[Jacob-list] acorns

[Kathryn Shirley]

Many years ago, I was told that acorns will make horses, cows, goats and sheep sick if they ate too many.  The first year, I went out and raked billions of acorns out from under my abundant oak trees in the pasture.  By year two, I was working rotating shifts and was not able to rake them up.  

To my horror, I observed my sheep happily crunching every acorn they could find.  So did the cows and the horses.  The vet gave me a list of symptoms to look for and chastised me for the "ordeal" I was putting my animals through.  

Absolutely no one got sick from chowing down on the acorns.  My theory is that they also had plenty of hay, minerals and were grained once a day so they never got a toxic level of tannins in their gut.  I no longer bother to rake up acorns and they seem to provide plenty of calories and protein to the girls.

Kate Shirley
Humbug Farm
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: ACAMDA at aol.com 
  To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
  Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005 6:43 PM
  Subject: [Jacob-list] acorns


  I let the sheep out in the front yard yesterday.  When I went to check on them a little later, they were all in my flowerbeds, and seemed to be eating acorns like they were ice cream!  There's little or nothing else in the beds. I panicked, thinking it would give them the bellyache, but so far they're okay.  I suppose squirrels do it all the time, but are acorns harmful for sheep?

  Kathey
  Sweet Georgia Valley


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