The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: horsemadmummy on March 15, 2011, 09:09:22 am
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poorly boy seems to be holding his own but clearly due to him being off colour for 2/3 days the others have overtaken him. They are fattening up (rather filling out) but when his jacket is taken off he is still rather thin and he is a really big leggy lamb.
Question
he is now taking 4 x 250ml feeds and will be 2 weeks old tomorrow is there any benefit in giving him some powdered colostrum? will it give him a boost? or is there anything else i might try?
giving the bottle means I can keep track of who gets what but the others are all over the creep feed and haylage he is more timid and i want to make sure i help him.
he seems bright enough in himself and calls to me with the others when i go into the sheds.
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Colostrum only works in first few hours of life. You could give him more milk. My lot (4 lambs) are now having about 7 litres a day between them. Still keep to 4 feeds but try and give him more if he will take it.
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I think he needs more than a litre a day. My goatkids (1 week old today) are getting nearly a litre and a half per day now.
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As said, colostrum only works for the first few hours of life, which is why it's so important to make sure lambs feed quickly. After about 6-12 hours colostrum can no longer be absorbed through the gut wall, so no point in feeding it to your lamb, and it could give him scours.
I don't use creep feed, but can anyone else say if he is old enough to try that?
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If he is fed by the bottle you will find good guidelines on the back of the milk bag ref feeding creep to bottle fed lambs. I normally put creep in when they are 5 days old and they start eating it at about a week and a half old make sure you have water in with them cattle drinkers are good as they can't get in and drown in them. I have a little paddock which I use for ewes with lambs for a couple of weeks to make sure everyone is feeding well I also pop the orphans in there to play during the day it gives them good excersise and they mix eith other lambs and ewes which will make it easier when they go out
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lamblax says to increase amount from 1L to 1.5L assume that I should do this gradually over a few days ie increase volume in one feed then another the next and so on so increase over 4 days or do I just do it from today? I dont want anyone to get a poorly tummy from over doing it! again!!!
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No matter what you are feeding - dogs, cats, sheep you would always do things gradually, whether it is volume or a change of diet.
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will do I started with first feed today as i knew they would be hungry and byuild it up one feed a day that way
THANK YOU FOR EVERYONE WHO HAS OFFERED ADVICE
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;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)
You are welcome!!
ET
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And DO give us a progress report and photos every now and then.
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safe to say that poorly boy is now as enthusiastic about bottles as the rest of the boys - I have kept him in his fleece jacket for now so that all his energy is spent getting better and bigger rather than keeping warm although temps down here are about 11 degrees at the mo!!!!
Will try and put a couple of pics on in the next day or so to show you them all.