[phlox]

Hello! I am new here, just having adopted a bummer lamb while working on a farm a few months ago. I've got a few questions about weening her if anyone has any advice!

She is now 2.5 months old (~45 lbs) and I'm hoping to completely ween her from milk. Since 4 weeks at least, she's been eating grass and other forage in the yard, but I am worried she is not getting enough food from this. She has free access to timothy hay all day and doesn't eat all that much of it. I also have 'lamb grower' pellets for her, which I give her a few handfuls a day which she gobbles at top speed. She also still gets 4 cups of milk a day.

Since she has still been drinking milk, had access to hay all day, lawn grass, and wasn't eating too much of the hay, I wasn't worried about her eating enough. But, I just looked at the 'lamb grower' pellets (Purina, 14% protein, 2% fat) and it says to feed 2-4% body weight. That would be a lot more than I've been giving her now so it got me worried she isn't getting enough food! However, maybe that's only for feeding for slaughter purposes (she is a pet for breeding and wool, will be joining a flock in pasture in about a month).

So the questions are:

-Should I feed her 2-4% weight (so about 1-2lbs) of the lamb grower pellets every day? Even if she's getting grass, hay, and milk still (planning to keep reducing steadily, 1 cup less per week)?

-If so, should I give her free access all day? Should I introduce this larger amount slowly? I'm worried since she eats them so fast this could cause issues.

Any general advice on weening a bummer and what amount of hay/forage/pellets she should be eating each day would be much appreciated!

[twizzel]

I would increase the pellets, cut the milk right out- just stop it abruptly, as milk and large volumes of pellets can cause bloat. Then build up the pellets to ad lib along with grass and hay. The pellets seem a bit low in protein but seeing they are made by Purina I guess you’re not in the uk so maybe that’s normal for your country. Our lamb creep pellets in the uk are more like 18% and lamb finisher is 16%.

[SallyintNorth]

We normally say that, for optimum health and growth - long-term and short-term - when transitioning from milk, to get them eating at least 1/2lb pellets a day before stopping milk completely.

The thing with milk-and-pellets is mostly about milk overflowing the milk stomach into the other stomachs, and that being more likely if the rumen is full and compressing the space available for the milk stomach.

Also, if they eat gazillions of pellets (or grass) on top of a bellyful of milk, that could potentially compress the space available for rumen gases, which could and occasionally does cause bloat.

So tips include :

• do not water down the milk, feed it at the same mixing concentration as you have all along
• do not put lamb straight onto fresh grass or ad lib cake with a bellyful of milk; give it an hour to digest the milk before moving it onto grass or giving access to cake
• do not give it milk immediately it comes in from fresh grass or a large meal of cake; give it an hour with nothing but hay and water before feeding milk
• to wean slowly, cut down the milk by cutting feedsize first, then cutting out feeds.  Give cake instead of the removed milk feeds to teach it it can use cake instead of milk when it's hungry
• aim for lamb to be eating 1/2lb cake per day by the time milk stops completely
• you can wean them straight onto grass only, from a minimum of 8 weeks old, but they will almost certainly develop a pot-bellied shape and they will grow a lot more slowly than one that gets cake to replace the milk.  You may also find it beneficial to give a vitamin/mineral drench if the lamb is not getting cake.
• remember that the rumen is not fully developed until 8 weeks, so if stopping milk before that date they will not be getting the full nutritional benefit of the forage and cake you are feeding them, so adjust accordingly

(I know that not all of those apply in your circs, but including all tips for the benefit of people doing a search in the future.)

:bookmark:  tips for weaning cade lamb

[Mel]

What’s “cake”?

[roddycm]

What’s “cake”?

The hard feed mix, pellets etc

[Mel]

Ta

[phlox]

Thank you all so much! She's down to about 2 cups a milk a day now, decreasing gradually. The pellets were making her stomach make a lot of noise at first, but it seems like her system has gotten use to digesting them well now.

[SallyintNorth]

Oh!  She's a Hebridean?  She won't need as much as 1/2lb cake a day, then.  Anything over 1/4lb is fine.

She's looks bright and well enough!   

[phlox]

She's Icelandic! And yes she's doing great : )