The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: AJ on January 15, 2015, 08:22:11 pm
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Hi All,
We currently have 3 x 5 week old lambs feeding from a shepherdess bucket but they are tearing the teats during every feed, I have moved from the white ones to the red ones on the advice if a farmer friend but they are still biting through these - what does everyone else use?
Thanks in advance!
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We use the white ones when the lambs are young and then we move to the red ones, had 12 lambs on our shepherdess at the same time last spring and the teats would last maybe a week, which wasnt so bad
we found that if the milk was lovely and warm they chewed the teats more, when we turned the thermostat thingy right down to just above cold the lambs regulated themselves much better and didnt shred up the teats so bad.
So if lambs are under 3 days old we had the milk warm, and then over that turned it right down, seemed to work well, the lambs looked great and werent really any different to the lambs on the ewes, some of the cades were even better!
Also the shepherdess recommends abrupt weaning at 5 weeks of age, I kept ours on till 6 weeks but any older and maybe the teats get shredded even more?
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make sure they have fresh water available. Try giving coarse feed & hay before the milk so they're maybe not quite so greedy. Or just offer the milk in a bowl or trough.
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We stay with the red teats but at 5 weeks old they should be near weaning anyway- once they start to chew the teats you know they need more than milk, introduce some creep and hay if not done already and aim to reduce milk intake over the next week or so otherwise you could end up with them getting bloat :unwell:
I lost a lamb bang on 5 weeks last year, she had a guts of milk then creep then boom bloated like I've never seen before, bad luck as she was due to be weaned the next day :gloomy:
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Is it worth having the Sheperdess for three lambs?
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I wouldn't have bought it Anke but one of my neighbours offered me a loan of it as she doesn't start lambing until March, it's been much easier than bottles!
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The problem with that system is that you don't have any control over what an individual lamb takes, and overfeeding with consequent bloat is more of a danger. But if you were offered it than of course it is useful.
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Hence why lambs are weaned earlier than normal. I found it gives them a huge kick start during the first 3 weeks of life (and reduces labour for me slightly), then we tend to take it away by the end of 4th week and replace with bottles twice a day, then totally weaned by 5-6 weeks.
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I have done the same as you Twizzel and am only giving them milk twice a day with a view to weaning shortly. Thanks for the advice!