The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: FiB on April 18, 2013, 09:30:11 am
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Hi bottle feeding a rejected lamb and keeping him in our wood shed in a makeshift pen (pallets and straw) keen to get him back in the field for company during the day - what age would be OK? He's a very strong ram lamb, but I suspect he may be blind. Nothing evidently wrong with eyes (eyelashes etc) but he doesnt seem to respond to visual changes. Took him with me yesterday whilst I was working but he still kept trying to find a mum and getting butted - would all that sort itself out? I brought him back in he's only 2 days old, but very strong and I want him to join the flock asap (I'll bring him back in at night for as long as he's having night feeds). cheers, fi
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Oh I sympathise with you hun!
My concern with my bottle baby was not so much whether he could manage outside but more with no ewe to defend him Mr Fox would have a ready meal.
So I got another bottle baby to keep him company and now have 2 horrible weeing noisy things in my truck with me ::)
Love em dearly though but they will be evicted as soon as they are too big for the fox ;D
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Roughly, what age/size would that be. I’m in a similar position with two orphans, but when turned out they’ll be on their own (no other sheep).
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EP90 I turned my orphans out into a paddock in the back garden at 6 weeks, the week I weaned them off milk. They have just gone out into the field last night, the oldest are 10 weeks and the youngest are 7 weeks old. We have a lot of foxes and there is a big badger set in the field but they are big enough to fend on their own now.
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wow 6 weeks!!! My neighbour says chuck em out now! I would bring in at night (although we do have had afternoon fox chicken kills in past) - but my main worry is being butted by other sheep. guess I will keep taking him with me (when he has been fed) when I am working in that field and watching out for him. want him to sleep in the sun and frolick with the other lambs. I am NOT getting another one on purpose colliewoman!!!!!!!!
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If he's going out with other sheep then yes you could probably put him out now, or at the very latest a week old. Ours went out late because they don't have any ewes to protect them and we have a lot of badger sets and foxes on the farm. Plus it is easier to have them in whilst on milk- they were on a Shepherdess, and it gave the grass a chance to grow ;)
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Can't help about bottle lambs, but maybe I can about blind lambs.
A Shetland ewe here had a single blind ewe lamb a few years ago (the ewe herself had only one eye but that was unrelated and it's a different story :sheep: ;D ) Once we realised the lamb was blind (she ran away from her dam every time she was approached and was quite scared) we penned them up together for a few days. The lamb wouldn't feed when outside and I was worried the ewe wouldn't cope even in the pen. We left them overnight expecting a dead lamb by the morning but she was up and bouncing - unfortunately smack into the pen sides which made us all wince. After a couple of days we put them outside together - lamb stayed close beside her dam and the dam soon became used to her lamb's funny ways. We thought she wouldn't join in with the lamb wacky races, but she would put herself right in the middle of the group, so she could hear lambs all around her, then run as fast as they did. She did occasionally crash, but mostly she was ok. Once she grew a bit older the ewe would wander further afield to graze, and the lamb would follow her scent trail to find her, if she wasn't calling - this meant that even if her dam was only 20 yards away, the lamb would take a wiggly route to find her. Eventually she was weaned and continued to find her way about but a couple of years later her dam died. I felt sorry for her as she was now lonely, having relied so much on her dam. So we put her to the tup :o . When her lamb was born we had the reverse of her own birth - she would butt the lamb if she went straight to the udder, so the lamb learnt to bump the blind dam's chest so she could smell her, before going under to feed.
From this you'll see why I think it's going to be very difficult for your little lamb to manage completely on his own. I don't suppose you have a motherly bitch you could pair him up with? Or foster him onto a ewe with a single - any more to lamb? Even then, I'm not sure how he would cope as one of twins - I would expect the new ewe to reject him too, as not being worth an investment of her time when she has a healthy lamb to rear. I do think it would work to keep him with you in the fields when you are working outside, but he will be quite stressed on his own in the shed - which is of course why you want to get him out. Maybe a radio playing quietly and an old sheepskin or towel to snuggle up to would help. It could well be that he will join in the wacky races once he's a bit older and make friends with some of the other lambs, but you would need to keep a close eye on him, and check at night that he wasn't left on his own. Our blind lamb took longer to learn her way around than normal lambs, although she did eventually.
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Well I have the sloppiest working cocker dog who adopts anything I bring in the house. I always keep completely orphaned lambs in house/garden until about 5-6 weeks. I take them out in field for a walk so they meet the flock and gradually they find a friend and I leave out for a few hours and build it up.
Now if I can I allow them to bond with mum even if not feeding then they are just accepted and one of the mums looks after them.
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Brill advice thanks all - going to start taking him tomorrow . still not sure - he may have some vision, but he has a very strong will to live so I'll do whatever I can (but ultimately he is for the chop if we can manage to keep that degree of separation - managed it with the pigs, but bottle feeding..????) Anyway thanks again :bouquet: :bouquet: