The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: lamblyn on April 03, 2013, 08:50:40 am
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Sorry if this has been covered before, but I only joined this site today. Bottle feeding four lambs, which were born too weak to suck or small to reach udder, or abandoned. All doing well, but is it better to get them on their feet and home them with someone who wants bottle-feds (no shortage of people waiting), or aim to have them join the flock when adult (worry about whether they will always be a "weak link"). Two are very tiny. Do tiny lambs ever grow to be "normal-sized" adults? Lots of questions, sorry, but only my second lambing, and bottle-fed twelve last year and only have three of them still alive!!! All that milk, creep, effort and TLC for a sad result. Only one is a ewe and aged one, can't see she will be big enough to be a mum! And the three (castrated) rams are all two thirds the size I reckon they should be! Please help! Thank you!
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If you have an outlet to sell them on then I would probably do so. If they are small and mostly males then save yourself the time and hassle and get rid :).
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Thanks, thought as much. What about ewe lambs? Will they ever make a good mother?
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I have 12 orphans this year and they are HUGE, everyone keeps saying I must be feeding them on rocket fuel ;D And our 6 from last year killed out at a very good weight. If they are on a bottle for too long they can go slightly pot bellied but if you wean at 6wks they are normally fine.
I've heard from both sides saying they make good mothers, but others saying they aren't that great. Our ewe lambs are very very tame though which I guess is a good thing, they come to a bucket easily. I'm contemplating keeping 3 or 4 this year to breed from, just got to persuade OH first.... :fc:
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Pet lambs are a nuisance when they grow up if you shepherd with a sheep dog because they don't "move" for the dog. If you shepherd with a bucket though they could be useful !
It is possible to get them to a decent killing weight if you get them on creep and grass asap, but don't know how much profit there is in them when you've done. If someone is prepared to pay decent money now I would go for it!
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Ditto that, they don't move with the herd (with or without a dog). Can be a pain in the bum as they either get left behind or distract the flow of the other sheep when you are trying to move them.
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Mmmmmm, hadn't thought of that aspect! Think will re-home as and when they become available! You put so much into them in lamb milk and creep and none of last years made a good meat weight, even if the kids had let me market them! So am now left with a bunch of misfits that the kids don't actually care about anyway! I learn by my mistakes!
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It's our policy never to breed from anything that hasn't had the best possible start in life, whatever the reason, however well they've grown on or however good the ewe and ram. The "tiddlers" have often missed out on sufficient colostrum in that first vital day and will be vulnerable to disease.
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My foundation flock were all bottle fed and have been the most fantastic mums, raising lovely market lambs. All of my own breeding that I've had to bottle feed have done well, only one cade lamb I bought in didn't.
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Breed pays a huge part In If cades are any good last year I had a texel X mule he grew like stink and after about 5-6 weeks didn't want the bottle. If there a smaller breed they don't grow as fast oviously and people tend to keep them on milk to long I have a friend who buys cades every year and raises them on goat milk....says he would never use powder as they don't grow the same
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All of my yearlings and hoggs are bottle, well bucket, reared. Most of them had problems as lambs when I got them as any that were fit enough were fostered and I got the others, many small triplets, all have grown well, unless badly reared should be normal size, only put to the tup if they are at least 70% full grown and you need to feed well both when pregnant and when feeding as they are still growing.
All of the yearling lambed as hoggs two having twins.Only one of them has dissapointed this year with a very small lamb while she is the size of a house, we will see how the lamb grows but may cull her. The others all have twins except one who has a very large single and all are feeding well except a speckled who has a pair of very large lambs which I am helping. The hoggs have started lambing now and the first three are fit and well, one has more milk than I've ever seen in a hogg, one has a huge lamb which I am helping to feed.
Yes they can be a bit of a pester when you go to feed as none of them have any spacial concept like normal ewes and are likely to trip you up, but then most of the time I try to arrange the troughs so I can put the cake in while they are somewhere else and then let them into it. Doesn't work now the lambs are small or I would cause chaos but they are not quite so pestering with the lambs at foot.
The rest of the flock are old brokers who are wild as hawks! However all respond to a bucket of cake.
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Thanks so much for that!
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I sell them as soon as they are ready, cant argue with the prices at the mo.
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When is "ready"?
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When I'm convinced that there is a chance they might live. ;D
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LOL!
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Mmmmmm, hadn't thought of that aspect! Think will re-home as and when they become available! You put so much into them in lamb milk and creep and none of last years made a good meat weight, even if the kids had let me market them! So am now left with a bunch of misfits that the kids don't actually care about anyway! I learn by my mistakes!
Send them to market, feed is too expensive to carry passengers.
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Is there any point now, one year on? None of them look like they would sell at market. All about half the size they should be!
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We usually take on a couple of ewe lambs unsuitable for breeding and take them in to the abattoir as hogget lamb at 10 months old - a bit fattier than lamb but much more flavour.