The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: JMB on April 17, 2013, 07:39:28 am
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Good morning.
I feel like this is a stupid question, but here goes.
I have never had to hand rear a lamb before.
Mum and her twins are in the stable. One lamb is being fed by me but I'm leaving it with mum and its sibling in between.
Our sheep lamb outside usually so mum hates being in the stable.
If I'm going to continue to hand rear the lamb, but keep them as a family together, do I have to keep them all penned up for weeks on end?
I can't imagine how I would feed the lamb if I let them out in the field ( which is what I want to do) or will it come for a bottle once trained?
Is that a really stupid question???
Thanks
Joanne xxxx
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No experience with sheep but goat kids won't leave me alone once they know I'm the source of yummy bottles, they leave their mum and come running whenever I go to the field.
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hi we've been doing the same thing for the past week. vet suggested treat mum for mastitis so she had 5 days of ab. once the lambs know you got more milk than mum you won't have any problem attracting their attention. we were bringing the ewe in to inject her but the rest of the time they were out in the field with the others. mothers milk seems to be picking up and less interest in bottle which is good news. they are very tame now though which hopefully wears off before the boy heads to freezerville later in the year
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Yes, there's always the problem of falling in love with them.
Thanks for your replies.
Once I've given up on mum suckling ( still tube feeding) I'll try and get her on a bottle and then out they go xxxxx
Oh , just thought, do you bring them in at night?
J xxxx
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Once they've cottoned onto the bottle they will just come running whenever you call them :) . I put the bottle fed lambs out with the others, they will be perfectly happy playing with the other lambs and will come when it's feeding time! Once they are strong enough to run around I personally don't bring them in at night, although I suppose if the weather was horrendous I might!
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I did this a couple of years ago and worked out fine. As the lamb grew she became quite cheeky, milk from the bottle and now and again a quick feed from mum when she could sneak in. Ewe was not a good mum so never bred from her again.
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we usually put lambs out by day and in at night for first 3 days and then out full time. with these two we kept them in a couple of days longer just to make sure and now they're out full time. always a greater risk of infection inside plus mum doesnt like it really vs greater risk of predation out- its a juggling act but hopefully we got it right good luck
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Thanks for all your advice.
My little lamb isn't taking the bottle yet so I'm thinking I need to wait until it gets the hang of that before letting them out.
Might make them an outside pen so they can stretch their legs a bit.
Thanks again
J xxxxx