Chat
08-31-2017, 08:09 PM
How old is this guy Dave? I couldn't believe the size of Crockett's horns when he was only 10 months old!
I read a study a couple of years ago about bottle vs. dam-raised bucks and rams. Rams apparently can be very hard to bottle raise without making them aggressive. Bucks are not as difficult as rams but may exhibit many of the same tendencies. Since they are imprinted on humans they tend to fixate on people as a sexual target when they reach puberty. They also see humans as sexual competitors which leads to overt and dangerous aggression. Dam-raised kids, being imprinted on mothers of their own species, have less inclination to see humans as sexual targets or competitors. This is not to say that bottle babies are all destined to become dangerous, or that dam-raised babies are all gentle, but there were overt tendencies which people who raise intact male goats and especially sheep need to watch out for. I found it interesting, and it certainly made sense. Females and wethers do not usually have these weird sexual hang-ups, but of course if aggression becomes a learned behavior, wethering may not eliminate it even if it helps take the edge off.
I read a study a couple of years ago about bottle vs. dam-raised bucks and rams. Rams apparently can be very hard to bottle raise without making them aggressive. Bucks are not as difficult as rams but may exhibit many of the same tendencies. Since they are imprinted on humans they tend to fixate on people as a sexual target when they reach puberty. They also see humans as sexual competitors which leads to overt and dangerous aggression. Dam-raised kids, being imprinted on mothers of their own species, have less inclination to see humans as sexual targets or competitors. This is not to say that bottle babies are all destined to become dangerous, or that dam-raised babies are all gentle, but there were overt tendencies which people who raise intact male goats and especially sheep need to watch out for. I found it interesting, and it certainly made sense. Females and wethers do not usually have these weird sexual hang-ups, but of course if aggression becomes a learned behavior, wethering may not eliminate it even if it helps take the edge off.