[Mungo24]

First arrivals this morning, healthy triplets all up and sucking, they have full bellies and at the minute she has a good sized udder. I would like to keep them on her, however she is on the thin side and whilst we have lots of good grass I am thinking that the lambs might need a topping up.

I am after a bit of advice on this. Should I start them getting used to the bottle ASAP? Or leave it to see how they get on with mum.  How often should I offer a top up? In the past I have either bottle fed or left them on the ewe completely.

Thanks for your help

[mab]

just passing on the advice I got on this subject:


unless you're sure they're not going to need it it's worth getting them to take a little from the bottle if you can, just to get them used to the idea whilst they're easy to grab; that way if they need some later on they will accept it more readily (or even come to you for it - though only one of mine will do that yet).

[SallyintNorth]

Absolutely, try them with a bottle now; if any or all of them like it, you can give them a wee topup once a day and help the ewe.

However, if she's doing them well enough at the moment, you may find that none of them will take the bottle.  Ever.  And that she'll drive herself into the ground feeding them.

So if it were me, with a thin ewe and triplets, I'd take one (or two if you have no other companion for it, nor likelihood of any) off now and rear them on the bottle.  You might otherwise end up with a sick or dead ewe, and/or one or two or even three dead lambs.  (Ask me how I know.)

However, bear in mind that I am on an upland farm in north Cumbria, where even if we have a good year, the grass isn't much to write home about.  The situation could be very different where you are.

Also, when you say 'on the thin side', you may not mean the same as I would.  Can you express her condition as a condition score?

[Foobar]

I have a similar situation, in my case it's a ewe-lamb with twins. I tried topping them up when they were young, but only one of them was even vaguely interested in the bottle, and even then only tolerates it for a short time.  Didn't have any other lambs that I could keep as a companion if I took one of the twins off, so they are both out in the field with their mum.  I've tried offering that one a bottle but she's not interested, and so I have to catch her to give it to her, and then she'll only take 100ml. (they are 2-3 weeks old now) so ... *sigh*  I've seen them both trying to steal milk from other mums, with some success, so clearly Mum doesn't have enough.


My only hope is to keep trying with the bottle, and pump Mum full of good food and grass.  And then wean early to give mum a chance to recover.


Definitely get as many of them as you can to accept a bottle now.  Then that gives you options down the line, either to keep topping up or pull one or more off.  Don't leave it as you'll really struggle to get older lambs to take a bottle.  Good luck!

[SallyintNorth]

Don't leave it as you'll really struggle to get older lambs to take a bottle. 

Actually that hasn't been my experience.  Mostly older lambs coming in hungry take to the bottle after a day or two.  The odd one won't - but then the odd very young lamb refuses the bottle too.

It's always far harder getting them to take a bottle if they're still on mum.  I found it easiest with Texel and Beltex lambs out of Swaley mules - I think the genes for being greedy were so prevalent that most lambs would take extra food if they got the chance! lol.  But having said that, I topped up several mule lambs on their Swaley mothers too.  Maybe it was just a feature of the moorland farm - it was so tough up there, pretty much anything would take any freebies that were offered!

[ZaktheLad]

No me neither - I find that if a lamb is hungry enough an older lamb will quite often take to the bottle quite readily once it realises that it's milk going down them!  In fact, some of the older ones can take only a minute or so before they go from  to  and are literally pulling to bottle out of your hand.

[Foobar]

Oh well, perhaps mine are just fussy eaters then, haha

[Mungo24]

 Thanks folks, lambs have full bellies when I have lifted them.  Will try them on a bottle later to see if they will have a drink.  Ewe is about 2.5, she is a jacob and seems to have plenty of milk at the minute.

[SallyintNorth]

Thanks folks, lambs have full bellies when I have lifted them.  Will try them on a bottle later to see if they will have a drink.  Ewe is about 2.5, she is a jacob and seems to have plenty of milk at the minute.

Oh, ok.  Jacob CS 2.5, in Hants - she should be fine 

[zwartbles]

We have a ewe who has had triplets for the third year!
Had to bottle feed one last year but only topping up once a day this year just to help Mum!

[Beeducked]

I am in a similar position and hoping she will just need a little topping up. The smallest of the 3 is full of beans and mum very attentive to all. Have tubed her with some colostrum to give her a bit of a head start and if any of them seem to be falling behind will accept it and bottle feed it but if I can keep them all on mum so much the better.

[john and helen]

i can't wait until we start having to do this…. 

[Mungo24]

 Nice lamb pictures. The issue has unfortunately been taken out of our hands.  One of the lambs was missing this morning, I assume taken by a fox and the very morning I had a single born to try to adopt on to.

[Beeducked]

Oh I'm so sorry.