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Author Topic: Help Please?! Advice needed  (Read 4121 times)

Gail@BrickHouse

  • Joined Mar 2015
Help Please?! Advice needed
« on: March 02, 2015, 12:35:34 pm »
Hi,  :wave: I bought some orphan lambs at market at the weekend. I have milk replacer, ( owen lamb), bottles and I thought this would be easy! I expected them to love their milk and their bottle feeds. Not so.
They will only take a very small amount and then want to get away. They came home on Saturday. One is around a week to ten days and one is around 3 weeks ( my guess). Neither is in poor condition and they both are well covered but I'm worried they wont be soon if they don't start feeding properly.
I have tried putting the milk in a bowl but they aren't interested in that either. I have some lamb nuts 18% protein down too. Big one is eating those and drinking water but not fussed about milk. Small one not eating the nuts and only taking a little milk.
Any advice or tips gratefully received. Many thanks in advance
« Last Edit: March 02, 2015, 12:54:19 pm by Dan »

Ladygrey

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Basingstoke
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2015, 01:10:43 pm »
Do you know if they were trained to a shepherdess??

as shepherdess lambs drink smaller amounts more often rather than slurp back a whole bottle like bottle fed lambs do

Skip a meal or two and then only offer half a bottle for the next meal, they will soon get hungry

Gail@BrickHouse

  • Joined Mar 2015
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2015, 01:16:40 pm »
Thank you - will try that.
Would you leave hay in with them - I read it can cause bloating? They were both very interested in hay ( there was a flap left in the stable when we got them home)

mojocafa

  • Joined Sep 2012
  • Angus
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2015, 01:25:10 pm »
Hi Gail and welcome :wave:

Where are you based? Stop panicking , when I was bottle feeding last year I actually had to hold lamb firmly to prevent it from moving off and persisted with bottle until it got hang of it.
pygmy goats, gsd, border collie, scots dumpys, cochins, araucanas, shetland ducks and geese,  marrans, and pea fowl in a pear tree.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2015, 01:38:51 pm »
Yes, offer hay.  They need long stems to stimulate their rumens to develop properly.  You can give nice barley straw if you prefer, but they need some forage from a few days old.

Personally, if they are less than 3 weeks old and resisting milk I'd withhold creep until they are taking their milk properly.  They need milk up to at least 5 weeks old - they can get by on creep and forage from about 3 weeks if they have to, but they will never develop properly.

And I agree, be persistent with the bottle and if need be, hunger them to make them want their milk.

Have you had orphan lambs before?
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Gail@BrickHouse

  • Joined Mar 2015
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2015, 01:50:43 pm »
Thank you!
Yes I'm having to firmly hold both of them to get them to feed. They don't suck at all, they chew! holes in both teats so off to replace those! I'll persevere of course, and will try to stop worrying! many thanks.
Ill remove creep and put in fresh hay and let them get hungry.
These are our first orphan lambs although we have helped with a friends lambs before ( hence the illusion they all loved a bottle!). Its a learning curve and I'm so grateful for the advice. thanks again.  :)
Oh, we are based in South Gloucestershire

Penninehillbilly

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • West Yorks
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2015, 02:00:59 pm »
I'm presuming you know to back them in a corner and hold with your knees while teaching to bottlefeed? and I think they like contact with something solid along their side, maybe makes them think of 'mum'?.  (added following your new post - one hand under chin and make sure teat stays in front of mouth, I found if they get the teat round to the side that's when they chewed it)
Bowl - If they will suck your finger slowly dip down into bowl of milk so they are sucking your finger in the milk.
presume milk isn't cooling too much by the time they are drinking?
I had one that took about 3 weeks before she suddenly twigged and started guzzling it down(bottle).
I had a goat kid that wouldn't drink, I put a little honey in the milk and she loved it. maybe others can say if that would be OK for lambs?

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2015, 02:02:51 pm »
If they're chewing through the teats they could well have been on a shepherdess.  You may need to get bottles with really good thick teat plastic ;)

Keep asking for help when you need it, we've all been there!
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

ZaktheLad

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Thornbury, Nr Bristol
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2015, 02:08:46 pm »
I'm South Gloucestershire too, so if you feel you want any help I am happy to help.  Have owned sheep for 30 years now and started with a couple of bottle babies.   Emily.

YoungRasher

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • DERBYSHIRE
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2015, 05:48:53 pm »
how much milk are they having each time?

mojocafa

  • Joined Sep 2012
  • Angus
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #10 on: March 02, 2015, 07:23:58 pm »
I have never added honey but I have added a spoonful of natural goats yogurt.
pygmy goats, gsd, border collie, scots dumpys, cochins, araucanas, shetland ducks and geese,  marrans, and pea fowl in a pear tree.

Hevxxx99

  • Joined Sep 2012
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #11 on: March 03, 2015, 12:31:01 am »
Milk too hot or too cold?

B3a5tie

  • Joined Feb 2015
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #12 on: March 03, 2015, 10:24:41 pm »
Hi there.  :wave: Have my first ever orphan lambs at the moment too. Two drank fine from the bottle. One had been on her Mum for a week and never bottle fed so she was totally against it. It took just over a week of stressing to get her guzzling from the bottle. I tried different teats (she likes the red ones on yellow screw top) and different ways of feeding her - standing, on my lap etc. She was drinking water and eating creep and seemed very healthy - think she just missed her Mum. Went from getting about 20ml a day at best into her at the start to 250ml per feed 4 times a day. She just seemed to "get it" on about day 8.  :relief: She is now the friendliest of the lot - possibly due to all the extra "cuddles"! Definitely worth persevering. Now I am worried about bloat as they are all feeding so well....!  :-\


Beeducked

  • Joined Jan 2012
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #13 on: March 03, 2015, 10:43:40 pm »
I had my first cades last year having bottle fed lambs from the farm down the road for much of my childhood. Always fun and ever so easy!
Mine fought like little demons, wouldn't take the bottle, wouldn't feed. It was a battle 5 times a day for 3 days and I seriously thought they were going to starve themselves. Had to tube them a couple of times which always felt like a bit of a failure but finally they/we got the hang of it and from then on there was no stopping them.
Keep going, it will get easier.

Old Shep

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • North Yorkshire
Re: Help Please?! Advice needed
« Reply #14 on: March 04, 2015, 11:22:08 pm »
Hi :wave:

Basic things to check is the hole in the teat the right size to let enough out but not enough to choke? Do you make sure the bottle is tipped upwards enough so no air is going into the teat just milk? Experiment with different positions but you often have to hold the lamb still with one hand and cup the bottle and lambs jaw with the other.

Good luck!
Helen - (used to be just Shep).  Gordon Setters, Border Collies and chief lambing assistant to BigBennyShep.

 

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