[pinkvisla1]

Purchased 2 black orphan lambs about 3 weeks ago the farmer got them from someone else so was not sure of there age but was bottle feeding . He advised 2 bottles a day and the intro of creep. They are good size chunky lambs and to be honest more interested in the creep and grazing, I finish the bottle feeds over the next day or so, I've watered in down so I think it's only a comfort thing.

They are with my other 4 sheep and mixed in well after a few days of chasing the old girls around the field!!
So main question is how long to keep giving the creep they are not going to market will stay here as pets for the rest of their days.

Is the grass enough now ? It's hard as I'm not sure of their age, but they chuncky !
Please help? Don't want to over or under feed they are drinking water also

[ZaktheLad]

Any chance of posting a photo of them so we can see what sort of age they look likely to be?

[FiB]

Watching....  I didn't give creep at all last year and havnt so far with this years pet lamb. I wean off lamlac at 7 or 8 weeks.  I can't get my head around creep feed if there is good grass or they are on the bottle and grass? Last years pet lamb did well and was chunky and this years guzzler is looking the same, so why creep? Is it cheaper than keeping them on milk?

[SallyintNorth]

They need to have some protein to replace that which is in the milk as you wean them.  The normal way of providing it is through creep - a highly palatable high protein cake - and then a grower ration (slightly lower protein and a lot cheaper.)  If you offer creep while they're on milk it helps to literally wean them off the milk - as you increase the length of time between milk feeds, they use creep to fill the gap, and then increasingly have no room for / don't need the milk.

A lot of people run their pet lambs on scrubby ground with not much good grass, so they need cake throughout. 

If you have very good grass with a high protein content, and can spare it for them, and they do well for you on that, well then you are lucky, I think!   We do expect to keep caking our pets unless it's a really good summer and we have some good grass we can make available to them.  Even then, we would reintroduce cake at the backend - just 1/2lb per head per day, but enough to keep the flesh on them when there's not much in the grass.

They do seem to need more cake than their naturally suckled peers.  And still take longer to achieve fat weight and condition.

[jaykay]

It's important to give them hay/grass quite early too though, so that their rumen develops properly, or they won't grow well later.

My two - Lester (Leicester x Mule) and Tex (Texel x Mule) are growling like weeds - they'll be bigger than my Shetland ewes before long  No grass here yet, so no choice but creep and hay - and Tex is still on two bottles a day - he's been warned though, I am not buying another sack of Lamlac so when this is done, he's weaned.

[twizzel]

I wean my tame lambs off milk abruptly at 5-6 weeks, by then they are eating lots of hay and creep. I lost one last week due to bloat- they were due to be weaned the next day, a day too late in her case   I get them off milk quick as it's blooming expensive feeding 17 lambs on milk replacer! And creep is a lot cheaper. If creep and hay is introduced correctly at 2 weeks they should be eating a good amount by 5 weeks.
I keep giving them creep until 3ish months when they go out on very good grass- up until then they are in the back garden on good grass, hay and creep. My OH is a beef farmer so all of the fields are in rotation and grass fields have fert/dung spread so are very good quality.