The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Goats!!! on March 30, 2018, 03:13:37 pm
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We have six little Cade lambs, first time for us, my OH has been lambing with the farmer we got them from, the farmer had told my OH not to feed them anything but milk until they are six weeks old or they will "gas up and die". Now as I say total novice at this but this doesn't sound quite right to me what do people do with their cades?
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I have hay in a rack for them to pick at and a small trough of creep pellets. I want them eating creep as soon as possible and to be eating enough to replace the milk by weaning. They also have a bowl of water available from 2 days of age.
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Agreed. The transfer from milk to solids should be a gradual process, to allow the rumen and its bugs to develop, so that when the lambs are weaned they already have a fully functioning rumen.
It is the milk that causes lambs to blow up, and it is easily sorted by giving bicarbonate in the bottle, or a bit of cooking oil.
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The “gassing up” is a reference to “Bloat”. Read the pinned first post on this forum “what causes bloat” for a shed full of advice and best practice.
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Thanks all, will check out the post on bloat.
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Ruminants need forage - straw, hay or grass - available from one week old for optimum rumen development.
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We are new to cades but we put hay and a small bowl of creep in their stable from a week old. However they are now nearly weeks old and I’m pretty sure that they are not yet touching the creep and they’re not really eating the hay whereas the lambs with mums outside are always hanging around the creep and hay feeders. I wondered if that’s because they follow the example of their mum whereas the cades have no example to copy.
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Y a, I’m sure copying plays a part. Later cades pick it up from the older ones, but the first few each year have to work it out for themselves!