

The lady we bought him from called us back today and said she would definitely take him back and give us an intact ram. We will definitely be checking under the skirts this time .

Great! Thanks for the update.

Ya know . . . in 7 years I have never thought about feeling the sac of our new born ram lambs to check for testicles. When I am sexing them soon after birth, I just pick them up and check the under side to see what we have. When there is a fuzzy sac, I have always assumed they are filled with testicles.

From what we have seen in all this time the little ram lambs start mounting the ewes and lambs really early on.

Our little ram lamb who was born 4/20 has been mounting his twin sister for two days now. He is a real spunky little guy. May be a keeper for us.

And speaking of the size of ram testicles. When we had our entire family out for Thanksgiving years ago just about EVERYONE made comments and jokes about the size of the testicles.